I found a Wii U in the dumpster. It just needed a charger for the gamepad and it works perfectly. Even came with some games.

A really nice canvas jacket for $12. It had $2 in one of its pockets so it cost me just $10

Finding stuff second hand is something I really enjoy, and usually I find them next to dumpsters or out on the curb for trash pickup.

I really like to fix things so finding stuff I can breathe a new life into is always great: TVs, bicycles, a dishwasher, etc.

But my favorite was the last bike I found.

I was out on a bike ride when I found a BMX frame in the bushes off of the trail. I figured: why not? So I got a good bearing on my location and came back later with my car.

A few days after I finished fixing it up I was talking with one of my neighbors when they mentioned that their kid’s birthday was coming up and how they were saving to get them a bike. So I gave them the bike to give to their kid for their birthday. That kid rode the hell out of that bike until they moved out about a year later.

It’s been a couple years now (right at the beginning of lockdown) but I’ll never forget how happy they were when I said that I’d be right back and gave them the bike right there.

“tramp art”

My mom sold on eBay in the early 2000s. Spent my formative years in thrift shops. Found a small balsa wood merry go round that had a fan at the top. Burn a candle, blades spun, horses went around. It was hand made, and she sold it for like 500 dollars. We paid a buck for it.

There was one thrift shop I went to in college that would have original vinyl pressings for like $5. I think my favorite was a compilation of performances of the 1970 isle of wight festival, which includes the final show hendrix did before he died.

I once discovered the most absurdly garish necktie in the universe. It was almost a plaid-type pattern of tightly intersecting horizontal and vertical colored lines. But every color was vibrant neon. No really, neon blue, neon orange, neon green, neon pink, neon yellow. There was no background color. It was almost uncomfortable to view, like my brain couldn’t process all the input.

And I don’t even know how to describe the texture. I guess it was like… corduroy? All bizarrely thick, ridgy fibers. Nothing at all like the silk of a normal tie. It had heft, with weight and warmth more akin to a scarf.

I was a broke student at the time but I’m still kicking myself for not buying it. Surely it didn’t even come from planet Earth. I could have owned an alien artifact, the necktie with quantum properties so advanced it could clash with every other garment imaginable.

I had 2 great finds so far:

1: A David Clark noise cancelling aviation headset. It was used and a bit old but still worked perfectly. I was a student pilot at the time and was using the cheap headsets the school had so this was an awesome find. I think whoever put the pricing on it saw the weird plugs without knowing what it was and priced it at $5. I remember seeing them on ebay used for around $600.

2: A old network drive full of pirated content and porn from the early 2000’s. I don’t know what the fuck teenage me was thinking hooking this up to my PC without any idea what was on it but it ended up being a hilarious find. I think it was shared between a bunch of roommates as each folder was named after someone. It was an IDE drive so I made a backup (for reasons), wiped it, and now use it in a PS2. Think that was around $5 also.

I got to know the old guy who ran the electronics section at a local thrift store. Eventually, he took me to the back room where he inspected all the equipment before putting it on sale.

On a workbench, there was a complete Apple II+ with peripherals, software, manuals, and expansion boards. $250 and it was mine.

• Commodore 128DCR and keyboard.
• Yamaha TX-950 tuner. Just a pretty high-end unit.
• Onkyo CP-1030F turntable; a top-of-range circa 1980 table with most of the gimmicks
• Lian Li PC-V1000 case, basically complete

Found the game “Descent 3” randomly in a box of music CD’s, all the way at the bottom. The CD’s were all for sale, so I got it for five bucks.

I still have that box and the game is still awesome.

A friend of mine went to the thrift store and sent me a picture of a really weird wooden cat thing with huge doll eyes that stared into your soul. I needed to own it, so I asked them to buy it and I’d pay them back, since it was only a couple dollars. I have no idea what it’s supposed to be, cat is just my closest guess, but I can tell you that, whatever it is, it is now my little buddy. Supremely weird creature, I love it.

a bunch of records from a retired local DJ ended up scattered in thrift stores around my area; I ended up getting a bunch of really good condition 80s disco and funk 12in singles

Perfect condition ps1. I already had one, but mine was going a bit yellow.

Generally older consoles are no where to be found… ive seen 2 games in thrift stores, in the past 15-20 years. (Ps1 games)

My luckiest day was probably finding several awesome ps2 games next to a dumpster, in perfecr condition. Bunnout 2,3, final fantasy x, gta3 and san andreas, etc

It was like 15 awesome games

I got a compound bow. Shot an arrow through an exterior door.

• PS2 with a barely working optical drive. Easily fixed by adding a cannibalised HDD from a broken laptop.

• last week I found a solar powered water fountain pump that we used for a bird bath.

• Metal tapestry needles to finish my crochet projects

• A really nice LED lamp that I use for cross stitch and crochet at night.

• A couple of crochet kits with missing hooks, one of them is missing the buttons too. I have yet to start those.

• Garden chairs!

A lot more things but these are what I was excited about the most.