Goodwill Store Finds: Arte brasil, Cardinal, Karmin, NYPC, Dowdle & More

Collection of 11 Sure-Lox Puzzles, 7250 pieces total

I've been home from my recent road trip for one week now, and I'm getting back into the puzzling swing of things a lot quicker than I had expected to.  Maybe that's because the first two stops I made at local Goodwill Stores turned up a small bonanza of nice puzzles to add to my infamous To-Do stack.  In fact the first two things I spotted were this great collection of eleven puzzles and another of five different puzzles. This Sure-Lox bunch includes two 1000-piece puzzles, three at 750 pieces, and five at 500 pieces, for a whopping 7,250 pieces in total.

Here's the five-puzzle collection I mentioned:

Collection of five puzzles from Cardinal

All five of the puzzles are 500 pieces, so this adds another 2500 pieces for me eventually to work. Even if I don't work all 16 of the puzzles, it's hard to go wrong when the total cost was four dollars. I like the variety of the first box of puzzles more than this one, but I'm likely to do the Tower Bridge puzzle fairly soon as that's one of my favorite spots in the world.

"New York City," Dowdle Folk Art, 500 pieces, 24 x 18 inches

I prefer a larger piece-count, but I couldn't resist picking up another Dowdle Folk Art puzzle for 99 cents, even at only 500 pieces. I suspect that all of the so similar looking buildings are going to be more of a challenge than they appear to be on the box cover...so this one will probably play as a larger-count puzzle anyway.

"Winter Weekend," New York Puzzle Company, 1000 pieces, 20 x 27 inches

I've come to enjoy the "New Yorker cover" puzzles a lot more than I ever suspected I would, so it was kind of a no-brainer to spend a dollar on this New York Puzzle Company version of a "winter weekend."

"Amish Neighbors," Milton Bradley, 1000 pieces, 23 x 26 inches

This is another of Charles Wysocki's Americana puzzles, and as you can see from the buggies, it's meant to represent the Amish part of the U.S.  I like building the "primitive art" style of puzzle, so another at one dollar was easy to pick off the shelf for home.

Rolling Stones Album Covers, Ant Hill, 500 pieces

I was drawn to this Rolling Stones puzzle because of a similar one I found last year of album covers from the Beatles. I was surprised at how many good memories came from seeing all those old Beatles covers in one place, and I'm hoping that, since I am a fan of both bands, this one will have a similar effect on me.  

"Puzzle Grow," Arte brasil, 1000 pieces

I think this one is rather unusual because it appears to have come to my Goodwill Store all the way from Brazil. Almost all of the writing on the box is in Portuguese, and the puzzle image itself is taken from the work of Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973). Her work is described in Wikipedia as "Latin American modern."

And finally, this is the only new puzzle I picked up this week:

"Country Auction," Karmin, 1000 pieces, 27 x 20 inches

I bought this one at Tuesday Morning for six dollars (probably a 40% markdown from its normal retail price), and I decided to get it because I'm always on the lookout for something new from artist Susan Brabeau. This one, I think, should be a lot of fun.

So there you have, one week home, and I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I bought 22 new puzzles (counting the collections) and only worked two. The good news is that my total cost was around fifteen dollars...not bad.