Hitting The 2017 McDonaldHouse Sale

 This line means something...It means I'm insane for the 4 day journey I'm about to embark upon...


Twice a year, the local chapter of the Ronald McDonaldHouse runs a 4 day donation driven charity sale with all proceeds going to helping local families in need. It's a great opportunity to help those less fortunate as well as a nice opportunity to pick up some good items to add to your pop culture collection. The sale takes place in a giant warehouse and is divided into multiple departments from clothes to jewelry to furniture to toys to movies and everything in between. And I do mean EVERYTHING.





But to get to the sale, you have to walk through that legendary hallway. It's a good two minute walk, but until you walk into that sale, it feels like the longest two minutes of your life.


Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Be prepared to do a LOT of walking around. Everytime I've hit this sale, I've discovered new nooks and crannies that I find some cool stuff, which I dig, because next show, it usually leads to new spots to look for treasures. This time, I found a spot that included old camcorders and filming equipment. I've been on the hunt for a HI-8 camera to convert my old tapes, so maybe next time I'll find one...


Before I continue, let's address the cult hero of the Sale: The Halloween Room. I've written about it before and it's just as great as you can imagine. For Halloween fanatics, it's a breath of fresh air. Oh sure, Halloween will spring up everywhere in two months, but some of us need our fix of everything Pumpkin-y.

Yowza! Looks like the room was relegated to the larger items and the rest of the decorations were given their own table all the way in the corner of the holiday section. I'm ok with this. More Halloween the better! Besides, who's gonna complain when they're staring Halloween goodness. I can't describe the feeling of seeing all this stuff in one spot. It's a nice warmup for what we can expect to see come August/September.




There's also a massive toy section in which it's not uncommon to find some good action figures from time to time. Mainly a lot of superhero toys, McDonalds toys, My Little Pony knockoffs and lots of Rescue Heroes. Of course, then there's the occasional toy line being misspelled...last time it was "Monsters of The Universe". This time...

NINGA TURTLES.


Well, I mean, no one's perfect. Besides, I've littered this blog with numerous typos, who am I to judge?


Ok, let's get to the fun part. Time to check out the goods I walked away with:


CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY:

Whew. Not the biggest book collector, but I know something awesome when I find it. From what I'm told by some of my friends who are book experts is that while it's a first print edition. Well, one of the first prints. Apparently, a couple of editions were printed in this time frame and thankfully, this book is one of them. So I'm very happy to hear that!

And yes, it includes the depiction of the Oompa Loompa in a very offensive manner, which I don't think would be the best in taste to post.



BATMAN THE OFFICIAL MOVIE BOOK:



I'm a big time Batman 89 collector and I can honestly say I've never seen this out in the wild before. It was just sitting all alone on the bottom of a book shelf while other shoppers were looking at Goosebumps books. I shamelessly swooped in and grabbed it. It had to be mine. It's a hardcover book featuring great colored photos of the cast and scenes from the movie as well as pre production art, designs and concepts for characters, vehicles and Gotham. It's a fantastic piece to my collection.


BACK TO THE FUTURE LUNCHBOX:



Last year, I found a Robocop lunchbox and now I find THIS! Of all the lunchboxes of my youth, I'm very surprised I don't recall this one. I went to school with a lot of kids who loved BTTF but I don't remember seeing any sitting on the lunch tables. It's a pretty basic design, but what else do you need? Sure Marty riding his hoverboard would've been cool, but you can't truly get criticize any BTTF merch from that era considering it was so few and far between. Totally loving this.


WATCHES:



Out of all my finds, these were by far my favorite. I'm not a watch collector but there's no way I wasn't walking away without these. The Batman watch was very clearly going to end up in my collection one way or the either. I'm a big fan of not just Batman 89 merch but anything from that era, and this seems to be from Batman Returns, which was even crazier of a merchandising bonanza if you can imagine it. According to my research, there were also Penguin and Catwoman watches, which now I have to keep my eye open for those as well.

 That Garfield watch is pretty incredible and just sums up the greatness of what was the Garfield merchandising machine int he 80s/90s. Who wouldn't wear a orange and spotted band? Oh and that face:


 The true champion of this haul? Those Dick Tracy watches!!! I'm go more into detail later, as I have a lot to say about these, but I cannot tell you how excited I was to find these. I've seen them go for anywhere between 15-25 bucks so to pick them up for only $3 each, was an easy decision.

Oh yes, not only did the lovely ladies manning the jewelry table sell me these great watches, but they threw these in as well...

NINJA TURTLE LUNCHBAGS!!!! WHAT?!?!?! THESE ARE AMAZING!


Ok, maybe my level of excitement for the lunchbags equaled the Dick Tracy watches. All I'm missing is something WWF-related from the early 90s and I would be directly in first grade again...


PEANUTS BOOK AND RANDOM TOYS:

This was all my fiancee's doing. On top of finding Pyrex (of which she has a very unhealthy obsession with) she also did some awesome digging around the toy and book section. She went to the Sale after work and picked up some random toys for eBay and an awesome Peanuts coffee table book for me. Also of note, she found the last McNugget buddy I needed to complete my collection. So there's that. True love, fam.


COOL RANDOM ITEMS:



A 90210 puzzle, two Batman Forever mugs and a Twinkie The Kid container were more on the random side of my finds. Alone, they come in handy for their respective purposes, but combined, they present they become a full on party. I could totally have some friends over, pour drinks int he mugs, put on a puppet show with Twinkie The Kid and we could put together that puzzle. Not a bad deal at all! Also, I'm sure if the power goes out and I'm in desperate need for entertainment, I'm sure I won't stay bored for long...

VHS AND DVD:


I'm always walking away with a massive amount of vhs. Some rare, some not. But the first vhs I locked eyes on was that Rad tape, a very sought after tape by collectors due to the fact that Rad has yet to be released on any medium after vhs. The rest of the haul was great but it's all garnish compared to the tale of Cru Jones and his Rad-ness.


So I'm sure wondering about that box. Well, ont he last day, you're given a small box and told to fill it up as much as you can for $3. Well, I went through about 4 boxes just of movies and records. The rest of the haul, is quite mighty....

I know what you're thinking: "Two copies of Constantine?" Well, truth is, I just grabbed any and all movies I could, so I'm sure it's not the only movie I'd be laughed at for picking up. I proudly admit that I am very happy with finding that unopened copy of Young Guns!

At 12 bucks, I found more movies than I have room for. I may have gone a bit overboard...But it's still all going to a great cause, so...I can justify that way right?

Right.


This years sale was it's most massive to date. The rumor is that it could very well be the last year at this particular location. I've grown to love this spot and the charm of all the departments and random corners it contains, but you gotta get bigger and better. If the rumor was true, I would love to see the next place it calls home next year.One thing's for certain, I would miss that hallway.


If they do move, I certainly hope I get to see this talking Urkel dolls for a ridiculous price tag of $40 again. As laughable as it was, I can't say I'd be shocked if *someone* bought him...

So stay tuned, there's a lot of great flea markets and thrifting adventures to come in the next few months! It's summer, so that can only mean MORE AWESOME FINDS!


-Chad






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