This early morning endeavour is sponsored by SquareSpace.
Well my friends, it has been a good while hasn’t it? In fact, I haven’t done a thrifting
episode since April 2019, so I can’t even really blame the pandemic. But just feel that
air, sniff that fresh early morning tarmac smell; it just feels so liberating getting
out of the house now, and as the UK is gradually opening back up, I thought it a good time
to get out of the house and do some bargain hunting.
So here we are, at Arminghall car boot sale, and for the uninitiated, a car boot sale is
where a group of British people go to a field, unload their car boots, and sell, well, anything
really, but usually junk they don’t want, to other British people.
I’m here with my daughter, and the first thing I go for is apparently, a bucket of
dubious wrestling figures. Honestly, if that’s a sign of things to come, it’s best to bail
now.
As usual, most stalls are at utter shambolic mish-mash of random goods. But I spy a Microsoft
wireless keyboard behind some shoes. Tempting, but I’ve really got enough keyboards now,
especially from this era. Honestly, most people just have boxes of utter nonsense just lying
on a mat. I commend their drive, but do they actually make any money from these things?
I mean, surely not.
There’s a kid here, and he just eyeballs me. I think he probably wants me dead to be
honest. Whatever kid, at least I don’t shit myself. Well, not often.
There was a stall around the corner sell a load of lego stuff, but social distancing
is not top of anyone’s list here, so it didn’t seem worthwhile hanging around.
Just across the isle we find a stall selling Epson compatible ink, bumbags, baseball caps,
and some random Wii games, accessories and some Skylanders. To be honest, I should have
investigated more closely here. But then I did find a Masters of the Universe VHS next
door. What an odd film. Even when I was 7 this film disturbed me in ways I can’t describe.
Ooo Cartoon Show. Some of these cartoons I also want to forget.
You can tell by the gaps on some of the ground mats that we got here too late this Sunday.
We arrived about 8:40, but you really need to be there before 8, preferably 7 o’clock
sharp to get the best stuff. For me, that’s unlikely to ever happen. But I did almost
grab this Real Life Bugs and Insects binder. These magazine came out years ago, but originally
with actual bugs encased in resin. Clearly they’ve been lost in time, or eaten by the
family dog.
Holy crap there’s the Mona Lisa. But I was actually drawn in by this Fender Squier guitar.
Not for me specifically, but to teach my daughter how to play. That guy drove a hard bargain
though. I had to come back a few times and haggle him down. Even then, I didn’t have
enough cash, and paid by Paypal. Which still blows my mind. I used to do a lot of car boot
sales as a kid, and transferring money, digitally, instantly?! What a world we live in.
A 1960s Scalextric set there, a few bits and bobs of potential interest. Not worth stopping
for though… However, this Philips LED photo frame. Well probably not worth stopping for
either, but these are increasingly being hacked and used for interesting things.
Now we’re talking. XBox stuff. A PS2. PS4. There’s even a Hornby Devon Flyer set. I’ll
be honest, I should have picked up that PS2 and a few of these games. Guy wanted £45
for the PS2, so probably could have got it for £40, and that really isn’t half bad
for a boxed console. But alas, I passed and instead opted to grab this Microsoft Sidewinder
wheel and pedals for £6. I’m 95% certain that I actually picked up a slightly older
Sidewinder from this exact car boot a couple of years ago. But as the saying goes, 1 Sidewinder
is never enough.
Now obviously this meant, that I had to lug around a massive box, whilst looking at a
Mixman MP3 producer. I’ve actually got my original one of these so no need to grab another.
Especially as the rubber on the decks starts to perish on most of them.
Another stall had an interesting box of old VGA splitters. I’ve got enough, but these
ones still look pretty cool. Plus there were a load of empty alcohol bottles nearby. Someone
had a great evening of Drambuie and splitting VGA signals.
Look at that chunky 90s kids skateboard. Man, I miss those horrendously bulky things. With
their garish under board designs. Anyway, it’s at this point, I dump the box in the
car and continue forth.
Load of keyboards here, a number of small boxed PC games and DVDs. This stall had a
Victorian Poor Girl outfit. Seemed a bit wrong, somehow.
I don’t know why, but I’m always drawn in by these old metal filing cabinets. Something
about 70s office organisation just speaks to me on a deep level.
This also speaks to me on a deep level…. a bone chilling level of abject horror.
L@@K at this Hexafun fish tank. We had the exact same model in my parents house. Spooky
the fish lived in it, and I might add to the age of 23. Which is insane for a fish, but
happens more than you might think, and no, it didn’t die and get replaced by my parents.
Well, unless my parents brutally removed the exact same missing scales on each new fish
they bought. Absolute fiends.
There’s a lot of these photo printers about. They popped up around 2005, and for a while
it seemed like every man and his mother had one. Before everyone realised how much they
charged for replacement ink, at least. Oh, and these portable fans, they were a huge
craze back in the early 90s, although this one is clearly older than that.
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Now you might not fancy selling hand fans, but how do you feel about having an integrated
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Man, I love seeing old shop branded stuff. A Boots 2400 Round Slide Magazine. With room
on the back to list the slides. Very cool. Also cool is this old record deck with built
in cassette player. If I had the space, I’d probably have grabbed this, just for this
raw, unashamed clunky design.
Look at this stuff. I don’t even want to know what half of this stuff is. There are
literally dolls decomposing in some of these boxes. It’s like some kind of voodoo spirit
or something.
A lone copy of Brian Lara Cricket for the Mega Drive. Some more Wii stuff, a few PS1
games in a box.. meh. Honestly, it was feeling a bit like slim pickings here today.
These bags of broken Xbox 360s really sum up my feelings. There was an original XBox
Crystal edition, near an Ajax Pong Machine. AJAX? Don’t they make kitchen cleaner? Anyway,
the Cyrstal; The guy wanted £40 for it with a controller, and that was tempting. But honestly,
it looked pretty rusted up, and who knows if it works or not. So a pass on that one.
Look, here’s another terrifying floor fiend. Anyway, with that, I felt like we were done
with Arminghall. But more glory awaited, BECAUSE, a nearby village, Poringland, were doing a
village garage sale. This is pretty cool. So any residents who wanted to take part,
paid a small fee that went to charity, and then they’d appear on this map. Armed with
this map, you can then drive or walk from house to house, seeing what wares had been
turfed out of their houses and garages. Now, the only problem was, there were about 80
houses here, and they took about 4 hours to get around.
Things got off to a good looking start though. This house had an old Microsoft keyboard with
a roller scrolly thing. Interesting. Also a VHS tape, and a load of games. I got the
feeling though, that someone had been here before me. A retro hoarding foe, and that
was confirmed on the Facebook community post I saw later on. That keyboard, certainly wasn’t
there when I arrived. Dammit.
It seemed to be a whole family affair for this house, which y’know. It’s nice. Now,
although I hadn’t grabbed any Wii stuff from the car boot, for some reason, I felt
compelled to buy this Wii, for the bargain price of £17. It included the games, although
not the games depicted on the case. Actually, they were better games, but I’ll show you
what they were later.
You know, there was something quite warming about this village treasure hunt. It felt
like the whole community were getting out for a social endeavour. FILING CABINET. It
was quite nice just exploring the village, going from place to place, like a terrible
episode of Challenge Aneka.
Some houses were just selling stuff straight from the garage, which was interesting. I
thought this bag might contain a laptop, but it was a pretty well specc’d car cleaning
kit. Not bad for a fiver.
Obviously, a lot of people were just selling their kid’s old toys, books, clothing, so
some houses required a literal, very slow drive-by, just to suss out what was on offer.
Which probably looked a bit odd. Just the owner, watching me slowly driving past, staring.
But that was more difficult for houses at the end of a culdersack. Kinda felt obliged
to at least get out of the car and have a gander for those ones, before turning around
in their drive.
Had a nice chat with this chap, about 90s desk lamps, before driving about 3 seconds
further down the road and looking at some McDonald’s Marios. Honestly, if I was more
organised, I would have walked this entire thing. Despite the route covering a huge area.
But the pack away time of 3pm, was fast approaching.
This is the same phone my parents had in the 90s. It felt so advanced over our previous
phone, because it had a secrecy button. That honestly felt like the height of phone technology
in like, 1990.
The woman at this house tried to sell me her old inkjet, even though the rollers weren’t
working, mainly because she didn’t want to bin it, and honestly, I admire that, because
most people just chuck these huge lumps away, and that’s such a horrendous waste. Just
because it’s so cheap to buy a new one. Humans are just doomed if we carry on with
our disdain for our environment.
This house had some comics, and old Dell flat panel, a Gamecube memory card. You know. Nothing
really worth grabbing, and that felt fairly consistent across the houses. For my needs
at least. Probably why I grabbed this haul of Simpson’s figures. Dunno, just appealed
to me, on a 90s aesthetic level.
Wooooah, look at this old Tiger comic, and this telephone directory. Even these tobacco
tins feel nostalgic. Mainly because my dad had a similar beaten up box in the 90s.
Right across the other side of the village, there was a house, tucked away giving away
some interesting bits. A parallel switch box and a USB switch were the most compelling.
You know, could be useful.
Just LOOK at this massive light up Volvo sign. Man, if I had the space, I’d hang this on
the wall just for the sake of it. But I don’t. So it sadly remained where it was.
Now this was amusing. Most of the houses were using balloons to indicate they were part
of the village garage trail. So when I saw balloons on a post, I followed them. Seemed
a bit odd, as they led me directly into someone’s back garden, especially as there was nothing
there. Like a trap. Turned out, it was for their daughter’s birthday party. The guy
came out, and he was like, what are you doing? But then realising he had an opportunity to
sell some stuff, starting asking me what I was looking for. Sadly no vintage electronics
here, so onto the next.
An empty dell laptop bag for a quid. Mehh. This guy, whatever he is. AN original Stylophone
for a tenner. Yes please. The guy actually had the outer box for it, but took it off,
because people were getting offended by Rolf Harris… and honestly, I can totally understand
that. I used to be a member of this guy’s cartoon club for christ’s sake. If you want
to know who Rolf Harris, or what he did, I’ll just let you google that yourself.
This place enticed me in with Soya milk on a nearby table, and then actually offered
me a cup of tea. But I was after this pink Nintendo DS. Dunno, noughties consoles have
grown on me recently. I mean, we are talking like 17 years since they came out now. That’s
getting on a bit. Also, there were a few curious games there. So, yep, I’ll take that for
£20, thank you kindly.
Now this lass had a variety of more DS games, VHS tapes and, well, urm, Apple stickers.
I grabbed a few bits. She was really friendly, and actually one of the last people to still
have their “stall” open, as it was now about 3pm. Also, very much on the boundary
of the village, so didn’t get as much footfall as the houses deeper in the village.
I guess that’s why we have car-boot sales. Everything is together, and easier to get
round, despite the huge crowds of people. But this village garage sale, it was actually
really enjoyable. Good way to get out, chat to locals, find some bargains, and get back
into the thrifting spirit.
Which leaves us with the haul for this epsiode.
So not here is the Fender Squire Guitar, which cost £100, with amp and stand. But that’s
not mine. So the total spend otherwise was a brisk £79.
£6 for that Sidewinder, £10 for these Simpsons characters, which are from a 25 piece collectors
set from about 2006. The £17 Wii, which came with steering wheels, a microphone, loads
of connectors and these games, which are actually Mario Kart and Sonic & Mario Olympics, so
that’s nice. Also there’s a dinosaur book I bought for Octavius, for 50p.
Then there’s all these DS games. Most of which came with the £20 hot pink DS, apart
from Mystery Case files, which was 50p. Those connectors were free. Then of course, the
Stylophone for £10, including an an accompanying book.
That Handbook of chemistry and physics just looked cool, and that was £5, same for the
VHS tapes.
And of course, there’s this car cleaning kit, which is unused, and for a fiver, a bargain.
I can use it to clean my Renault 19.
So there we are. The first post lockdown thrifting session. Who knows where the next thrifting
session will take us. But until then, thanks for joining me; I’ve been Nostalgia Nerd.