19 replies to this topic

[OneAngryDwrf]

Greetings all!

I haven't post much in a while, but I thought I'd share a pretty amazing find I came across this morning. I went to the local Flea Market this morning, and as I was wandering through I came across a lot with some miscellaneous items and toys. Among the items, there was a beat up old Playmates Classic Enterprise. This was perfect for I have been hoping to run across one for cheap, because I aim to see if the nacelle endcaps could be modified to fit on a DST/AA Classic 1701. More on that later. What I did not notice at first glance was the box directly behind the Classic E. To my amazement, he had a U.S.S. Voyager still mint in the box! I asked the gentleman how much he wanted for both, and he sold them to me for $10.00. So, basically, I scored an in box Voyager for five dollars. I could not believe my luck! I checked the try me buttons, and it still makes it's noises. Voyager seems to have never been removed, the twist ties are still in place. As far as I can tell the tape is still in tact, though I have not inspected it real thoroughly. In any case, I am thrilled with this find, and just had to share with my fellow Trek nuts. It just goes to show, you never know what you'll run into!



TKO the OAD

[JMW326]

Congrats on find. That is awesome.

[The_Donster]

Awesome find OAD and nice to see you are still around

[FHC]

AH yeah, that is a great find!!

[startrekfiero]

Wow!! That is the stuff dreams are made of

[FHC]

I had a guy tell me that he found a Mego Romulan at a flee market about 15 years ago for like a dollar.

[reverie]

Very cool! Flea markets can hide many good things for great prices. I think the best I found was a complete DS9 (opened though, but still with the box) for somewhere around $10.

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

I love finding awesome deals on items i covet like that , it almost makes me feel bad for spending so little on the said items, almost.

[reverie]

... it almost makes me feel bad for spending so little on the said items, almost.

Never!

[e236]

Awesome find...flea markets are great! I've scored some pretty good toy stuff myself at those.

[andorian_fan]

That is awesome! The only good find like that I've ever come across was an in-box Mega Blocks 1701-D at Salvation Army for $10. it was missing a few pieces, but I didn't know that until I got it home and tried to put it together.

[skeletor]

All I can find in flea markets is a horrible stench and used beat up toys lol.
Sometimes I find an occasional record album I like but that's it.

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

I've happened across some some cool Star Trek items at antique stores a time or two,but unfortunately it was when i was broke . So I just looked all the new off the items .

[VulcanFanatic]

Finding good stuff at reasonable prices at flea markets and yard sales is few and far between. Ebay is a much better bet, i have been singing its praises since 2002 when i joined it. Before that time i had scoured flea markets and yard sales for years with a good find once in a great while, but mostly hours and hours of time and gas wasted and a lot of disappointment. Ebay is far and above more superior with the ability to find something you want every time you visit, unlike the worn out, smelly, stenchridden, crappy, overpriced junk i have seen at flea markets i have been to in the last couple of years.

[Tiberius]

and Pre eBay, you had to assume you were getting the best deal from said fleamarket. Who knew what the real value might be, unless you had other means, but that could mean they had the same advantage too...
Or maybe that was in the non US countries, like Canada...

[VulcanFanatic]

You definitely need to do your homework before shopping for collectibles at a flea market, yard sale, or even ebay. I have seen sellers that price what is about one step away from just being trash or junk because its worn out, broken, missing peices or faded and stained and they price it like its the Holy Grail. Some sellers are either very badly misinformed about the items value, or they are consumed with greed and think they can get a premium price for something that very bad shape and not worth a tenth of what they are asking for.

[FHC]

The other day I saw the complete set of Babylon Five figures (the 9" I think) at a flee market. They were more then cheap enough but I didn't have enough for the entire set. I was bumming.

[Andy]

I almost walked out of the greatest flea market find - I was at the flea market in the Meadowlands with my mom when we ran into my aunt and cousin. We were talking to them and they said the saw some giant Trek posters - I was in an off Trek period at that point, and wasn

[Alex]

OAD, it's good to see you here again man. I'd certainly say that for Playmates Trek, a sealed Voyager certainly qualifies as the "holy grail," and a sealed Voyager for $10.00 even moreso. Everytime I go questing for that ship on eBay or through other second hand sellers it seems like the thing has another $100 attached to it, and the box is potentially ripped/torn or otherwise damaged. I still think DST needs to take a crack at the U.S.S. Voyager so that those of us who can't afford a $300-500+ dollar toy can get our hands on one again, but I have to say that the Playmates ship was certainly a lot of fun, and I wish I still had one that was sealed. In any case, congratulations on your find, it's certainly a rare one. If that ship was sealed, you got the kind of deal that the Ferengi dream about.

Oh, and it's quite possible to find something that's rare, useful, or otherwise worth the asking price at a flea market. However, as it's been noted, such finds may be uncommon depending on A) what you're looking for, what others are selling, and C) what has already been sold, and D) whether or not the people who are selling things are selling the type of thing that you're looking for. eBay is admittedly a mixed blessing; on one hand it's made certain collectibles and other items more readily accessible, but on the other hand, it's also driven down the value of said collectibles. Likewise, some sellers don't package items as well as they could (and probably should,) for shipping, and damage can occur while the item is in transit. Of course, eBay has made things easier for most if not all of us, and finding great deals isn't that difficult, but there are some things you can do at a flea market that you can't do on eBay, such as inspecting the actual item that you'll receive, and know that the item you're inspecting is the one you'll receive. Some unscrupulous sellers will "bait and switch" their photos, others will purposely not photograph the one flaw that an item has, especially if it's a significant one, and some cram items into packaging that's just too small for the aforementioned item. Again, not all sellers are like this, and some of these issues (such as using a box that's on the small side,) are honest mistakes, but others aren't. I'm not saying that eBay is entirely bad, but it's not entirely good either; there are still some advantages to flea markets, just as there are advantages to eBay.

[JMW326]

It isn't a flea market find but I just scored a KB exclusive 12" Twok Spock on Ebay today for a real bargain. I got outbid on Kirk (so I still need him).