Warning: do not mix Post-Its and 5 year old Ikea Galants

After 5 or so years of usage, this is what happens to your Ikea Galant when you stick a Post-It on it:

The folks truly preserving our heritage are the 'pirates'

In response to a Geekdad Wired.com blog post about how collecting sealed games is is about perserving heritage, here's a great comment find of the day:

"The folks truly preserving our heritage are the 'pirates' ensuring that unlocked, easily copyable copies are continually being copied to new media." says Church.

Casio fx-115ES

This was sitting there all alone on the shelf away from it's electronics brethren. Being the veteran thrifter  I am, I have been screwed before on these. I paid $3 one time for a T1-36x Solar .. which has a broken 9 button. The Casio was a true upgrade.

For the same price, I get 3 more working digits! Quite a bargain. And in fact it was able to tally up my big Astrocade score.

Astrocade games - 6x Artillery Duel 5005; 1x Amazing Maze; 1x Biorhythm; 1x Astrocade Pinball; 1x Cosmic Raiders - $1.89 each!

Ok I kid you not, and this was probably the first big find I had since I started. Basically I wandered into the book section of Goodwill and found a stack of these odd looking boxes which seemed to have a old  look/style to them. Who the hell knew, I never had a Bally Astrocade.

Didn't hurt to look them up and realized these were from the early 1980's. It felt like I was doing something dishonest as I placed a stack of these on the counter at the checkout. Wasn't sure what excuse to give:

* "I just collect these."
* "these are for my friend."
* "I need these for gifts."

I chose to say nothing. Thinking maybe the clerk just wants to pass time and scan the barcodes away (Goodwill barcodes every freaking thing now), but no. He paused for just a few more seconds than normal to read what it was. The greedy bastard in me hoped they had more in back and I was thinking maybe they'd release more ...

.. but heading back today, no. No more! Anyway - it was nice to find a couple high value ones, at least according to rarityguide.com. I wasn't expecting to find these and perhaps I never will again...

So, the total score for a $20 (a little less than $2 each) cost:

6 x Artillery Duel @ $24
2x others @ $15
1x Cosmic Raiders @ $185
1x Astrocade Pinball @  $172

$531 / 20 ~ 26x



So, if only I could buy some Bank of America stock and get a 2600% return that would be great. I'll settle for this though. Even if you shorted or bought some FB Aug 17 $21 put options on FB, would you get 2600% on your money if they went bankrupt by the end of next week?

I wonder how often VGA grades these. But still who the hell really buys these?

3 x 4-pack Pentel Energel Pens (Black, Blue, Red) NIB

It's finds like these that keep me up at night to brag to the internet about. This was a great pull today, in the random aisle section of the Goodwill. To my surprise I found maybe 10 sets of these NIB 4-pack Pentels pens. Not sure if I need to explain the Pentel brand and I don't want to be Captain Obvious but, it is internationally known and synonymous with the top luxury brands of our day.

These were "Made in Japan" but I don't see a marking of the date they left manufacturing. At first this concerned me, but I realized that possibly, these were rare marketing prototypes they gave out unofficially.

Anyway, I was getting a bit nervous peeling off the price tag (Goodwill now barcodes every single thing) - but I did it very carefully. I'm sure you would too if you had 4 new-in-box 4-packs sitting in front of you too. The centering on two of them is pretty good, but I wouldn't consider any of them gradeable. Fact is though, these are for my personal collection (sorry folks, some things in this world just cannot be sold).

Attention Beer Cardboard Carrier Collectors of the world: an authentic Hoegaarden holder

I know how life can be rough sometimes. It has it's ups and downs. You need certain little things in life to lift you up. You need accentuate the positive, reduce the negative. That's why I like to sometimes share my most excellent internet auction finds with the public. Think of it as a random act of kindness for tonight.

Without further ado ... at a starting bid of $2.99 you can have the chance to become the proud owner of Hoegaaden's finest:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOEGAARDEN-White-Beer-Cardboard-Carrier-6-pack-holder-Original-Belgian-White-/320955850172?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aba759dbc#ht_500wt_1129

If I remember right from all the cardboard carrier conventions I been to, the maker's of Hoegaarden have something like a 30-step manufacturing process for the materials necessary. Just look at it - the picture sells itself. I remember back in the day at the first convention I went to, these were largely forgotten. It's amazing how such a piece could survive to this day. Bravo!

Optimator Spaten Mug $2.99

This beefy, mega-mug couldn't be left unowned or unbought. I have been searching for one of these for  years. Not sure how I got into the beer mug collecting scene. It's just something that's grows on you. I'm sure many of you understand that it fulfills that innate need to establish goals, search and find what you want. Plan, do, succeed. Maybe one day when I have the most enviable collection in the United States, I'll shift over into motivational speaking. Something like Tom Hopkins or Tony Robbins.

For now, here's the goods:

Admittedly, I've never had it. BeerAdvocate ranks it in the high 80's. Since the bro's rank Hoegaarden in the low 80's, I'll have to grab some next time I'm at BevMo.

Aug 23 2012 Update. Decided to grab a 6-pack of Optimator at BevMo ... and bleeeeah. Syrupy beer? Who drinks this stuff? Could be it wasn't cold enough.

Vintage Seca Bathroom Floor Scale $5.99

Another truly remarkable and unreliable find for August 2012 is this Seca bathroom scale I found for $5.99. Folks this is the true status symbol of our time. Condition: a bit of (vintage!) rust on the sides of the pad but other than that, quite clean looking especially after a quick wipe. This is America, there must be a scale collector out there right? Of course ... not, but there really is a International Society of Scale Collectors.

Too bad there doesn't seem to be the modern equivalent. Anyway, I bought it because I don't have one. Not sure if I really need it, but I do have the space for it, so why not. They don't make scales like they used to. Check it out:

Didn't find it on eBay and the closest one I could find was on Etsy:

Mine has an inner set of metric measurements, and a "not legal for trade" marked at the center. Yet both seem to max out at 320 lbs -- who knows how accurate it is at those levels though. I'll test it out after putting on some more weight.

If only people collected these like Rolex's. Maybe I could buy that one and corner the market on these like the story about Charlie Conlon and how he cornered the market on some 1975 Topps baseball cards.

P.S: Sorry folks my weigh scale is NOT FOR SALE.

2008 7 Eleven Incredible Hulk Slurpee Cup $0.99

We all know that ten years from now these will be in high demand from the tons of people looking for vintage Slurpee cups. In less than 6 months it'll be half way to a decade. Maybe I got the best version - the one with Abomination on it also. Maybe there's only like 100 of these in existence! Or who knows, maybe some day it will be discovered as a short print.  Better start stockpiling these NOW:

 I took this from an ebay auction which shows all 3 - the version I have is in the middle (I figure it's really important to document this for the internet for such timeless masterpieces):

shiny, heavy steel tissue box cover thingy - a disappointing 96% off retail

The original price: $24.99. My price: $0.78. Pic to prove it:

I'm quite satisfied with this. It's probably something you'd find at Bed Bath and Beyond... like this one from simplehuman.

But... really, $25 for a tissue paper holder? Even $12 - just so you can pick it up without the damn tissue box falling out. From looking around though, that seems to be the going rate. Maybe geared towards the middle-class who want to stand out from "the crowd". Those who want their visiting guests to be jealous of their overpriced tissue holder. Who knows. To each their own.

Inaugural Posting - Charles Pollock Chair for 98.5% off

As a recreational reader of Apartment Therapy and whatever else I stumble upon, I sometimes read in the comments about the aversion to decor/layout choices that look too department-store like. And I'm thinking maybe those people would say the same for this. It's about his mint condition Pollack chair that he's quite satisfied with, even after paying freight shipping. The picture looks sweet:

Well Mr. Chicago-design-guy-with-coincidental-red-phone-with-the-red-covered-book-at-the-bottom-of -the-bookstack I can top that. How about a non-mint Charles Pollack with no armrests for $21.99 versus $1474 for a brand new armless one. The math says I can buy about 60 of these. Boooooyah:

And an upside down label to make it certified, from May 18, 1978: 

Details matter right? The details though, are that this particular chair must have had armrests since there's holes where the screws used to be to fasten them down. That said, I'm fine with that for a 98.5% discount.

Then again, looking over eBay auctions - a typical used Charles Pollock (fabric or leather) seems to average out at $150. Maybe they'll go for more if they are impeccably clean.