Retro Finds of the Week! (Vol. 4)
10/17 - 10/23/2022
Well it’s been quite a while now since the last time we looked at some cool retro finds that I’ve run across, but I have been keeping an eye out and taking pictures as I find them. So let’s go back to the week of October 17-23 and see what was out there. Admittedly, some of these were from before then, but I wanted to share them anyway.
A Little Something from the Little Free Library Down the Road
I’ve enjoyed seeing those Little Free Library boxes popping up over the last few years. You know, the ones that look like miniature houses where you can borrow or add books to share with others. I usually stop and peruse them when I see the, if for no other reason than to get an idea for what people had been reading. You can get a good idea of how a person thinks by the books they own. Now obviously, this is a communal thing so that doesn’t really apply in the same way, but it’s still fun.
This particular box is near an elementary school so it was packed with juvenile fiction and young adult novels so I had no real interest in anything with one exception. Animorphs was a TV show on Nickelodeon in the 90’s. It was about some kids who could transform — or morph — into animals to do things that they normally couldn’t. I remember watching it on occasion but was never really a big fan. Still, it was cool to see one of the books they released during the show’s run still being enjoyed by kids today. I hope Hudson enjoyed it.
Goodwill Finds
Later on I went to our local Goodwill to see what I could find. This particular store is nothing special. Most of the time I go there I find nothing I would want to buy, but occasionally I find some really cool stuff so I try to go about once a week just to keep an eye out. Here’s what turned up back in mid-October.
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008
Along the back wall is their media section with a single bookshelf full of CD’s, DVD’s, VHS and cassette tapes, and even some vinyl records. Most of this is nothing to write home about but every now and then they have some games thrown up there too. This week I spotted an odd DVD case with a plain white piece of paper inserted where the cover art should be. Picking it up I felt the disc loose inside. Opening the case I found a copy of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for the PlayStation 2.
I used to be a big wrestling fan and would play the WWE games for hours. I think the last one I really played was Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain! from 2005. The games are fun, and this one was listed with the DVD price of $2.00 so I almost picked it up. Unfortunately the game disc was scratched up — likely because it was loose in the case. Couple that with the lack of an original case and it just wasn’t worth it to me.
New-Old Stock WiiFit Plus Board
Moving over to the housewares section I found a random WiiFit Plus Board. I’m not sure why it was there, but there it was. I see these things there all of the time, but this one caught my eye because it had it’s original box as well. To my surprise, and despite the box being unsealed, everything inside was still wrapped up and sealed. It’s not too often that you find new-old stock tech around here so I considered picking it up. They were asking $25.94 which — for what it was — was not completely unreasonable. I just knew that no one at my home would use it so I gave it a pass.
HP PS/2 Keyboard
Arriving at the electronics section the keyboard pile was quite sparse. Usually there is a big stack of your run-of-the-mill Dell and Logitech USB keyboards, but even those were gone. One of the few there was this boring looking keyboard. It’s a Windows XP era keyboard from HP with some quick action hotkeys which were pretty standard back then. It was also a PS/2 keyboard which I personally prefer over USB. I have plenty of keyboards at the moment but thought this one was nice; though the $10.89 price tag was a little over priced in my humble opinion. It should have been closer to $5 or $6.
Old School Tape Storage
Now here was something that I almost picked up. It’s one of those cassette storage drawers. I think my family even had one of these back in the day, but ours was for VHS taps. Still, even though I don’t have enough cassettes to make it worth buying, I like the 80’s-90’s woodgrain along with the utilitarian nature of these kinds of things; and it was only $4.89. Still. prudence dictated that I leave it for someone else as I have enough stuff at home.
Obscure PlayStation 2 Racing Wheel
This thing was pretty cool, and for $5.89 I would have bought it. It’s a racing wheel for PS2 racing games — of which there were many good ones. I couldn’t find a brand or model number sticker on it, so I assume it was probably on the base of the pedals which were missing. Without those this thing is useless so I put it back.
Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Big Box Software
Now this was cool. I don’t see much software at this Goodwill, and especially not big box software. This one appears to have been mistakenly put in the board game section. After doing a little digging I found that Roxio’s Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum came out in 2001. It was made for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but it was also compatible with every Microsoft system from Windows 95 to Windows Me as well. I was going to buy it, but it was missing the software disc. It is a Goodwill after all.
Sony Mavica MVC-FD73 Digital Camera
Last, but certainly not least, is this old Sony Mavica digital camera. I actually found it back in July or August and forgot to share about it. The Mavica line were early digital cameras that used 3.5 inch floppy discs (which could hold up to 20 JPEGs) rather than film or memory cards. As a result the image files were pretty low resolution (640 x 480) but the concept is still really cool. The MVC-FD73 came out in 1999 and retailed for $599 USD. These days they go for anywhere from $5 to $20 on eBay. This one was free, so naturally I gave it a new home. It’s battery is dead and no longer charges, but maybe some day I can get a new one and try it out.
