Thrifting Pickups - Week of 12/27/20

The last Thrift of 2020 yielded some pretty awesome items!

"ZOIDS" DVDs and games are hard to come by, especially in good condition; I picked up the Volume 1 DVD and it looks like it was just taken out of shrinkwrap! It will more than likely end up on the Sanctum's eBay store soon, so keep an eye out!

The two CDs were $1 apiece, and both are OOP. Believe it or not, between the obscure Indie Rock band CD and the big-budget Hip-Hop Soundtrack, the Soundtrack is the one that isn't available anywhere for streaming!

And finally, the biggest hitter of them all, and one helluva way to end the year: a FIRST EDITION hardcover copy of Stephen King's debut novel "Carrie"! It was only $1 at Goodwill. It, like pretty much every other 1st Edition book I find, headed straight to my wife's library.

If this is how 2020 ends in terms of thrifts, I can't wait to see what 2021 will bring!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Sanctum Dwellers! I hope we all have a much more joyous and prosperous year than 2020. Lots of OOP stories, music, and games to share in the coming weeks... so STAY TUNED!

"A CHRISTMAS CAROL" - 1977 Peter Pan Records Read-Along

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! To celebrate this joyous day of the year, here's the 24,376th adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol"!

Produced in 1977 by Peter Pan Records, this is about as straightforward an adaptation as you can get. If you thought "Mickey's Christmas Carol" was incredible with how they crammed the entire story into a half-hour, you'll be blown away by how this record squeezes the tale into a whopping eleven minutes... and that includes Peter Pan Records' trademark looooong pauses between pages!

Once again the initial digitization was provided by the awesome folks over and Under Design.

Happy Holidays, and ENJOY!

YouTube

Internet Archive

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192kbps CBR

"RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY CHRISTMAS FUN BOOK" 1981 Kid Stuff Read-Along Record

Depending on how you feel about Raggedy Ann & Andy, you could either find this record endearing or annoying.

The 1981 Read-Along set has a wonderful premise: Ann & Andy give the listener ideas for Christmas gifts that don't cost much (or any) money to show your loved ones that you care about them; things such as offering to do someone's chores for a week, or instructions on making homemade trinkets using items already around your house.

The execution, however, has a lot to be desired. The production on this record was so poor. Clipping can't be avoided, and the choices for Ann & Andy's voice-over artists are abysmal. The music is just a handful of notes pounded out on a piano for the duration of the record. The entire album feels like it was recorded in a single take (which, who knows, could be the truth).

If you or your little ones can power though these 7 minutes and get some cute Holiday gift ideas out of them, my hat is off to you!

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Internet Archive

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192kbps CBR

"SUPER MARIO BROS. AUDIO POSTER PACK" 1993 Disney Audio Entertainment Cassette

I'm not ashamed to admit I adore the trainwreck that is the "Super Mario Bros." live-action movie. It's definitely a product of its time... plus I'm biased because, as a massive fan of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", knowing that Bob Hoskins was playing my favorite video game character made little 10-year-old Me stoked beyond belief!

Walt Disney Audio Entertainment released an accompanying "Audio Poster Pack" to celebrate the release of the film, which included a huge poster with 3D elements, King Koopa-inspired 3D glasses, and a 45-minute fully-dramatized story cassette.

There are a few recordings of this cassette on YouTube, but most are either fuzzy, too loud, or just in poor quality. What I'm sharing here is yet another digitization by Under Design with final cleanup by myself, and it sounds fantastic. Come to think of it, there are times where I enjoy this cassette MORE than the movie itself!

Narrated by the great Chuck Riley, this story is pretty darned thrilling, loaded with great voice-overs, music and sound effects. It's an absolute treat for anybody else who's brave enough to say they love the SMB movie! Enjoy!

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192kbps CBR

"THE STORY OF JINGLE BELLS" - 1987 Disneyland Records Read-Along Cassette

How does nobody have this available anywhere by now? It's absolutely adorable!

"The Story of Jingle Bells" was released by Disneyland Records & Tapes in 1987, and is the story of a horse named - you guessed it - Jingle Bells. The story exists as a vehicle to incorporate the classic Holiday tune, and includes the full song at the end (the exact same version Disney would also release on their "Sing-Along" VHS and DVD series).

It's a warm and fuzzy tale, with soothing narration and no major action outside of a horse race in the final third of the book. Absolutely perfect to sip some hot chocolate to while hanging out in the the living room with the kids on Christmas Eve. Give it a listen!

YouTube

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192kbps CBR

BAG OF NICKELS - 1999 Debut Demo Cassette

Here's something that, quite honestly, I know little to nothing about.

Back in the late 1990's I had a friend make me a few cassette copies of albums my poor self couldn't afford. One of those was a copy of Primus' "Rhinoplasty". However on the B-Side of the cassette, to fill out the remaining run time, they added a few tracks from a Wilmington, Delaware band called Bag Of Nickels.

The 3 songs were written down as "Debut Demos" and had a date of 1999 written alongside them. The songs are pretty good, with obvious influences from Faith No More, Sublime, and of course Primus (which is why, I assume, my friend tacked these tracks on in the first place).

Researching this band has shown me that their existence is sporadic; after releasing two full-length albums they disappeared until around 2011, and then disappeared again until they released their third album "Amen" via their Bandcamp, and since then they've disappeared yet again.

Some pictures and secondhand listings exist pertaining to their other two albums, but absolutely nothing exists online that tie into these 3 supposed demos outside of a music video uploaded onto YouTube:

Even the image I used for this cassette's album art comes from a photo album titled "old school" on their Facebook page, which hasn't been active in years.

Maybe somebody somewhere has more information on these songs. But until then, just sit back and enjoy the tunes!

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320kbps CBR