Today was the first time I actually went out to try and find any nes related stuff and found absolutely nothing. I went to value village, salvation army and another local thrift store. The first two had absolutely nothing, and the third had a control deck manual but nothing else which i found kind of funny.

I know I shouldn't expect much going to these places but I still felt like i wasted my time.

My question is; what types of places do you guys generally go to find games. I was thinking of checking out some pawn shops next, but those are farther away from me and i dont want to waste that kind of time if there really isnt anything there.

I'm in the toronto area, so if any of you fellow canadians know where a good place is specifically, that would be pretty sweet.

Toronto has probably been cleaned out...tons of collectors out there. Not saying there's nothing to find, but don't expect to find any hidden gems. Chances are though, since it's a large market, you probably have a few game shops locally that may carry classic stuff. Avoid chains like EB, go for the independant shops. They'll likely be overpriced for popular stuff, but you'll likely find some rarer items for dirt cheap because they're unknown titles. Might want to check out http://www.cgcc.ca... for some info as well.

Hello from across the lake! Remember the Fast Ferry from Toronto to Rochester? Haha anyway, I'm a garage sailor! Just yesterday I got five games (Mag Max, Abadox, Bionic Command, Bart vs. Space Mutants, and Ninja Gaiden with manual and poster), a few Nintendo Powers, three Commodore 64 disk drives (no cords), a Family Boy (no cords/controllers), and a super 8 camera with a super 8 film splicer, all for $10 at some guy's yard sale. I even referred the guy to Nintendo Age, so maybe we'll see him around sometime!

It's really a patience game. I'll frequently check collector stores and flea markets (about once a week or week and a half) just to see what they got in and what's changed since my last visit. Doing this will also make you a 'regular' and if you chat with the store owner about your interest you can sometimes give them your number and they'll give you a call when new inventory has arrived. Maybe that's a little too personal for you, so instead you should just keep checking. Personally, I haven't found anything too substantial in the way of rare titles in the wild, but when I do I know it'll be that much sweeter knowing the struggle that went into my search. Good luck and stick with it!

Flea markets dude. Screw thrift stores. I have found very little at them. I've had a bit of luck with yard sales too, but not much.

Best way to go nowadays is yard sales and flea markets. The thrift stores are pretty much picked over now and pawn shops are usually high priced.
Around here the pawn and some flea market dealers shop at the thrift stores themselves so the chances of getting anything there is very slim.

So, on a related note... I went to a local flea market and found a little booth chock-full of CIB (even some sealed) NES games! You can imagine how surprised I was. Except, oh wait, then I realized that the boothsman knew exactly how much these games were worth. No steals for Rachel. There were several other booths set up in the market running the same show. I was quite surprised.

I havent found anything decent in the wild either. I check the thrift stores a few times a month and find the occasional $3 game but no big deal.

I find that garage sailing is a lot of work too, as well as a big crapshoot. I usually drive by, see a bunch of clothes racks, and keep on driving.

I'm going to dig around to see if there are any flea markets around here as a last ditch effort.

Don't just drive by garage sales...sometimes people don't think anyone would WANT their old games. My best score (non NES, but quantity-to-value was a good deal) came by asking if they had anything. She said she didn't think so, and her son said there was a box in the basement. Got a Gemini (Atari-compatable), a SMS, a bunch of random cables that had nothing to do with the contents, a single SMS game, and 30 or so Atari carts, and a sealed copy of Star Raiders, all for $5. I sold the Star Raiders for $15 a few years later, and still have most of the games (the Gemini was DOA, but I managed to get the SMS working). This was a place that had absolutely nothing out, but I still came away with a great score

Toronto sucks for NES. Sucks. Good luck. If you find some good spots please let me know.

All the fleas around the city I've been to have had shit selection or are way too expensive. And I've been to a lot if not all of them. The indie stores in the city are way too expensive, but tend to have decent selection. I've never been to a play n trade, but there are a couple around. Thrifts and pawns are hit or miss. I sometimes find controllers at thrifts, but usually not games. I haven't hit pawn shops too often but there hasn't been much luck either. Garage sailing sometimes works but I haven't gotten any games at a garage sale in years. I usually only go once or twice a year though.

There's a place at like Dundas & Dufferin where the owner seems like he'd be cool about cutting decent deals if you wanted to frequent the place but I only went once because it's too far (and expensive!) A&C on Spadina has some cool swag but they're also pretty expensive-- last time I was there they had some bottom-end NES games for cheap but maybe that's changed. I remember seeing a place up around Downsview but I never went in and I kind of forget where it was exactly! There's really quite a few stores that do used games scattered around the city but don't expect nice prices.

I want to check out the 400 flea sometime, it's on the way to Barrie, but I never have. Maybe next time I'm going to the cottage!

I haven't had a decent local find in the wild in FOREVER. I usually stick to craigslist or kijiji nowadays when I'm in buy mode.

garage sales seem like a good bet, garage sale season starts in the next week or two so ill be sure to check out those when exams dont get in the way

thanks for the info, good to see someone else who feels my pain.

a&c looks like the only semi decent place in the area. they have their game list online and they have some sweet stuff (action 52 with box and manual) but they dont have prices...im gonna go check it out sometime this week, i'll let you know if its worth talking about.

im also scouting out the gta for any signs of treasure

other than that looks like im sticking to garage sales and craiglist

Yeah, most Goodwills/Value Villages around me don't have much of anything except maybe a few PS1 systems or something.

Honestly I've found the bulk of my good finds on craigslist. There are lots of collectors in the Seattle area but I've gotten lucky quite a few times. Other than that I will usually check the local Half-Price books but other than that it's mostly craigslist. I've found the flea markets around here to have very limited supply of any gaming stuff and garage sales are too hit and miss for me to spend the gas and time.

That being said, I've gone through pretty long dry spells not finding anything good. But usually it gets made up for with a decent find. I've started to slow down my collecting and although there are lots of games I'd love to get, I kind of want to just wait it out and see if it ever shows up in the wild. I figure Ebay is always there so might as well try and find it cheaper.

I don't know if you have Play n Trade or not in Canada, but they can sometimes have really good deals on retro stuff.

Yeah, I mentioned play n trade but I sort of glossed over them because I've never been inside.

There's one right near Dundas & University, a little east of the AGO. There are also two outside the city, I think.

ill check out play n trade as well. problem is that all these retro game stores are all right in downtown toronto for some reason, and im about 40 minutes from there. thank god i just found one 10 minutes from me, im an idiot for not stopping by there today, i didnt even think of it.

I have found decent items at a local goodwill, but they were just common NES games. Once another goodwill had a couple loose playstations and N64s. But they weren't awesome deals. I have my best luck for resale items on craigslist, and filling my personal collection at used record stores and a used game/dvd stores. The used game/dvd store will occasionally have really low prices, like a TMNT 4 for $4. Also got a super mint Toejamn & Earl there for $3.