On the Hunt! with Donny Rineck

Crikey...just had to get that out of the way to start with, my name is Donny and I am a bargain hunter, a junk diver, a flea market afficianado, a thrift store skirmisher, a rummage sale rumbler...if there is a deal to be found I will find it. In my years hunting I have found great deals, lusty bargains, oodles of odd balls, shining gems and lots and lots of junk. But in my world that, my friends, is a good thing. I wanted to sit down with you every few weeks or at least once a month and share some of my tips, tricks and scores! I will have pictures and prices when possible...don't want to give away all my secrets now do I? So this last month I trekked down to Milwaukee to see family and while down there I found there were two different flea markets. So when I go to flea markets, what I usually do first is try to get through the place as quickly as possible, giving it a once over, and see if I can spot anything that catches my eye...usually items of great value, super geeky items, or booths that just catch my eye. From there, I go back booth to booth and comb things over again.
I am no expert on Eastern European glass, Depression era silver, or 1960's Barbies...however I have crude knowledge of toys, geeky things, sports cards, and random other new age keepsakes and collectibles. So those are the first things I look for...sometimes I catch them on the first run through and sometimes I don't... Sometimes you have to dig through things to find your treasure. That to me is most of the fun! Now just finding things is well and good. Price is however another thing. At flea markets you have a big mix of professional dealers, people looking to get rid of junk, and people who think they are professionals but have holes in their expertise. The professionals are the ones usually with the best stuff, but most times with the highest prices. The people trying to sell the stuff a lot of times have "junk" but has the highest potential for gems. The people who think they are professionals tend to make up the majority of the flea market and are very hit and miss as far as if they will be the ones that know the value of a beta demonic tutor, 1990's set of Legos or Lamar Odom LA Clippers Jersey. Sometimes they have stuff over priced based on perceived value, sometimes they are just full on retail and other times it is way, way undervalued. Anyway, I've rambled on long enough for this first post, and I wanted to share my finds for the month. Find #1 is pictured down below and was just $10. As far as I can tell it's complete. I have no clue what I am going to do with it: I don't like models, I am bad at building things, and as far as a resale value, I'm not sure it has much more value than $15-20 if I find the correct person to take it off my hands. The thing is, I don't care when I find something this cool. I just have to buy it because I know someone will want it, and I feel it is my responsibility to rescue it. I also picked up about 20 lego mini figures for $2 each ranging for Storm Troopers to Gimli to an Alien to the new Lego Movie characters, an old 1974 German Tiger Snap-Tite model for $0.50, some old pen and paper car games for $3 and about 20 role playing books at a game store for $3 each.
I hope you find some of what I wrote useful and that you will share your finds with me in the future! Keep your eyes peeled and always be On the Hunt...