Thought I would share a picture of my twisty puzzle finds after vistiting every car boot fair I could locate within 15 miles of me over the weekend :



I paid £1.50 for the sealed Rubik's cube, everything else was £1 or less (with the real bargains being the sealed Pyraminx, Square-1 and World Orb all at 50p). I actually paid 25p more for the unsealed Orb.

The cubes in the bottom right are a Merrill Lynch (Rubiks Promotions) and a Mercedes Benz cube. Those in the top left are a Harry Potter 2x2 and a generic metallic/glitter cube.

My personal highlights were the black Tower of Babylon, sealed Square-1 and Merrill Lynch careers cube.

I also found around a dozen other non-twisty puzzles all for under a £1 so it was a pretty successful weekend (though not as good as it would have been in San Francisco )

Steve

Nice job! I'm jealous! I've searched every flea market and yard sale, and the only thing I ever found was a Chex Cube!!

I love the appearance of the World Orb puzzle but my parents don't like car boot sales so I doubt I'll get one for 50p .

Alex

Calzone, thanks - it was a particularly good trip (hence my gloating! )

Alex, assuming you are in the UK, car boots can be a great place to get cheap puzzles. There don't seem to be that many at each boot fair but strangely (!) competition to buy them is not usually that fierce. Persuading your parents to take you should be easy, first thing to do is wake them at 6am on a weekend!

Steve

I regularly visit 2 car boot sales, both within about 10 miles of where I live.

Usually I can't find anything twisty related, but today I bagged a Pyraminx for £2 and an old cube for the huge sum of ...20p

Please excuse my ignorance here, but what exactly is a car boot sale? I have never come across this term before.

As for flea market/garage sale finds, I was able to get an old rubik's cube with half the stickers missing for a nickel. I took them off and ordered some cubesmith chrome stickers for it that are coming in the mail any day now.

^A car boot sale is similar to a garage sale. People find items they no longer use or want and sell them (often in a large field) with other people who do the same. People go around these stalls and buy stuff at very cheap prices. The name 'Car boot' comes from the fact that some people sell them from the boot of their car. Hope I helped.

Congrats on the finds!! I'm going to Grimsby and Cleethorpes this weekend. I'm sure nan will drag me to a couple of car boots and markets. Skegness market is my main hunt, methinks

If I find anything worth posting, I'll post my finds.
Congrats again

Never heard the term before, but it seems to be a flea market. I often visit those to search for puzzles.
But most of the time there are none.
Some Rubik's promotion cubes, a babylon tower and a Rubik's Dice is all I have found so far.



Q

This must be an example of British English because I'd never heard the rear end of a car called a "boot" before.

My car has had a boot since 1986 and a bonnet too. Imagine the look on the face of the mechanic in Germany when I told him he had to get to the engine of my Fiat by going into the boot.

Yeah. I believe it's called a 'trunk' in America (That's what TV shows have taught me) but I don't think ''Car trunk sale'' sounds right at all. I guess you'd simply call it a flea market or jumble sale . I'm not too sure.

Indeed it is a trunk. Though flea markets are the same as a car boot, except there usually is some tables set up by whoever owns the place, and they are rented.

Yeah that's pretty much it, except with Car boots people tend to bring their own tables.

Retr0, car boot sales are rubbish, no one would sell me their car boots (I know, bad joke). No one would sell their tables though either.

Alex

I think I already posted, sorry, but WHat's a 'world orb'? is it just a 2x2x2, or is it something better?

The Orb is simply a 2x2x2

Steve

I went to a car boot sale selling once... I got a rubik's revenge for free XD. Also i Sold a table that broke for £20.

That was a fun day

Rubik's revenge
Trampoline
A 5 bundle of ps2 games

£10 = <3

I once found a rubiks cube at our local car boot sale. I would have bought it (or even just picked it up) but I saw one of the other things they were selling and thought better of it.

I won't say what it was on an open forum, but individuals may PM me if they are desperate to know (it is of an adult nature)!

It always amuses me to see that the King's English still confuses some of the younger or less experienced members of the former colonies.

I've picked up the odd puzzle here and there from flea markets over the years. Nothing spectacular. Although I've yet to find any truly rare pieces.

In our defense, they didn't invent the phrase "car boot" until after we left.

Yeah, and we call it The Queen's English (because we have a Queen, not a king).

Which is better? Being the monarch or being a premiership footballer? Both pay a lot. My point is..........................<.<...........>.>.....err........Who would want to speak Rooney's English?

Back on topic: I need to go to a car boot sale but my parents won't take me .

Alex

What about Frodsham market?

I could take a look but they mainly sell coats, towels and vegetables there.

Thanks anyway.

Alex

I managed to get a blue world orb, from a charity shop for 79p. But that's the only occation I've looked in charity shops for puzzles. I should do it more.

Just picked up some cool stuff from ebay - the world's largest car boot sale??

rubik's clock - 99p
Rubiks XV - £1.99
Rubiks Dice - 99p

all plus pnp less than £3 each.

I think all eBay related purchases belong in this thread.

-Grant

Since eBay isn't the boot of a car I think they definitely don't belong here, but the thread you linked to is specifically for rare items.
These are somewhat in the middle: Not overly rare, but they would be nice to find at a garage sale

I think the rarity of those great prices makes it fit in the other thread more than the items themselves.

Dave

Glad that this thread was brought to my attention...my previous posts in "Packages Just Arrived with Rare Puzzles" about finding the 2 $3 Lockout puzzles at a thrift store belong here, I guess

I found a mint-condition set of wooden puzzles in a second-hand store for 3 bucks.

I found a little kid's 15 puzzle with a penguin on it for $0.29 and a 6-layer missing link for $1 at a thrift store today!
The missing link turns pretty well and everything slides, but the 2nd and 3rd layers won't turn without a lot of force. Why is this, and can I fix it?

Edit:
Now that I've looked at it closely, it looks like the 2nd and 3rd layers on the other side are also supposed to be bandaged... Can anyone confirm this?

Looks like someone made it by sticking two together?

On a regular Missing Link, the "slice" in the middle cannot turn.

I think he means the next from middle slices.

The green maybe turn, but the blue shouldn't turn at all.

I've never seen/had one of these, just a regular missing link, so IDK.

On your diagram, the green do not turn, the blue does, and the ends do.
I'm guessing that it's supposed to be like that based on the fact that the middle slice doesn't turn on a 4 layer.

this is most likely a custom missing link so i think that from which layers turn, this is how it should turn

Customs exist?
And what was one doing at a Winnipeg thrift store!?
How rare is this thing?

http://twistypuzzles.com/cgi-bin/puzzle.cgi?pkey=633
Thats the tallest one i could find in the museum, i have a strong feeling that its custom.

Can't wait for the garage sales in spring/summer

Puzzles found so far at car boots in 2010.

I've largely stopped buying 3x3s unless they are sticker variations I don't already own. In addition to those below I have bought about 15 or 20 other puzzles and puzzling items that are non-twisty types.



Roughly from left to right, top to bottom :

Yoshimoto cube
Boxed (very tatty box) octagonal magic puzzler
Unknown 2x2 Rubik's Magic marked "Made in China Matchbox"
Comemorative 1980's Royal Wedding Cube
Rubiks Revenge
Keychain TFI Fridays cube
Rhombi-Cuboctahedron
Unknown "fruit cube"
Meet the Robinsons promotional cube (not Rubiks)
Boxed Master Edition Rubiks Magic
Unboxed regular Rubik's Magic (hard to spot?)
Boxed pyraminx (would like to know which version this is)
Rubik's 360 (appears original)

I've paid a total of £7.10 (about $11) for all of these (the boxed Master Magic was most expensive at £2), which I'm pretty sure has been a good deal. I've no idea what these would have cost on Ebay, any guesses/suggestions of total value? Of course, £7.10 doesn't include the 50p entrance fees, petrol money and the odd unhealthy snack from a burger van!

Steve

Found this at the thrift store yesterday, after not finding anything good for months!

This remind anyone of siamese pokeballs?

Intrigued by Steveo's post, I visited the same store shortly after his find. I have been there before and they usually have interesting puzzles (in the past, I have found Lockouts, Rubik's Race). I was there recently and found a Gripple. The result was encouraging: Pocket Simon from Milton Bradley, Drive Ya Nuts from Milton Bradley, and a Topspin. Looks like a collector, sloughing off his collection.

Just found 2 copies of this funny book at my local used book store:



It includes an all-too-familiar situation:

I wish I could find such awesome things at our "garage sales" (yeah, that's what we call them in Canada and probably the US as well), but I have yet to find even a single puzzle. Does the UK have more twisty puzzles being sold than North America?

Actually, due to our proximity to PuzzleMaster, I've seen Pyraminxes and Megaminxes... being sold at Zellers (which is basically a small department store).

You could alwas check craigslist.com it is like a online garage sale I have gotten a few rubiks cubes on there. Here is the search for "rubik" that is what comes up with the most resalts on there http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/searc ... catAbb=sss

I hope this was helpful for you.

Nothing for my home city.

Oh well, I have my birthday, and PuzzleMaster orders that ship in 5 days. Good enough

Car boot finds for 2011 only omissions are a boxed Kama Sutra cube and an unboxed Boob Cube, I'm sure you can guess why....



Items and prices paid below :

Rubik's Tangle (missing outer packaging) £0.20
Boxed Skewb - £1
Two PussyCat Sliding puzzles - £0.60
Square-1 £0.50
Wooden twisty £0.50
Homer -£0.10
Boxed Orb-it £1
Boxed Rubik's Dice - £1
Binary Arts Turnstile - £0.20
3x3 Dots/Faces - £0.20
Rubik's Fifteen - £0.20

3x3s both original and knock-off remain the most common items I see. This year's bargain for me was the Homer 2x2, no haggling required (not that I do unless the price is over £1 ). My personal favourite the Rubik's Fifteen - never played with one of these before and it turns out to be a nice little puzzle.

Till next year....

Steve

Well this has been my first proper year of car booting and I have had great success.

Mint Peters Black Hole £1.00
Mint Wisdom Ball £0.20
Duff 2x2 Can Puzzle £1.00 SOLD for an amazing profit
Eastsheen 4x4 £0.50 SOLD
2x Pepsi Can Puzzles £1.00
Darth Maul 2x2 £0.10

And today I picked up a Rainbow Masterball for £0.50
Needed a bit of a clean and I had to remove a segment as a little tab had broken off and was rattling inside.

A good year for me, I must admit though I tend to go to two or three different boot sales each fortnight, and the number of times that I have returned empty handed is quite sad

Robert

Robert,

The Duff can is one of the particular puzzles I keep an eye for - but I've never found one yet Congratulations on your finds! An interesting list of puzzles- car boots still represent a great way of picking up puzzles at very low costs but like you I occasionally come home empty handed so I suspect they're one of the most inefficient way of acquiring puzzles from a time perspective!

Steve

My dream would be to find a Dogic but the likelihood is very slim sadly

But the only reason I bought the Duff can is because I solved it at the car boot sale, and the old guy was so nice I felt bad so paid a quid.
I had no idea what it was worth or the rarity, it was only on the way home that I saw K-Ball.

Anyway the car boot sales are coming to an end so this thread will probably go dormant for another year.
Robert