The 'Norch PorchThe 'Norch Porch
    

Posted on Nov 29th 2015 at 05:43:54 AM by (Zagnorch)
Posted under goodwill, japan,halo,plug and play

Please disregard this blog entry, and check out Triple-M: The Blue Friday Bonanza instead.

My apologies ofr the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.



Posted on Nov 29th 2015 at 05:43:54 AM by (Zagnorch)
Posted under goodwill, japan,halo,plug,play

Zagnorch Productions

in (a very precarious) association with




Presents


TRIPLE-M:
A BLUE FRIDAY BONANZA


After almost eight years of serious collecting, I was nearing a pretty impressive milestone: over 3000 unique pieces in my collection! And what better way to achieve such a lofty goal then by taking advantage of Goodwill of Silicon Valley chain's "Blue Friday" sale the day after Thanksgiving? Little did I know that it would become my longest thrift-crawl ever, clocking in at 13 hours, travelling 175 miles, and visiting 17 different stores, some of them twice. But would all this effort be enough to put me over the top? Let's find out...





- CIB Sam's Club-exclusive Intellivision Flashback plug-&-play console, $5.99 $4.79: includes a complete set of overlays exclusive to the Sam's Club release. Interestingly enough, the return slip was still taped to the box, with the reason why it was returned:




Whoever didn't like this most likely leads a sad and pathetic existence. And yet, I cannot bring myself to hate him, merely pity him.

ANYway, moving on...



- CIB Sam's Club-exclusive Sega Genesis Classic console, 12.99 $9.74: Includes an exclusive 12-Dino-Games-In-1 cartridge.



- Limited edition Mountain Dew XBox console, $29.99 $22.50: Devastator really dug this pickup for some reason.


 

He told me it could use some purple highlights, though.


On to the reading material:


- 6 game guides, $14.95 $10.45 for the lot
 


Now it's time for the games themselves, starting with my first-ever X-Bone pickup:





- CIB Halo 5 Guardians Limited Edition, $29.99 23.99: Not only is this complete, it's also practically brand-new.



Howzabout a little international intrigue with these Japan-region finds:


- CIB Puzzle Bobble Pocket for PSP, $3.99 $2.99

- Sealed Tactics Ogre: Unmei no Wa for PSP, $5.99 $4.49

- Sealed Dragon's Crown for PS3, $5.99 $4.49

- Persona 2: Innocent Sin (no manual) for PS1, $5.99 $4.49


On to some of the more mundane game scores:


- CIB GUN for GameCube, $2.99 $2.09

- CIB TouchMaster for DS, $5.99 $3.89

- Pong-Asteroids-Yars' Revenge GBA cart, $3.59 $2.33

- CIB Lego Batman 2 for 3DS, $5.99 $3.89

- CIB Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (Greatest Hits) for PS1, $2.49 $1.99


By now you're probably wondering which game put my collection at 3000. Why, it's only one of the greatest pieces of electronic entertainment that's ever been pressed onto a digital disc! As you already know, obviously I'm talking about:


I'm sensing homicidal levels of jealousy from you.


And there you have it: a legendary thrift crawl that culminated in a very enviable milestone. Pretty cool, huh? But don't leave just yet, 'cuz now I'm gonna show off my gaming thrift-scores of the NON-video kind:


- CIB Excalibur King Maker III electronic chess set, $10.49 $7.87: This one's for you, Shaggy.

- CIB 10 Days in Asia, $3.49 $2.27





- CIB Dungeon! Fantasy Board game, $5.99 $4.19
 


- Sealed Sharper Image Perfect Pitch Tabletop Baseball, $7.99 $5.99


And now, the most awesomely awesome board game ever:







Who wouldn't want to "interact" with that hot tomato? (God, I'm so lonely)


So, who wants to go a few rounds with me? I'll even let you go first-- wait, where are you going? Get back here, you prudes! Ahhh, who needs ya! I'm sure I can find someone who's willing to play this--





Errr... on second thought...


...'Late




Posted on Jan 4th 2015 at 01:53:54 AM by (Zagnorch)
Posted under Goodwill, 3ds, ps2, psp, chess

ZAGNORCH PRODUCTIONS INC., LLC

PRESENTS


2015

A NEW YEAR'S THRIFTING ODYSSEY


Greetings from Terra!

My adventure began when I saw this notice on the front door of the local Goodwill around mid-December:




Needless to say, my plans to just goof off and kick back on New Year's Day went right out the window. Instead, I embarked on one of my patented cross-county thrift runs. With over a dozen Goodwills within a half-hour drive from home, I figured I'd find more than a few things of interest.  When the first day of 2015 was in the books, I'd logged a twelve-hour trip, driven over a hundred miles, and filled eleven blue cases with some pretty awesome swag.






First stop: the Almaden/Foxworthy Goodwill. Although its asking prices for games and hardware are rarely reasonable, it does get in a few interesting things from time to time that I'm willing to pay a little extra for...




...like these CIB Asia-region PSP games (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. Portable, Tenchu 4, and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G) that set me back $5.99 $4.43 each.

Then it was on to the Blossom Hill/Snell location. It hadn't had much of... well, anything since it was remodeled a few months back. Today, however, was a different story...






...a not-quite-CIB Piano Discovery System for PC for $19.99 $9.80. All I need is a connector cable... and DOS Box... and probably a few adapters... and I'll be all set to rockit with John Herbie Hancock! While this pickup isn't all that... miraculous... at least it doesn't need a foot pedal.

Grin


BTW it wasn't until I was home that I discovered that it bore another price tag neither I nor the cashier had noticed:




You know what they say: never attempt to correct an error in your favor. Anyhoo, also found at the same location, setting me back $4.99 $3.72:




The adventure continued at the Capitol/Silver Creek store, where I found this for $4.99 $3.72:




And then I hit the one-oh-one and headed south to the Mecca of Garlic. There was nothing of note at the Gilroy Goodwill, but the Salvation Army store across town was a slightly different story:




An original-release CIB Ratchet Deadlocked for $3.50 to replace my Greatest Hits copy, and...




...a CIB Saitek Kasparov Cougar chess computer for $19.99.

I then drove a few miles up the road and hit the outlet mall, where I found...




...a CIB pair  New Balance 510 trail-walker shoes to replace my well-worn 605s. And what better way to break in a pair of trail-walker shoes than to hit the local hiking trails for a couple hours?



Always insist on 100% natural lens flare! J.J. Abrams eat your heart out!


With some daylight to spare, I headed northward, eventually making it to the Cupertino store, where I grabbed:




Then it was the Mountain View Goodwill's turn, which yielded...




I gave the Empire Strikes Back mini lunchbox tin to someone I knew would get a kick out of it:



Oah! Appreciative of this gift I am! Very much thank you! Mmm-hmm-hmm, yes!


Up next was Sunnyvale, the original hometown of Atari, and the first Goodwill store I ever set foot in. This particular stop only yielded...




...a CIB copy of Descent Freespace: Silent Threat for just $1.24? Now we're talkin'. But wait, what's this disclaimer on the package?




Aw, maaaan... it's just an expansion? Well, that totally blows. Eon knows how many long hours I'll have to spend to find the main game that goes with--




Oh wait, there it is; just had to flip the box over is all. Okay, never mind.

The final stop of the day would be the Palo Alto Goodwill. Located in "the birthplace of Silicon Valley," this store has yielded many of my greatest vidya scores over the last few years. This is where I found my first Miracle Piano, my Atari 2600 Jr., my first near-CIB Dreamcast, and countless games and portable consoles. Its constant supply of the good stuff, friendly and helpful staff, and close proximity to my workplace has kept me coming back on a very regular basis. Culminating my New Year's thrifting odyssey here seemed to make all the sense in the world. And yet... it could very well have been the worst time to have come. For one thing, the place had been open for business all day, and the sun had set two hours earlier. If there had been anything there at the start of the day that I would have been interested in, surely it would have long since been sold and out the door? Undaunted, I ventured inside.

A bad omen appeared right away: the electronics showcase couldn't be unlocked because someone had misplaced the key. Inside that case, mocking me in deafening silence, was a CIB copy of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Oh, the horror. What kind of loving God would allow this to happen, I lamented. Adding insult to injury, one of the clerks said he was sure he saw a copy of Twilight Princess for Game Cube somewhere in there. That's when I realized that there is no God.

Theological dilemmas notwithstanding, I looked around the place, hoping to find something worthy of purchase. After several minutes of fruitless searching, I conceded defeat, and headed for the exit. I was just about to open the door when I took a quick look at the front-end display case... and caught a glimpse of something. My curiosity piqued, I took a closer look, and grinned from ear to ear when I realized that I'd discovered...




...a loose limited-edition Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS with Pokemon X card? Aw hellz yeah! Now I know what you're asking yourself right now... and here's the answer:



($11.19 after discount)


If that isn't the greatest capper ever to an amazing thrift crawl, then I don't know what is. And if the first day of 2015 is any indication, it's gonna be

The BEST YEAR EVAR!!!11one1one1!!!1one!1!!!!


I can hardly wait to see what I'll bump into next. And I bet you can hardly wait, either. Worry not, for I'll keep you in he loop.

Until next time...


...'Late



Posted on Nov 7th 2014 at 06:23:45 AM by (Zagnorch)
Posted under Nintendo Power, Goodwill, Savers, PS2, Mario

HEY NOW!

As many of you already know, the week started on a pretty low note for me.



Daylight burglaries aren't exactly a laugh-a-minute.


But things improved immensely today when I got off work and embarked on what I call a "hot-hand" thrift crawl, where almost every stop yielded at least a little something, and a couple stops a LOT something. Read on and you'll see what I mean.

The day started off small as I dropped by the Goodwill near work:



Although they lacked manuals, I found Mario Kart Wii and New SMB Wii for $3.99 each.

Then came the deluge as I hit the Mountain View Rasputin's:




This haul consisted mainly of $1.95 CIB PS2 games, including:

- Conflict: Global Terror
- Dark Cloud
- Dr. Muto
- Kessen II
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII
- Samurai Warriors XTreme Legends
- Star Wars Bounty Hunter
- Terminator Dawn of Fate
- Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land



I also found a few $1.95 CIB PSP games:

- Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
- Monster Hunter Freedom Unite



Let's not overlook the $1.95 CIB 360 & GameCube games:

- Wario Ware, Inc.
- Donkey Konga
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Gun (sealed)


Finally, some miscellaneous stuff I snapped up for $0.50 a pop:

- CIB Age of Mythology Bonus Edition for PC
- Riven for PC
- Official XBox Magazine #45 demo
- CIB Kiss Pinball for PS1


Next up was the Mountain View Goodwill, where I found a morsel of number-crunching goodness:



While this $4.99 Texas Instruments BA-II Plus business calculator was a nice find, there were no gaming goodies of note at this stop. Good thing it was a different story at the Parkmoor Savers in San Jose:





For a little over seven smackers, I walked out with fifteen Nintendo Power back issues-- and I mean WAY back, between issues 16 and 41-- as well as Mario Mania, Top Secret Passwords and a Ninja Gaiden II player's guide.


Next up was the Almaden Expressway Savers, which yielded all you see here:





The Super Mario 2 cart, CIB Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, and CIB Supreme Commander were $2.99 $2.39 each with savings coupon, and the Nintendo Power Mario Collector's Special set me back $1.99 $1.59.

Funny thing about the Dragon Quarter pick-up: a few minutes before I saw it, I was thinking about SirPsycho's recent acquisition of the same game, and how it looked like a promising title. It's a happy coincidence that's happened a couple times before in my thrift hunts, and has almost led me to believe I have some odd power of clairvoyance. But it's not that I possess odd powers; I'm just plain odd.

A few miles up the expressway, and I arrived at the Almaden Goodwill. Sadly, this particular store has some of the most ridiculous asking prices for console games and hardware I'v ever seen. $9.99 for a loose Ecco the Dolphin Genesis cart with a half-ripped-off label? Thanks, but no thanks (and tell the pricer to stop hitting the pipe). Fortunately, I'm always finding other interesting things here for far more reasonable prices...





...like this CIB Tomy Atomic Pinball game for $5.99. And, ummm, you might wanna cut back on the heavy breathing there, SingleBanana; you're kinda creeping everybody out with that. Someone's in need of a cold shower.

After checking out another Goodwill that didn't have diddley, I ended today's run at the Bernal Goodwill, where I found:





- Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 / MGS4 bonus DVD, $3.79

- CIB PlayStation Official UK Magazine demo disc 25, $3.99

- Sealed Dungeon Keeper for PC, $3.59


Needless to say, I'm feeling a little better now.

Until next time...


...'Late



Posted on Dec 18th 2012 at 04:19:05 AM by (Zagnorch)
Posted under Goodwill, salvation army ps2 guncon target Wii U

Greetings from Terra!

I was gonna do some garage-sale'ing this last Saturday, but due to poor weather conditions, I knew there would be few prospects. Instead, I decided to do a thrift crawl all the way down to Gilroy-- the garlic capital of the world, as it were-- and hit a few hiking trails down there while I was at it.

My first Goodwill stop yielded two wrapped Super Mario 3D Land posters for $0.99 each. Not much to be sure, but a decent start.

Next up was the Morgan Hill Goodwill which, until recently, I'd pretty much given up on due to its extortionate asking prices. But over the last couple months, I've been pleasantly surprised by not only the things I've found there, but also the asking prices. Sadly, the only thing the place yielded this day was a Laser Line CD storage tower for $3.99. Ever since my PS1 game collection went into triple figures, I needed something in which to store my displaced Dreamcast, TG16, and PC titles, and this should fit the bill. Now I just need to rearrange a few things to make room for it somewhere...

Up next was a nearby Target, where I answered the call of nature, washed my hands, and grabbed the Target-exclusive Skylanders Giants lightcore triple pack on special for $19.99.

On to the Gilroy Goodwill, which yielded what I thought would be the deal of the day: a CIB Kingdom Hearts Re:coded DS game for $2.99. However, when I opened the case up, it contained...

...a copy of Eragon instead.

But, I figured what the hell, and bought it anyway. I'm willing to give Eragon a shot, and I'm confident I can find a Re:coded card somewhere to make it complete. Lemons into lemonade and all that.

Then it was on to the Gilroy Salvation Army store... where I have NEVER found any games, game hardware, or accessories worth buying, EVER. Some times it was due to high asking prices, but usually it was because of a total lack of anything. Today, however, was far different-- not only did the place have a small cache of games in which I was interested, there was a half-off sale in effect. So I picked up the following CIB PS2 titles, normally priced at $3.49 each, for just $1.75 a pop:

-   Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

-   Secret Agent Clank

-   Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

-   Super Bust-A-Move

-   Jak and Daxter

-   Sega Gt 2002 / JSRF
double feature for Xbox

But the big pickups were a couple PS2 GunCon bundles that had red-bar price tags on them. At the Salvation Army nearest me, this type of tag indicates that the item is considered a collectible, and is not subject to any kind of discount, even on sale days. I lamented this fact to the cashier, who replied that the Gilroy store didn't share that policy, and even the "collectible" stuff was on sale! So I asked him to free those bad boys from the display case. I gave 'em a look, liked what I saw, and threw 'em on the ring-up pile. And that's how I picked up the Vampire Night and Time Crisis 3 GunCon2 bundles for just $6.25 each.

My final grab of the day was at a newly-opened Savers, which had a sealed copy of Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy for PS2 for $1.99. The place also had a few DS titles for $1.99 each that I would have bought, had they actually had any cards in them. Somebody's gotta tell the Savers folks that they should probably do the same thing most of the local Goodwills do, and keep all the game discs and cards in a binder under the checkout counter. But hey, I'm just a customer, what do I know?




On Sunday, I did a relatively short thrift-crawl on the way home from work. The first stop yielded the biggest Target-salvage cache of Wii U titles yet: 2 copies of New Super Mario Bros. U for $29.99 each, ZombiU for $24.99, and Rabbids Land for $24.99. Although I've never had an interest in the whole zombie deal, ZombiU appealed to me with its "Unique Death Mechanic", where "If you die, you wake up to play an entirely new character who is another survivor in the same terrifying position," according to a blurb on the Amazon.com product page. I also read that you can kill your zombified former self and get your stuff back. No, I don't know why I find this particular aspect of the game appealing, but at least Im willing to give it a shot.

My last stop yielded a Target-salvage Mario Kart 7 for $14.99.





TL;DR Sidebar:

My big miscellaneous pick-up of the weekend: a Tomy Pop-Out Pirate set for $1.99. As you can see, Japan comes up with some pretty offbeat NON-video games, too.


The weekend's biggest crack-smoking moment: the new Savers pricing loose NES carts at $9.99 each. While there were a couple titles I'd have loved to add to my stack, none of 'em were even remotely worth a sawbuck. And with a no-exchange policy in effect on them, I wouldn't have been able to return them if they didn't work properly.


The weekend's biggest "I'll Pass" item: a Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition fight stick for the PS3.




Although I'm not into fighting games, I thought this bad boy looked pretty sweet, and was in surprisingly good condition. I dug how you could open it up, and store stuff inside it. Well, not a lot of stuff, just a little stuff. Stuff like some illicit substance* to help take the edge off when you're playing. But, I don't own a working PS3, so who knows if it worked properly. Also, the $40 asking price seemed a wee bit steep to me, especially seeing as how it didn't come with the game. Oh well, its not like there aren't other great finds out there for me to discover...

...and tell you all about.

Until then...


...'Late




*Illicit outside of Washington and Colorado that is.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
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