Man, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these! In fact, it’s been five years and 16 days, to be exact. Here’s the deal, for any newcomers: Back on the old timeline, I had a regular feature where I showed off stuff I’d gotten at the thrift store recently. Those were golden days, before the resellers took over, and you could actually find amazing stuff. Hell, I once found a carded GoBots figure at a Goodwill, and the Goodwills in my county aren’t even allowed to sell toys! I don’t know where it came from, but it was like it was just waiting for me, and I flipped that bad boy like it was a methed up gymnast!
I had good run of a few years, but then the goodies dried up. Everyone in the thrift store was walking down the aisle, scrolling the eBay app on their phones. Everyone in the book aisle had a handheld scanner, and they weren’t even trying to be discreet about it. The days of milk and honey were over. Sure, I’d continue to thrift, but more recently I was documenting my finds over on TikTok, as that felt like a better medium for that sort of content. I’m on an indefinite hiatus from that app right now, though, and I had an experience last week that I really wanted to share.
We all know that brick & mortar retail took a hit during Covid, but we rarely talk about what happened when things started to “return to normal”. A lot of stores went out of business, leaving a bunch of vacant retail space. Since you can’t have Spirit Halloween all year long, landlords got creative, and a new type of business started filling these spaces: The Amazon Resale Store concept. These stores purported to be stocked with Amazon returns that still had life in them, but couldn’t be sold by Amazon, for whatever reason. Maybe the package was all torn up, or the power cord was missing. Similar to the Goodwill “bin” stores, where you dig through bins and pay by the pound, there were no bells and whistles to these Amazon stores. They would set up in large vacant spaces that would also double as likely locations to find murder victims. Cinderblock walls and oppressive florescent lighting. But you’re not there for the ambience. You’re there for the GOODS.
I never set foot in one of these stores, but learned about them from the aforementioned TikTok. Here’s how they worked: They would add new stock on Wednesday, where everything was priced at, say, $20. That price would go down incrementally each day, until they were practically giving that stuff away by the next Tuesday. Then, they’d restock Wednesday and the cycle repeated. So, the same way Overstock.com used to claim you could get a Nintendo Wii for $20, these stores sold the promise that you could get great stuff cheap, but you never knew what you might find. Similar to the lottery, you had to be “in it to win it”, but these videos always made these places look shady, run by shady proprietors. Well, I guess they either weren’t sustainable, or there were simply too many murders, but it seems that business model is dead. With landlords needing to, once again, fill this space, it appears the world is reverting to thrift stores. Thrift stores as far as the eye can see! Last week, I found one of these baby thrifts, which was a former Amazon resale store now called Red, White and Blue Thrift. It’s ironic, because no one in there was an American citizen!
Since the Savers chain has pretty much taken thrifting corporate, I had forgotten how things used to be in the late 2000s. It was a lawless world, with handwritten signage, and used shopping carts that had clearly been acquired from some recently departed big box store. This is the kind of store where you never know what you might find, as they don’t know what they have. The corporate stores started putting moles in the FB groups, so they’d know which hot items they needed to jack the price up on. This low-level store, however, couldn’t care less. They’re all about fast turnover and replenishment. The final thrifting frontier! Having recently been a shady Amazon resale, though, meant that not everything was “above board”, as I discovered something that blew my mind: This store, that opened in the Year of our Lord 2025, was CASH ONLY! And since it was located in an industrial area without a Capital One nearby, it meant I fell victim to the random unbranded ATM that probably traded all my information on the Dark Web. It’s normal to pay a $9.00 transaction fee, right? I’m, um, asking for a friend…
Anyway, I went straight to the Books & Media section, as I am wont to do. The books sucked, as it was nothing but the usual suspects of Raina Telgemeier’s Smile and a worn copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. Out of the corner of my eye, on a wall display, I saw comics! After shuffling through the rack, here’s what I found:
I’ve been on a Chip Zdarsky kick lately, so I was surprised to find these first two volumes of his Howard the Duck series from a few years back. The most notable thing about this run is that Gwenpool made her debut in this series, and I think I already own these issues in the Gwenpool Omnibus. Plus, I own the single issues. But these trade paperbacks were each cheaper than one modern comic book! I HAD to buy them. I might just save them up for my next Facebook Marketplace lot sale.
Next up, we’ve got these two Dawn specials from Wizard: The Guide To Comics. I’m gonna be honest: I was never a Dawn fan. I feel like Joseph-Michael Linsner was one of the first of those “hot artists” who learned how to draw one attractive woman, and spent the rest of his career drawing that same woman in different outfits. I did appreciate that he always drew Dawn like a “real woman”, in that she kinda had a little pooch, like she’d had a kid or something. Anyway, I got these for 2 reasons, really: 1) I love old Wizard pack-in comics, especially since my Remember That Show? cohost Adam mentions them regularly on his Wizards: The Podcast Guide To Comics podcast and 2) I’ve got another friend, whom I won’t name, who used to hate Linsner. Some kind of old vendetta. Hated even seeing the guy’s name. However, they recently became friends. Now, he acts like he never cursed the ground this guy walked on. Go figure!
Speaking of guys who’ve spent their entire career drawing the same woman, I give you two covers by J. Scott Campbell. Even I was surprised I grabbed these, as I have sort of gone out of my way not to spend money on that guy in recent years. He was occasionally a douchenozzle to me over on Twitter, and it was over some nonsense. But I’m petty and I hold grudges. That’s why I bought every Ultimate Spider-Man #1 variant cover except his. I mean, I ended up losing in the end, but “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. That said, I’ve recently started collecting all the lesser known Danger Girl follow-up miniseries, so it’s sort of hard to avoid him, seeing as how that series was his creator-owned book.
Whenever you ask yourself “Who bought this Bad Girl crap?” just know that the answer is “Will West”. I was, like, 13 when this stuff came out, so they knew what they were doing. But I had standards. I wasn’t buying it just because Boobs. I wasn’t buying those Marvel Swimsuit Specials. No, I fell for their poorly thought-out, contrived plots. Whether they were ninja nuns or police ladies who wielded medieval death weapons, I was a sucker for them. It also helped that some of the best artists of the time cut their teeth on those books. I was picking up early Witchblade because of Michael Turner. And I always had a fascination with Aphrodite IX, as I had a The Women of Top Cow poster in college (I hate admitting I was That Guy), and that was back when she was still called “Sexbot” (SO glad they changed that before her comic shipped). Anyway, in 20 years I still haven’t ever read her story, though I know she’s an assassin or something. Those Top Cow guys loved drawing big ass guns! So, I couldn’t pass up a Wizard World edition of the first issue!
Did y’all know this was a thing?! I’m a huge fan of TV tie-in comics, and I’ve always been curious about Alien Nation. I remember the old Fox promos, about how they got drunk on spoiled milk, but I never really knew much more than that. I recently discovered The Retroist Podcast, and one of the episodes I listened to was all about the Alien Nation movie and TV show. I didn’t even know there was a movie! This seems to focus on the movie incarnation, and crosses it over with Planet of the Apes?! There’s no way I’ll ever find the rest of this miniseries “in the wild”, but I’m fine with just having this first issue of the series.
As far as comics go, this was the find of the day! This isn’t a facsimile, but rather the original first issue of the 70s Marvel Godzilla series. This isn’t an expensive book, as you can get a copy for about $20, but it’s still such a weird thing to find in a thrift store these days. At any Savers store, you’re likely to find a bunch of old Free Comic Book Day books, where the store savages have slapped a price sticker right on the bare cover. But there’s a lot of heat on this series lately, as not only did Marvel publish a facsimile edition, but there’s also a new Godzilla vs Avengers comic coming from writer David Walker later this year. I’m really glad to add this to my collection, and for only $1.99!
So, another project I had going over on TikTok was documenting my quest to upgrade all of my DVDs to Blu-ray. I actually put quite a dent in things over the course of a year, and now I’m down to weird stuff that either doesn’t have an official Blu release or you sort of hope you just stumble upon it as it’s not worth paying the shipping to get it from eBay. Al Pacino’s 88 Minutes was one such movie. I grabbed the Harry Potter set because it’s rare to find that on Blu at the thrift, and for only $3.99?! I’m sure I’ll flip it, but some things simply can’t be left behind.
Finally, this one caught me by surprise when I noticed it still had the original instruction sheet. This is the Power Rangers Turbo Deluxe Robo Racer, which is a toy I’ve already owned for roughly 27 years. This one was priced at $5.99, and I realized I could make 4 times that just by selling the accessories you see in the picture. It was a risky gamble, however, as it’s got electronics and we weren’t so great about removing batteries back then – especially if it required a screwdriver. So, I had no clue what that battery compartment was going to look like after all that time.
Yeah… Not looking good for the home team. I’m happy to announce, though, that there was no damage to the contacts, and popping a new pair of AAAs in there fired up the lights and sounds like it was 1997 all over again. The car is missing the flip-up light portion of the lightbar, but it’s not really noticeable unless you’re looking for it. I’m hoping this little guy ends up paying for the entire shopping trip.
So, there ya have it. When I first started doing these posts, over a decade ago, I felt like each one of them had to be a “humdinger” – something to make you think “Wow! They have THAT at thrift stores?!” But that’s not how life works. I mean, it worked that way for a while, but things change. So, maybe these will just end up being “slice of life” posts. Some might amaze you, while others will make you think “Hey, my thrift stores are also drowning in Band of Brothers DVD sets!” Either way, it was nice to get a glimpse of the Before Times, even though I know this particular building might end up being an automotive chop shop by Thanksgiving. I guess time will tell.
