Amazing finds at thrift stores & used book stores etc?

[DarkCrisis]

What’s some lucky finds you’ve found for sale at local used store? RPG related of course.

I’ve never found anything worth a heck at a thrift store, but today I went to a local 1/2 priced books store (used books) and they had 2 interesting finds:

1. All 3 D&D 3.5 core books in amazing condition for $15 each

2. About 20-ish Rifts books for about $8 each.

Man, did I want them all but money is lacking and I have been wanting the D&D 3.5 Ed core 3 for awhile purely for nostalgia reasons so I grabbed those.

I still hope to find some AD&D stuff but that’s unlikely. Though a few years ago I got a box of Original D&D and AD&D stuff for about $300 then turned around and sold most of it for profit.

What about you? Any good finds for cheap found out in the wild?

 

[jdrakeh]

The thrift stores in Colorado Springs suck (they found out that they make more money selling RPG-related stuff online), but in Grand Junction (also Colorado), my former roommate routinely finds great bargains (the one that sticks out in my mind is a large bag of Q-Workshop six-sided dice for like $4).

 

[bloodtide]

It's rare to find any RPG anything at a thrift store. Every once in a while I find the Dungeon! game, and buy another one.

Once I found a bunch of the old Pladium(?) Robotech books...mixed in with the coloring books for like $3 each.

I found a 1E Fiend Folio for $1.

At the Grange Sale Store(they buy your garage sale and put it in the store) I found a box of 1E D&D stuff..maps, graph paper, character sheets, couple modules...in with the comic books(?). The lady sold me the box of "comic books" for $5.

I did see the D&D beach towel at a thrift store once...under glass...for $100. I did not buy it...and when I went back to...it was gone.

 

[CandyLaser]

Thrift stores don't generally work for me either, but I frequently find good stuff at the local Half-Price Books. My best find was probably a copy of the licensed Dune RPG that came out in 2000 from Last Unicorn Games. Only 3000 were printed, and it's the only copy I've ever seen in the wild. I also snagged one of the leatherbound deluxe edition copies of Exalted 3e, all four volumes of the TSR Encyclopedia Arcana, and a full set of the "Player's Guide to X" domain handbooks for Birthright.

 

[Marc Radle]

My best find was probably a copy of the licensed Dune RPG that came out in 2000 from Last Unicorn Games.

Hey! I worked with Last Unicorn Games back in the day!!

Not during the time they did the Dune RPG, but a bit earlier during the Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth RPG and Heresy: King Come collectible card game years.

Good times!

 

[innerdude]

Best thrift store find was my wife finding a near-perfect condition WEG d6 Star Wars 2e Revised, but that was about the only time I can recall finding anything even remotely interesting over the years.

Second hand book stores have never been all that great for me, except for one. The Black and Read store in Arvada, Colorado is a literal treasure trove of used RPG material. It's 2 miles down the road from my sister's place, and I will always plan, without fail, at least one 2-3 hour shopping trip whenever we visit.

 

[Riley]

In the early/mid-90’s, I found the original Metamorphosis Alpha at Milwaukee's Downtown Books for a few dollars. I'd never even seen it before, and only knew it existed from references in Gamma World and Best of Dragon.

I also found pristine copies of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and Living Greyhawk Gazetteer in the same store, like-new but at used prices… a month or more before they’d even been released. IIRC I may have bought an extra or two and sold ‘em on eBay,

That store regularly had great D&D deep cuts, priced lower-than-they-deserved. I'd always wondered who their source was. RIP.*

*: They still exist, but not at the same glorious location which cut through old building storefronts and 2nd floors.

 

[Riley]

I still hope to find some AD&D stuff but that’s unlikely. Though a few years ago I got a box of Original D&D and AD&D stuff for about $300 then turned around and sold most of it for profit.

What about you? Any good finds for cheap found out in the wild?

I bought most of my AD&D, BD&D, and OD&D in used book stores between 1985-2005. Most at half the cover price or less.

I rarely find any D&D I want in used bookstores any more though. Not at a price I'm willing to pay at any rate.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I bought most of my AD&D, BD&D, and OD&D in used book stores between 1985-2005. Most at half the cover price or less.

I rarely find any D&D I want in used bookstores any more though. Especially not at a price I'm willing to pay.

Oh yeah before 5E I could find AD&D box sets for cheap at a local used book store, but since the retro resurgence that’s unlikely.

Should have bought them when I had the chance.

 

[LordBP]

Found 5 new 3rd edition Forgotten Realms sourcebooks at a bookstore in a small town this spring.

They sold them at 10% under MSRP just to get rid of them due to having them on the shelf for the last 10-15 years.