I just paid $3 for a $600, 50m (165ft), Corning USB 3.Optical Cable at a fleamarket! What crazy things have you found? :)

[Northstorm]

 

So, today on one of my many flea-market escapades, I came across a big box of assorted cables, there was all your standard things, DVI cables, VGA cables, power cords, SATA cables etc., but just as I was getting to the end, a strange USB connector peaked out at the bottom of the box, and I immediately recognised it from Linus' video from a few years back, I dug down to the bottom of the case in a rush, only to realise, that the cable was still on the spool, and that it had never been unwound from said spool, after inspecting it a bit more, it turns out to be the 50 meter version (165ft) which at the time of release was priced at just over $600. 

So, now I have a 50 meter optical USB 3 cable, that I'm not quite sure what to do with, but I'm just stoked to get a chance to see it in real life! 

While this might not be my biggest or craziest "find" ever, it surely is one of the coolest!

What crazy and off finds have you guys made in unexpected places? (Flea-markets, Dumpster-diving, junkyards etc.) 

 

[ARikozuM]

Wood planer, drill press, metal press, and a miter+table saw for $500. 

[Northstorm]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

Wood planer, drill press, metal press, and a miter+table saw for $500. 

Awesome! We got our house about 8 months ago now, and I've been looking for tools to kit out the workshop (garage) since then, and finally found a drill-press today, it's in really rough shape, but some TLC and oil and it will be right as rain

But I'd kill for a good miter that could do metal!

[kaiju_wars]

Some of the more pricey Wii U games 

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Wii Sports Club, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD, and Mario Sonic at the 2016 Olympic Games.  These are usually priced $40 plus still for the Wii U.  GameStop was having their buy 1 get 1 free on Wii U and back titles during the holidays, I found all four in my local GameStop.

[Letgomyleghoe]

13 minutes ago, Northstorm said:

Awesome! We got our house about 8 months ago now, and I've been looking for tools to kit out the workshop (garage) since then, and finally found a drill-press today, it's in really rough shape, but some TLC and oil and it will be right as rain

But I'd kill for a good miter that could do metal!

Most drills can punch through metal, it just takes alot longer.

 

I've been using a hobo freight drill press for knife tangs forever.

[Northstorm]

1 minute ago, scuff gang said:

Most drills can punch through metal, it just takes alot longer.

 

I've been using a hobo freight drill press for knife tangs forever.

Oh you misunderstand, I want a MITER for steel

 

12 minutes ago, kaiju_wars said:

Some of the more pricey Wii U games 

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Wii Sports Club, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD, and Mario Sonic at the 2016 Olympic Games.  These are usually priced $40 plus still for the Wii U.  GameStop was having their buy 1 get 1 free on Wii U and back titles during the holidays, I found all four in my local GameStop.

Oh that's good too, still need to get BotW for our switch, haven't played it yet

[Crunchy Dragon]

Quite a few gems, most of them being 4th Gen Core i5 and a one or two Core i7 CPUs.

• Every now and then, something like an HP X79 dual-socket workstation showed up.
• Some DDR4 memory.
• Bondi Blue iMac G3
• Pentium III + 3DFX VooDoo 3 desktop

All of these came from scrapyards.

[Semper]

Nothing tech related for me, generally not the kind of stuff I'm able to find at flea markets (with the exception Of "Game Station 4" "premium" quality entertainment centers, or thereabouts, but I have found a sizeable number of of vintage drill presses in various states of decay (all the ones I tend to pick up need significant restoration just to be functional again) ranging anywhere from $15-45. Fix 'em up, restore them to great function, give them some new paint and flip them on eBay or Craigslist for usually somewhere around $500.

One in particular I don't think I'll ever bring myself to part with. It's a 1942 Craftsman press that, as best I can tell dates back to a 1942 Sears catalog (earliest date, anyway) when they still had Dunlap motors. picked it up for $50, and going rate for restored models is anywhere between $500-$700 depending on how much of it is original. The motor on her is a bust, and I'm struggling to find a period correct replacement within a reasonable price. I believe it's the same model that my grandfather had when I was young (and if not, it looks very similar), and I was always fascinated by it. I always wanted to see him make stuff with it, wanted to play with it. It's one of the things he wasn't able to pass on to me, he sold it to a neighbor (who's since moved away) before I reached my teenage years.

[AlexOak]

32GB DDR4 2133mhz for $100(50 each) since it was a set of 16gb.

[mr moose]

Kawasaki Pneumatic riveter for $35.

 

 

[X-System]

Quantum LTO4 HH SAS, looks new, for 85 € on eBay 9 years ago, the value was about 2000 €. It was returned from RMA but the previous customer changed the opinion and did not want it, so the professional reseller put it back on sale.

 

And it worked perfect for 9 years before I sold it.

[minibois]

My best find will still be that one time I saw someone unpacking, asked if they had games, first come the FIFA and such games for the Wii.

 

Then a DS cover came out of the bag. They handed it to me and I felt it had some heft to it. Turned out to be a 3DS. 

After that they also unpacked some games. Couple of first party games (Mario Kart, 3D Land, Donkey Kong and two more I forgot about now).

 

The grand total price? 3DS for 5 euros. Games for 1 Euro a piece.

Absolutely brilliant.

After that I thanked the seller, wished them a great day and went on my way. The best thing? 3 minutes later I was just waiting on someone else I was with and while standing around, one of the sellers came up to me and said "Sorry, we forgot to give this" and he gave me the charger.

 

That will still be my best find I would say.

The only thing that comes somewhat close in my mind is that one time I found two GameBoy Color handhelds, for 3 Euros together. One did not have the battery cover and the other one did. The condition seemed alright, if you looked under the dirt I guess.

The yellow one worked fine, the green one required a (pretty simple) fix.

Currently I  have three of the main six GameBoy Color variants, looking to finish the set some time.

 

P.S. I am not in the business of ripping people off, but the 3DS did not have a charge on it at all, so I was taking a substantial risk of it just not working. So it felt fair. It did work though

[wasab]

I brought a mansion for $2

[Curious Pineapple]

Found a machine in the bin last year, got it out this weekend to use it as a server and found it has a 1.5TB drive in it.

[Stormfront Tech]

Found a random I7 8th gen still in the box under a seller's table where someone had knocked it off.

 

I asked how much for this? The guy looked at at and said "eh doesn't look to nice, 10 bucks".

 

Bought it took it home and tested, it worked

 

[SaltyBoi]

My favorite one was an Asus 1440p monitor worth about 650 at the time advertised as an "open box" item on ebay. Took my chance and bought it for 350 USD. When I received it, it had never been open.