Thrift shopping is fun. Looking and shifting through odds and goods can be fun. You can emerge successful and find a gemstone. Or you can shift through an endless pile of trash and come out with nothing but a bust.

The car door slamming. Keys in the hand. I would walk towards the double glass tainted doors. Branded and tagged away with ‘Goodwill’ in dark blue letters. I like to travel and shift through Goodwill. Overtime my store variety will probably grow outside it, but there are several Goodwills in Albuquerque.

I check and begin my search. I love video games. There are generally shelves crammed with books, shelves crammed with CDs (people still collect those apparently), and shelves crammed with DVDs. A junkie fest.

However, within this junkie fest lies a few video games.

Generally, though, most of these video games were literal junkies. Sport games, Call of Duty, generic triple A titled games, those type of junkies. I remained persistent though. I believed I would find a true gemstone. A shiny nice gem for a bargain. A rare, impossible gem.

I took thrift shopping a little more seriously than I ever had before. I went with a friend on my first honest attempt and I was not disappointed.

The dash towards the shelves. The Goodwill on Coors and Paseo. We spent a fair amount of time just skimming and skimming. Flipping, searching, turning through the cases hoping to find a nice gem.

Several games upon games however, which one would be the best? Fable 2. Not just your regular old Fable 2. The limited-edition Fable 2. Or at least part of it. I felt like it was missing something. To my surprise, my friend told me that there should be a steelbook to go along with the game and case.

Damn.

The game is mint. Crisp, nice, mint disc. Pristine condition. The case was handled with love and care. All with an online price tag of at least twenty dollars.

Tales of Vesperia. Nice mint disc with a not as beautiful case. The Tales games have been praised and praised again for great things. I never have played them, but I own digital copies of Berseria and Symphonia. They are both on my huge list of video games I plan on getting to soon. I guess I will get both to either horde, sell or trade. The worst that can happen is that I will end up paying ten bucks to have both of those games.

“I gotcha bro,” were the final words I remember when I was being rung out at the register. A register with green numbers saying that my grand total was three dollars. Hell yah.

Discounts from random strangers are always the best.

These are not cream of the crop finds. Not the shiny gemstone I was relentlessly pursuing. However, three bucks is three bucks. In the end my friend and I both agreed that these finds were not bad. Not great but far from bad. We drove on. Just driving. Popping in and out of Goodwills. Searching and searching for that rare gem. The end was almost near.

The finale was at the Goodwill on Paseo and Wyoming. Looking, skimming, flipping through cases of games. The only thing I walked out with was a complete in-box version of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six for the PC. It was complete and mine for four bucks. Not the best find though.

Time only went on. I would continue to pop into various Goodwills when I had the free time. It was fun. I enjoyed digging through cases of discs hoping to find something cool and unique. I loved going through the various goodies at thrift stores. It felt like treasure hunting. Going on a journey to excavate for a rare, hidden stone.

It was fun taking junk that people did not like and treating it like a treasure.

The general price for video games at Goodwill was three to four dollars. I guess I should thank the guy who charged me three bucks for both games mentioned previously.

Standing out in the open. Case almost falling off the shelf. Just sprawling and laying there feeling vulnerable and exposed. Final Fantasy X for the PS2. I had the game on my gaming PC. I have yet to play the game. Shame on me. Four bucks. The game will hold value in the future. Guess it seemed fair to pick up Final Fantasy X for four bucks.

Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. I have no clue why I picked this game up. The game is in nice condition and there were two discs inside the case. Both crisp and clean. Probably not the best pick-up for four bucks. Partnering alongside Halo 3 I picked up another game. Shifting through more cases I found a copy of Final Fantasy XII’s expansion pack for the PS2. For four dollars I could have done worse.

Yet I still was in pursuit of something truly special.

On Feb. 16, 2018, things changed.

It was a Friday evening and I was cruising down the interstate after a long day at the University. I decided to visit a Goodwill and then Super Gamer’s Anonymous just for fun.

I was surprised with what I found at Goodwill: a copy of Mario Party 7 for the Gamecube. The case was not in the best condition. The disc had some scratches, yet none of them were deep. A simple surfacing probably could have fixed the disc. Three bucks was a steal.

My luck carried over to the next two stores I traveled to. I ended up traveling towards another Goodwill. Casually looking and browsing the video game section. Hidden away was a pristine copy of Star Wars Battlefront for the PS2. I used to play Star Wars Battlefront at my friend’s house on his PS2. I enjoyed the game a ton. A few inches away lay a copy of Naruto: Clash of Ninja which I almost missed while skimming through all the cases.

In the end eight bucks was a steal and I felt extremely satisfied with my finds.

My final stop was at the Goodwill right across from an amusement park. Four bucks and I walked away with Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PS2. Nice and mint.

Hopefully my luck will continue to carry over. I enjoy thrift shopping due to the fun of just simply finding random stuff. Random video games I can add to my personal collection. Random video games I can trade or sell. It’s truly fun looking around and sometimes getting nostalgic vibes from past memories.

Why do you go thrift shopping? If you don’t, do you plan on trying to go thrift shopping?