Thrifts Ep.46 Back to RealThrifts

Oh my goodness!

Are we actually going thirsting again? Yes!

In fact, I’ve never stopped. It’s just, it’s been cut down dramatically over the past year or so due to ongoing circumstances as they are. But yeah, even when I have gone, not very frequently, but whenever I go, it’s just not the same, you know, there’s not really the same amount or quality of just interesting things to show on any kind of episode of Thrifts. So, I just haven’t acquired as much footage as quickly and yeah, that’s why it’s taken however many months it has to get another real thirsting episode out. But, here we are. I have accumulated enough footage and put it all together for your viewing pleasure. So, let’s go thirsting!

Oh yeah. It’s a nice day out. And it’s nice to be back at Goodwill again. And as soon as I got inside, I’m greeted by a slightly different sight than usual, a bunch of electronics near the front of the store instead of the back. Including a whole bunch of neat little monitors but, what drew my eye even more was this 1950s looking Magnavox stereo system with a turntable, made in England apparently. Check out that old logo, that old design just everything about this. That paint job with the tan and black and kind of champagne gold. Oh yeah. And up above that with all those monitors, there were a bunch of 4:3 aspect ratio ones that caught my attention.

But, the main one that did was this NEC Multi Sync 1540 M. Nice little 15 inch deals. Got built in speakers, missing some components around back, which was kind of unfortunate, but you know, nice monitor for someone in need of that aspect ratio. And hey, just around the corner from that was no shortage of old records, including a whole box full of 33 1/3 vinyl on top. And a whole bunch of 12 inch and 10 inch records down below that. That are much more substantial, shellac type of things. Yeah. Whole lot of RCA Victor stuff, An intriguing collection, although mostly covered in mold and you could smell it.

Just out from there in the media, a couple of things caught my eye immediately. Namely, Microsoft Encarta: 1994 Edition on CD-ROM. It’s a little bit older than I normally see in terms of Encarta releases. And Hey, this is an AST OEM version. So, packed in with one of their Advantage computers probably. Oh, and of course we got a Zoombinis game down there too. Zoombinis Island Odyssey. Mm! Nothing I’m needing and neither was this. But it was just darn pleasant to see we’ve got a couple of big box games or bigger boxes. With the first one, a CD-ROM classics edition of Wing Commander Privateer. And their slimmer very cost reduced box. And below that, the ever-present Myst. Pretty much guarantee you’ll see one of these at every single Goodwill period.

But, you don’t always see it in the box. So you know what, whatever, I haven’t been to thrift stores in a long time. So this was kind of exciting just to see a big box PC game in a while again. And even more exciting than that, seeing a boxed application in the wild. Now this is increasingly my thing as the years go on. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but whatever man. Print Master Gold for Windows, in the box with the stuff and the disks. Yes, please. I did not have a version of Print Master this old and I’m rather fond of these print programs. I don’t know. I just like em all. So this one I’m grabbing and putting it on my shelf. Got milk? Or, at least a bunch of milk, what are these? 

Whatever you call them. Those classic almost antique cans. Looking like they’ve been out in the elements for a while. But hey, if that’s aluminum, I’m sure that’s uh... a material. And then over by a shelf near the front of the store was an intriguing selection of older books. Mostly from the early 20th century, some late 19th century. But all marked $5, which is way more than books normally go for a Goodwill. I guess cause they thought they were told they could mark em up but, there’s like an antique shop just down the road that sells like a whole group of old books, this old or older, for five bucks for like 10 of them. So, yeah these’ve been there for like six months now. Check out this Rolodex.

All metal except for the parts that aren’t, which kind of felt like Bakelite, but yeah, classic Rolodex logo and clunky sound of moving this thing around, 1960s kind of thing. Just a little older than most I come across. And then up above the balls, we got a little guy here. Who is this?

A spark plug with a party hat? Ah, he’s skiing. Sparky Do-or-Die. Sparky you do you. Can tell he’s got a real spring in his step. Oh hey look at this. We’ve got some lighter hued wood grain down here, turntable from Zenith. Yeah. Just a lot of mid-century goodies have been running across lately at these Goodwill’s. Look at this cool turntable. Those knobs and all the components painted white in the middle there. I don’t know. Just gotta design that really appeals. Ooh. Also appealing in a different way.

Is this JVC down here, a KD-A55 stereo cassette deck. Fantastic looking VU meters. The red has faded into a yellowish-gold but, I have always dug this JVC aesthetic. And the fact that the tape deck is on the right instead of the left is yeah.

Its, it’s kind of a thing I enjoy. Has a nice metal tape inside too, which that’s pretty cool on its own. You don’t see those terribly often in the wild. Yeah. Overall an impressive little deck. And just down from that, I was intrigued by this little carrying case thought it might be binoculars or something, but, nope. Check this out. It’s just a little thing made for holding Realistic speakers from Radio Shack. From their Minimums line of speakers. I don’t know. I just like the case that they came in.

And that was that. I see Okinawa. Yeah. Classic dot matrix printer down here, a Microcline 192. One of their Personal Printers. And it was made to be a little bit smaller, not take up as much space on a desk. Not as impressive as some other dot matrices but, it is what it is and I like seeing these. Still had a ribbon in there too. Probably dry but, whatever. I’m not gonna hold that against it. Okie-doke, Okinawa. Above that saw an Apple logo on a box that got my attention. And it turns out to one of their AirPort Extremes. One of the fifth generation ones from, I don’t know, nine or 10 years ago or something. Don’t check  if it was in there but the box was darn heavy, so. I just didn’t care enough to check. I cared a little bit more about this right here.

We got a Sony Mavica. I really enjoy these floppy disk cameras. This is one of their FD-71 models. I’m not needing any more of them, but I always enjoy seeing them make an appearance. They’re just fun little cameras. And they provide an intriguing aesthetic to your photos. And down below that, check this little thing out. We’ve got a 13 inch CRT down here. JVC Master Command. Yeah, really like the way this looked. $2. It’s a color TV built in December of 1990 and its only got RF input. So I’m not gonna grab it. I just don’t need any more RF little TVs of this size, but dang it. I liked the way it looks. I hope somebody gives it a good home. Huh! Well, this is a tad unusual for a Goodwill find, we get an EVGA PC ATX power supply down here. 500 watts for $20. Just tossed in with the rest of the electrical crap over here.

It’s not modular or really anything special, but worth pointing out, I suppose. Alright. Yeah, we gotta check this our see that Slim Cam logo on the bag down there. What have we got here?

We’ve got a Sharp Slim Cam. It was indeed a slim camera. A VHS one with Zoom 8 CATS EYE 2Lux artificial intelligence system. Yeah. I don’t know man, but, that seemed pretty cool for what it is. I just like the fact that its slim considering its full sized VHS in there. And then I also noticed this little guy, look at this. We got a Micronta alarm clock with a classy little bit of wood grain going on and you know, this blue display, I just had to check it out. It looked neat. So I plugged it in and what do you know?

It’s neat. I don’t really need it but I just, again, I like looking at it. So I looked at it and then I put it back. If I’m gonna buy an alarm clock, it’s gotta be a little more special than that. Though that display here is pretty darn cool. All right. Onto this Goodwill down this way and yeah, they have finished the Panera Bread construction over there and it is finally open. I don’t think inside. I don’t know. Maybe it is. The drive through definitely is. Anyway, Goodwill!

That’s why we’re here. And immediately up front I see this box for a GE Deluxe Automatic Record Changer. But inside is not that. Instead we’ve got some components for another Magnavox turntable mid-century type of thing Microsmatic. Gotta love model names like that. But yeah, that was all that was in here. Kind of underwhelming, not even a complete thing.

Now this Case Logic cassette case on the other hand, this is a little more of just more. Look at all these. Got some Def Leppard, ZZ Top, Cheap Trick, Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond, Beaches. Someone’s 80s tape collection ended up here all at once. And then down in the case below that looked like something that had never been opened or used, a Sima Copy Kit 3. Home Theater Copy Center. I didn’t take it out of the case, but I was mighty intrigued by what I was seeing on the box itself. Turns out this is kind of like a home televise kit. Where you take a video camera, point it at this little lens area and then whatever is projecting through the front of the copy kit is transferred to your videotape. That’s actually pretty cool.

I’d never seen one of these before and now I have. I’m curious how well it works. And I gotta say, thirsting during a pandemic has been weird but you’re reminded of how weird it has been every so often with things like this. Four rolls of toilet paper for a $1, which I mean there was a shortage. So, you know. Same goes for hand sanitizer. 

They had tons of these bottles, this store, and many of the other stores in the area. Alcohol antiseptic, 80% topical solution. Just kind of generic bottles with a label slapped on there looking shady. Hey, whatever. People needed this stuff and it was here at Goodwill. All right. Over in the furniture and look at this. This is not a pool table, even though that’s what the tag said. I mean, I guess it was technically kind of sort of correct.

This is a Bumper Pool Table. It’s a lot smaller than regular billiards. But yeah. This might be the first one of these I’ve seen at Goodwill. So, that alone made it worth looking at for a second. And now were not gonna look at it. We’re gonna look at this Wurlitzer over here, because man, look at this. The phenomenal retro-ness of it, all those colorful keys, the key pad, it’s even got a built in compact cassette recorder. Yeah, that’s just awesome. It’s no wonder somebody already bought it. Ah, this thing was neat. I just approve. It smelled like mildew and cigarettes. Now these two boxes over here certainly got my attention cause there were two of them. And inside were a bunch of unused six and a half ounce of wine glasses marked California YR Convention 1980 I think is what it said. I don’t know why it cracks me up, but it does. 

Yeah, there’s two boxes of em. Anyway, take a look at this BASF! Or rather enjoyably colorful floppy disc holder for five and a quarter inch diskettes. B.A.S.F-branded goodness. I’ve got one pretty darn similar to this. No, I don’t need it but, you know what? floppy holders, they’re fun. Even more fun with color. Ooh. Hey, here we go. We got a CD player as old as I am 1986, Sony CDP-45. Much like myself the design is aged. Look at all the squares and the rectangles, the play and pause buttons. I just like the way this looks always have. Up and over from there was another tape deck that I approve of. This one being a Toshiba, which is a brand I just don’t see very often in terms of cassette decks.

In fact, I can’t think of any others I’ve ever seen thirsting. I don’t know. Regardless, It was a pretty sweet looking deck. I like their design language. And the model number, PC-G50R. Yeah. Good stuff. Then I found this little thing down here. Pretty intriguing as well. This is a Radio Shack amplified video selector. That’s just a bunch of RF connectors on the back to go to different equipment. But, what intrigued me was all the remote control-like functions in a box. Like the fact that you could not only switch to a different device to see, but also things like cable, auxiliary, VCR, antenna, that kind of thing in a box instead of the handheld remote. And down below the clocks that were no doubt sold at Brendles in 1990, we had something that was a little more my style. Check this out. A Music Star Multimedia Music System.

Plugs into any PC with a sound card. Just a little mini keyboard for the PC. Or really anything. The only thing that made this quote unquote for the PC was the fact that it has an interface to plug into your sound card, the game port, as well as some software. I have another one by Reveal that I plan to cover at some point. So, I didn’t grab this but, it was exciting to see a thrift store shelf like this. And I also absolutely love this picture on the back. That Packard Bell setup, looks so much like my computer I had back then. Let’s see. Down below that we got a box of eight track tapes, just loosely thrown in there. A format that I’d still kind of like to mess around with at some point. Especially with the recorders.

In fact, you’ll see a blank one that has been recorded onto in here. But yeah I just, you know, nothing I was needing in here or wanting, rather. Whatever. 8 track, it’s a thing. Always has my attention. And checking out the CDs because of course you gotta do it. This stood out immediately, this little Palm desktop software package. I looked around the store to make sure that the PDA itself wasn’t around somewhere. That would be fun to get, but nope. Just the software nothing special. Apparently it was to a IIIxe Handheld, year 2000. All right. More electronics. There’s always more electronics. What the heck is this? A black and white and color line amplifier?

You know, I don’t know exactly what this does. Now I’m assuming it amplifies lines and a color and black and white variety with stuff going on. Around back it had what appeared to be RJ-11 and S-video. Not the connections I was expecting to be honest. Anyway, the model number is HLA819MD. If you’re interested in looking it up. Ooh! And check this out. Up above that. This kind of reminded me of that Technics M1 that Techmoan covered at one point. It’s not that though. This is a Sony Tran Sound CFS-3000 cassette recorder, or at least part of it. The speakers aren’t here. So it’s just this detachable little system in the middle but, I kind of really like the way that it looks without the speakers.

Who needs speakers?

You just plug in headphones, carry this around. That’s my idea of a good time. Oh! What is this?

Look at all this, big old beefy, Panasonic wooden thing. Has a solid wood cabinet, ah. And inside, got a solid state radio turntable. Really cool kind of unit. I don’t see too many of. And down from there was another Panasonic thing, a little bit newer. Also a turntable with a radio, but had this intriguing dial area. It looks like it would be something if it lit up, but, it’s not lit up. So, it’s not much to look at here but, anyway, here’s the thing. I like things. All right! One more Goodwill. Because, it’s here. And I am too. And inside, hey, look at this. They’re selling toilet paper as well, but at least theirs is wrapped up and not just like random rolls tossed on a table. Over on the other side of the counter, I immediately noticed the little stack of PC games here.

Really the standout one was Zoo Tycoon 2 Endangered Species, but still, even in the smaller boxes, physical PC games at Goodwill, it’s an increasingly not as common sight, which is just weird. Let’s take a second to admire this whole retro office set up kind of thing on this desk here. We got the Rolodex, we got the wedge, a little solar powered calculator and a pen holder and a thing for like paper clips and whatnot, just stuck in a block of wood. And then next to the leathery briefcase thing over here is this typewriter. The Graduate, is what it’s called. Mrs. Sears, you’re trying to seduce me. It almost worked.

All right. What is this?

BBC Music Like that BBC?

Yeah, I doubt it. It’s probably just from some church, probably like Bible Baptist Church. There’s like a billion of those and they’re all titled BBC around here, anyway. I was just drawn to the spray paint stencil. Nice touch. Also drawn to these little Franklin computers. Like always. Even though I have a couple of them, they’re completely underwhelming. Doesn’t matter. Little computer, retro things in your hand with an LCD, this is the Word Master. It’s just a dictionary. With a few other little features. It is what it is. And then behind that, just gotta give props to the Fellowes floppy disk holder as a fellow that holds a lot of floppy disks himself, I approve. Across from there, in the random junk section was bunch of random junk, randomly.

And this junk randomly stood out. It was a ceramic apple server pack still sealed for who knows how long. The thing that really kind of caught me off guard was the fact that there were still cider mix in there. That was just, who knows how old. It just amuses me to see these kinds of gifts that get re-gifted forever, or just end up in a closet for decades until it ends up at Goodwill. Oh, check out these appliance boxes. That Emerson microwave on top, I admire how simple it is. Literally a switch between cook and defrost and you got a timer, that’s it. And then down below that, that was another microwave with some awesome rainbows going on, but nope, this is something called a Harvest Maid. Really it’s just a dehydrator with a timer.

Fantastic graphics. I don’t know. Its old enough that its weirdly appealing and kind of not. And then finally, just browsing through some final electronics. Noticed this Gateway 2000 desktop keyboard. Not really old enough for anything I would want, but hey, at least its beige. Honestly though, It’s what was above that, that brought me over to this wall in the first place. 

Check it out. Didn’t know what I was looking at first, but yeah, it’s a little alarm clock lamp by Spartus. And there’s something about it that just immediately was like screaming out to me to bring it home. First I had to see if it worked. I like the red LEDs in the wood grain, but if it doesn’t work. But no. Turns out it does work. The bulb works,

the clock display works, everything works.

It’s a little worn down after however many decades, but aren’t, we all?

I’m taking it home. And that is it for this episode of LGR Thrifts. You know, I only got two things over the last, what, eight months? 10, I don’t know how long it’s been. It’s been awhile, but that’s fine. It’s been a degum journey getting here. And I don’t just mean going to thrift stores. I mean, not going to thrift stores. You know, just like everything else going on in the world. And whatever. I got a cool looking little lamp clock. I love this thing. I’ve been using it all the time. Its oddly enjoyable to just turn on and use and bring into areas that I’m working on smaller electronics, man! Does it have a smell!

There’s something about the way that it heats up with that little incandescent bulb in there and the metal and the dust and everything else. It gets warm. And it has a, I don’t know, it roasts in a certain old way. That’s extremely nostalgic.

Reminds me of a million things from childhood that just burned. Alight, whatever man.