Calavera's Goodwill/Flea Market Finds 2: Resurrection

[Calavera]

I've only encountered one issue with it. It is a model that plays both sides of a disc but that function isn't working. I took the cover off to take a look and the laser is flipping over and moving to the top of the disc with no problem but after that it spins up and never plays. It would be nice if that feature was working but it isn't that big of a deal that it doesn't work.

I just finished watching the Blues Brothers on Laserdisc and somehow the both side play function started working! It is pretty quick too, it only takes 7-10 seconds or so to read the other side and start playing. I am very impressed with the video quality. I have several Laserdiscs but the only one I really tried before Blues Brothers was Titanic and I wasn't too impressed with the quality.

I realize before I was saying people are crazy who say Laserdisc is equal or better to DVD but I'd like to compare the Blue Brothers LD to the DVD version. Right now I have BB on LD and VHS. I could get the DVD for about $5 but I wonder if a DVDrip would do for comparing quality? It is also on Betamax and CED. The beta version goes for around $20 which is way too much for an old beta tape imo. The CED version goes for around $20-$25 which is high but I'd be very tempted to purchase it if I had a CED player, but I'd be very surprised if I ever see one of those at the thrift store or flea market. It would be fun to compare the video quality between all the different versions including the latest 4K release.

Blues Bothers laserdisc,very nice.

There is also a very funky earlier release on DiscoVision! Which is just an old name for Laserdisc.


If I can find that version cheap (for around $5-$7 total) I might just pick it up because The Blues Brothers is one of my favorite movies so it is fun to own different versions and also to compare the quality to the one I have. The Discovision was released in 1981 while the one I have is from 1990. 9 years difference but that is huge for advances in home video back then. Besides the Discovision and the release I have there is also a third Laserdisc release!



The signature collection edition which was released in 1998. I would have got this but they go for $70+ which no way I'd ever pay that much for a Laserdisc!

So when it comes to Blues Brothers there is no shortage of different versions!

[Calavera]

Quick addition to my previous post before I go on with my new one. I've realized that there are actually two different versions of the Discovision release. The one I posted from 1981 which is on two discs (three sides). But there is also a standard play release from 1980 that is 3 discs and 6 sides! That is crazy! That is a lot of flipping and swapping! I'd like to get that one just for the novelty of it. Anyways onto my new post.

I got a couple more Laserdiscs. Speed 2 Cruise Control and 2 episodes of the original Star Trek series.




Believe it or not I'd never actually watched a single episode of the original Star Trek series before. The only reason I bought the Laserdisc is because it was very cheap and I just wanted to build up my collection. I watched it and it was pretty damn good! I'm going to have to watch some more episodes of it. Maybe end up watching the entire series.

As for Speed 2 it was also very cheap and I haven't seen it since sometime in the 90s. I put it in and played it for a minute just to make sure it played alright and it was fine. Like Titanic it is a Widescreen Edition. You'd think those would be better for watching on a modern widescreen TV but the problem is it outputs a 4:3 image of 16:9. Using the zoom function on the TV helps it out but overall I think I'd prefer the fullscreen versions.

*edit So I watched another episode of Star Trek. It just so happens that the two episodes on the Laserdisc I have are the first two episodes of the series. So it was a good place to start. I also noticed on the episode I watched online that they must have updated the scenes of the ship at some point as in the online one it is CGI.

[Calavera]

Yet another Laserdisc. Raiders of the Lost Ark this time.



You're probably thinking what is with all the Laserdiscs all of a sudden? After finding that Laserdisc player at Goodwill for around $15 I got on sort of a Laserdisc kick, a Laserkick if you would. I know I can watch pretty much any of these movies online in much better quality but there is just something fun about Laserdisc. Having the big album sized cases and the big ole disc itself it just idk unique. So far I have bought 7 Laserdiscs online for a combined total of $35. So that comes out to $5 a piece on average. That is about the most I really want to pay for one. I'll go $10 or so if it is something I really want though.

Some of the prices for Laserdiscs are just insane. The Brave Little Toaster is my favorite childhood movie. When I was younger I watched it so many times. I'm surprised I didn't wear out the VHS tape! So it'd be fun to have the Laserdisc version. How much is it? The cheapest two on Ebay are $55 and $65. There was one on there a couple of days ago for $35 and it sold fairly quick. Even $35 is a bit crazy to me. How about Billy Madison? That had to be very common and can't be all that much. Nope they want $25-$35 for it. Happy Gilmore is $30-$40.

Now for the best one. Blast from the Past.



A pretty good movie that I think most people don't even remember. How much would you guess? $50? $100 $200? Not quite. There are two copies on Ebay for Buy It Now. One for $450.55 and the other for $485.95. And according to sold listings one sold on January 28th for $374.95. WHY?! Why in the world would someone pay that kind of money for a Laserdisc! Even if it was some obscure movie that never saw a DVD release I still couldn't see paying that much for it. I just searched it up again and there is a new listing on Ebay as an auction with a starting bid of $250. So hey if nobody else bids on it you can get it for a $200 discount!

Just one more I want to mention. Blast from the Past reminded me of the movie Pleasantville so I did a search for it. The cheapest two are $75 and $95 and just two days ago on February 11th one sold for $99. I just don't get it.

So if you wanted to buy the following 5 movies on Laserdisc "The Brave Little Toaster" "Billy Madison" "Happy Gilmore" "Blast from the Past" and "Pleasantville" it would cost you $635 + shipping. Even if we take out the insanely priced $450 for "Blast from the Past" that is still $185 + shipping for 4 pretty common movies. I just find it crazy that anybody would pay so much for a Laserdisc. I understand there are collectors but still unless you are a millionaire who likes Laserdiscs I can't see why you'd pay that much. They weren't even that expensive when they were new and were the top of the line way to watch movies.

The Laserdisc Database has the prices that they originally cost.
Blast from the Past $30
Happy Gilmore $25
Billy Madison $20
Pleasantville (Special Edition) $40
The Brave Little Toaster $30

Now those prices I can understand paying at that period in time when Laserdisc was the highest quality consumer format. They are actually cheaper than I thought they would be. I've been rambling about Laserdisc prices for too long now but to the one person who finds this interesting I hope you enjoyed!

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Blast From The Past came out in 1999, so it was probably one of the last LDs to come out in the US and had a limited release. It was released at the same time as the DVD version.

[ian]

What puts me off collecting anything is the price. The last time I saw a laserdisc player for sale was at Cash Converters (Australia's biggest pawn shop) about a decade ago. It was $150 and they had a handfull of movies with it. all the movies were shit, so I left it.

no, old shit is not worth that much to me. If I find random stuff cheap I'll grab it and play with it, but there seems to be less and less between absolute ewaste and stupidly overpriced thing at the moment.

Thats why I like your threads, you find all the old stuff cheap that doesn't exist here.

[Calavera]

no, old shit is not worth that much to me. If I find random stuff cheap I'll grab it and play with it, but there seems to be less and less between absolute ewaste and stupidly overpriced thing at the moment.

Thats why I like your threads, you find all the old stuff cheap that doesn't exist here.

I totally agree. The only reason I have so much old stuff is because I got it cheap. There is no way I'd pay the online prices the majority of stuff is going for. I'm more into buying something for $5-$10, messing around with it for awhile and then adding it to the hoard..uh I mean collection where I plan on selling it someday.

[Calavera]

Got a couple items yesterday worth mentioning. I have several Sony Mavica floppy disk cameras that I've got from Goodwill/local flea market in the past. Those are nice but it was time for an upgrade!

Introducing the Sony Mavica MVC CD-500 (Price $3.99)



Instead of using floppy disks or even a memory card it uses Mini-CDRs. Personally I think that might even be more interesting than the previous ones that use floppies. It came out in early 2003. I'm pretty sure by 2003 SD cards with a decent (for the time) capacity were somewhat common. The capacity of a Mini-CDR is 156MB. I could be wrong though. I couldn't find a list of SD card sizes throughout the years so it is possible that in 2003 that 32,64 and 128mb cards were still common in which case using Mini-CDRs would make sense as they would be much cheaper than a 128mb SD card.


Next up is a JVC SUPER VHS Model HR-S5900U (Price $5.99)


Anytime I see a S-VHS deck I always pick it up if it is decently priced. I only have one S-VHS tape and that is a blank that I've used a couple of times with an S-VHS camcorder I have. I would think these would be good for watching regular VHS since it supports S-Video output. But I'm not sure if standard VHS benefits from being output over S-video vs composite.

I also got Hard Truck II for $1.99. I used to love that game back in the day. When trying to download it online it seems it is always the European version called King of the Road. I think it is basically the same game just a different name but I want the version I'm nostalgic for!

[ian]

I love floppy drive Mavicas, but that optical drive one is cool.

I had a Mavica FD95 from the year 2000. That thing took beautiful pictures.
The last time I used it in a real world application was in 2007. Even though it was only 2 megapixels and by 2007 digital cameras were up to what? 14 megapixels odd, it simply took better photos than other point and shoots of the era. If I had an expensive Nikon DSLR I would have used that instead, but Sony's image sensor was simply incredible that even without brute forcing resolution, it took good photos... Also had a better zoom than newer point and shoots, and Sony from 1999 to about 2009 had night shots that were simply untouched in the consumer market.

So I took still photos on a Floppy Disk in 2007 For Daft Punk's Alive 2007. But a good camera is a good camera. And since I'm a horrible photographer, I like having good cameras to do the heavy lifting for me. (After the Mavica I moved to a Fuji S8500 which I've been using since, but broke the flash last year so have been using my phone ever since)

[Calavera]

Some good new bad news about the CD camera. The only Mini-CDs I have are some I bought around 20 years ago. I bought them incase I ever wanted to burn a Mini-CDr but never used them. So I pop one in and it says "Mavica Disc Recommended" but still goes on to initialize the disc. During the initialization it gives a Disc Error message. But that it is good. I'd much rather have a disc error than I drive error. The drive sounds like it is working but it is just the disk isn't compatible. I've looked online and a Mavica brand mini CD-RW is about $14 shipped. While typing this post I decided to just go ahead and order it. Sure it is about 3x as much as I'd like to spend on it but I'd really like to be able to try out this camera.

So with the disc I've got about $18 in it now. If it turns out it works then I'll be able to get more than that if I sell it once I'm doing messing with it. Another really amazing thing about it is that the battery still holds a charge! I had a charger for it as it used the same kind of charger as my Sony 8MM camcorder. When the disc arrives later this week I'll update it if works.

[Calavera]

I've looked online and a Mavica brand mini CD-RW is about $14 shipped. While typing this post I decided to just go ahead and order it. Sure it is about 3x as much as I'd like to spend on it but I'd really like to be able to try out this camera.

So I got the disc and popped it in and......same problem "Disc Error C:13:01" It is reading the disc for sure because it now shows CDRW in the top right corner. I'm guessing that maybe the laser is good enough to read discs but not burn them. I would try taking it apart and seeing if there is a pot to adjust on the laser but I'd imagine it would be a royal pain in the arse to take this thing apart.

I'll probably just keep it as sort of a collectible to go with my other Mavicas. If I sold it as-is I could maybe get like $20 for it but for that much I might as well just keep it.

[Calavera]

April 3rd 2023 pickups. Got a really nice "gaming chair" for only $10



The only thing that could be considered wrong with it is that one of the arms has a bit of tape on it. To me that is no problem at all. I just put some new black tape over the frayed tape that was on it to make it look a bit cleaner. It is really comfortable and even reclines! An amazing buy for $10 imo.

Next is a Sharp XR-10X projector. I haven't had much luck with projectors from thrift stores in the past. The first one I bought many years ago works but has some major issues with the picture. The second one I plugged it in at the store to make sure it worked and it turned on and output the menu fine but then once I got it home it refused to ever work again. So this will be my third thrift store projector.



It was only $10 so I had to get it I haven't tested it yet but once I do you can be sure I'll post the results here. It has RCA, S-Video and 2 DB9 inputs and also a DB9 output. Whoever had it last had a DB9 to HDMI cable plugged into the output. Hopefully it works. I looked it up and it apparently came out around 2005 and was $1,250. On Amazon there is a review from 2015 saying that they got it in a clearance sale for $400-$500. The latest review is from September 2018 and they say it has pretty good image quality. I guess I'll find out when I decide to plug it in.

[Calavera]

I just tested out the Sharp XR-10X and it works great! I used the JVC S-VHS from a few posts ago to test it with. The picture quality is very good and would be even better with a higher quality input than a VCR and projecting onto a more proper surface than a wallpapered wall or a red barn. I was just messing around to test it but if I had a proper surface to project it onto I'm sure it would look very good.

Here are some pics when I had it outside projected onto the barn.



And here is a video when I was trying it inside (Jurassic Park Lost World) and outside (Short Circuit)



I say it was a great deal for only $10.

[Calavera]

Got a Canon Pixma MP500 (uses the really cheap ink) for $6



It still had ink in it and it works great. The only problem with it is there is no driver for Windows 10/11. The latest driver they have for it is Windows 7. I tried using the Win 7 driver on 10 but of course it didn't work. To test it I ended up running Windows XP on a Virtual Machine and printed from there. It printed perfectly fine with no issues at all.

It is a shame that a perfectly working device that could easily be used as a primary printer is rendered useless with newer computers just because there isn't a driver. It believe it was released sometime in 2005 so it is 18 years old but it still can print just as good as a new printer and ink is still readily available online for very cheap.

So as long as you have Windows 7 or older it is a great printer but as soon as you upgrade to 10 it is a big ole paperweight

[ian]

I had a scanner like that. Rendered junk because driver support ended, recently I got rid of it.

Could scan resolutions that any machine running windows xp couldn't even handle, and was absolutely stunning... Couldn't get it to work on anything after XP, and while I held onto it for ages eventually I gave up and it's probably in an ewaste pile now (I sold it cheap in a huge lot, I've never put anything outside printer ink in ewaste myself, I simply can't do it)

[Calavera]

I had a scanner like that. Rendered junk because driver support ended, recently I got rid of it.

Could scan resolutions that any machine running windows xp couldn't even handle, and was absolutely stunning... Couldn't get it to work on anything after XP, and while I held onto it for ages eventually I gave up and it's probably in an ewaste pile now (I sold it cheap in a huge lot, I've never put anything outside printer ink in ewaste myself, I simply can't do it)

It is ridiculous isn't it? It is probably better than some brand new printers/scanners you can buy today but rendered useless due to something as simple as a driver. With most printers I can understand why they wouldn't bother making current drivers. For example pretty much any home printer that uses an LPT1. Or ancient (and even somewhat recent) printers that use specialized ink cartridges, usually one for black and one for all the colors that haven't been produced in years and can't be refilled.

But this MP500 hooks up with USB has great print quality and uses the easily refillable ink cartridges that several other printers in the Pixma line uses. It sucks but I get why they don't make new drivers. I don't know how much work it takes to make a driver and after so many years they probably just figure very few people are still using those printers so it isn't worth the effort to make a new driver. The MP500 came out in 2005 and Windows 10 didn't come out until 2015 so that is 10 years of driver support. Well this particular printer didn't have a Windows 8 driver either but who the hell used Windows 8? Looking on their website they did actually make Windows 8 and 8.1 drivers for other printers that came out around the same time as this one.

So while it is a bummer that his particular printer can't be used with Windows 10 or higher I can't really complain too much. Canon seems to be the best printer company around in my opinion. Or at least they used to be. I'm not sure if any of their new printers use the 5+ multiple ink cartridges. The latest ones I could find that use them came out in 2018.

[Calavera]

I still have this brand new unopened slot car track that I picked up back in August 2018. In all that time I've never been able to find any information on it. I can't find another picture of one anywhere on the internet. Anytime I've had it listed for sale there isn't much interest. I want to sell it I just don't want to sell it too cheap. I doubt it is highly collectible but heck this could be the only one of this model that is still sealed in the world! Lol, I know that doesn't translate to it being super valuable but I don't think I could part with it for less than $100 and it seems nobody is willing to pay that much.

[pixel]

20230515_165310.jpg

I found this little boombox at a weekend antique festival down in Iowa. Radio works great, the tape mechanism is a little loud but otherwise works well for $10.

[Calavera]

Nice find! Not bad for a tenner as the brits would say.

[Calavera]

I was going to make a new thread for this but figured eh it'd be fine just to post it here. Not a goodwill find obviously but got a new motor vehicle.
2006 Cadillac DTS

With gas prices soaring to their highest ever it was the perfect time to buy a 275HP V8 Cadillac!

Just wanted to post a little update. A month or two ago for some reason the air conditioning would only blow cold out of the driver side vents. Then recently no cold air at all! That sucks because it is starting to get hot out and a black car with black interior can get pretty warm. So I figured I'd try adding some refrigerant. I got an 18oz bottle of R-134a that came with a gauge on the filling hose to check the pressure. I popped the gauge on and it was reading right under the green filled section of the gauge. So I pumped some refrigerant into it until the gauge was about in the middle of the green filled section and......voila! It is fixed and blows nice and cold. So if it had never been filled before that means I'll need to charge the AC about every 17 years. There is still some left in the can so I better hold onto that if I need to charge it again in 2040!

When I first got the car I assumed the fuel mileage wouldn't be great but it really isn't too bad. I was resetting the Average Economy readout each time I got gas but decided to just leave it so I could see what I am averaging after several thousand miles. The average after a couple thousand miles is 23MPG (23.2 atm to be exact) For a V8 Cadillac I don't think that is bad at all. I do tend to drive it pretty easy but I have been known to stomp it down from time to time. I was stuck behind a long ass line of traffic one day and said screw it and passed them all! It is actually pretty quick it was gaining speed real good then all of a sudden no more speed. The screen on the dash read "Speed Limited to 112mph" Ah come on! They should have at least let it go up to 120mph. The top speed is about 150mph. I probably wouldn't want to get it up that fast but 120 would be fine.

[Calavera]

Picked up a few random items today, nothing too exciting.


Sanyo MCD-Z2(K) AM/FM Cassette CD Boombox. Radio and cassette work great. Haven't tested the CD player yet but I'd say it more than likely works.
Price: FREE $0!



Next is a random old calculator Rockwell the 22K. I was interested in it just because of the Rockwell brand. You know the makers of the Retro Encabulator. The price on this one was also Zero $0!



Boston Acoustics Receptor Radio. I think this has kind of a neat look to it and it is also very heavy for a radio of this size. Unfortunately it has some issues. Price $2.99




Now this one is strange. A PBS Retro VR Headset complete in box with everything shown in this picture. (This is a picture from Ebay but mine is the same) I have no use for one of these "Phone VR" headset but I had to get this due to the look of it and just because of the weirdness of it. Why would PBS have ever made a VR headset? Especially a retro styled VR headset. It does look pretty cool though and would make for a good decoration to sit on a shelf. It was only $2.99.




Like I said nothing too amazing but then again I only spent $6 on all of it.