Goodwill Store Finds: Amish Country, San Francisco, a European Castle, Pencils, Shoes, and a Mystery

"Lancaster County," Milton Bradley, 1000 pieces, 26 x 20 inches

The puzzle pickings at my local Goodwill Stores were a little bit below par last week, but I still managed to pick up a half-a-dozen interesting puzzles, including this Amish scene produced by the Milton Bradley people. The puzzle is a little dark, meaning that it will probably drive me nuts when I get to that dirt area in the foreground. I always seem to have a real problem fitting together large sections of dark pieces, something that doesn't seem to be getting much better with experience.

"Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!," Springbok, 500 pieces, 24 x 30 inches

This Springbok image is not of a subject that I have a whole lot of interest in, but I got the feeling that I was rescuing this one from a certain date with the trash bin if I didn't buy it. The Goodwill folks had failed to tape the box together and I found three loose pieces  on the shelf alongside the puzzle. That means I'm taking a huge chance that other pieces were separated from the box somewhere along the line too, but for a buck, I decided to risk it. (Too, I really like Springbok puzzles.)

"Along for the Ride," Bits & Pieces, 1000 pieces, 20 x 27 inches

I don't see a whole lot of Bits & Pieces puzzles in the shops, so this nice San Francisco image was too good to pass up.  Not a whole lot of color variation in this one, and that generally translates into a tougher than normal puzzle.  We'll see.

"Neuschwanstein Castle," Buffalo, 1000 pieces

I probably should have left this one on the shelf because I have the identical puzzle in 2000-piece size that I haven't worked yet, but for 79 cents I decided to take it home with me. I've been told that the 2000-piece version is really, really difficult, but honestly, this looks like it would be tough no matter what the piece-count.

"Pencil Pushers," Springbok, 500 pieces, 18 x 24 inches

This older Springbok is the companion to the Springbok shoes puzzle shown earlier. They sat side-by-side on the shelf, but this box was taped together as used-puzzle boxes always should be. I like the colors of this one, and I expect that it will be a nice change-of-pace puzzle one of these days.

"Last Chill & Testament," Bepuzzled, 1000 pieces

This is the second of Bepuzzled's mystery puzzles that I've picked up in the past couple of weeks but I still haven't worked one of them. The image on this cover photo is said not to be what the actual puzzle will show...that's part of the mystery to be solved...so I have no real idea what all I'm getting into here. I just hope it's not quite all as dark brown as this image. The puzzle comes also with a 75-page book to read before building the puzzle and solving the book's mystery.

All in all, I suppose this was not a terrible week of puzzle-hunting at the Goodwill shops. I've certainly had better weeks, but I've also had whole weeks where not a single usable puzzle turned up at the three shops I visit regularly. So I'll take it. (And the new week is already shaping up to be a pretty good one.) 

Goodwill Store Finds (Plus one from Half Price Books): 6 from Springbok and 1 each from White Mountain, Rose Art, & Eurographics

"At the Wee Folks' Fair," Springbok #5930, 1000 pieces, 24 x 30 inches

In what has become a more or less typical week, I added way more puzzles to my collection than I completed. In fact, I added ten puzzles and worked throutgh about one-and-a-half...meaning that the to-do stack is now officially out of control. I'm going to feature nine of those puzzles in this post - the tenth one is a review puzzle that I'll be featuring in a few days - because they clearly show why I'm so addicted to checking the local Goodwill Stores for puzzles. You just never know what you might find. (Of course, you also never know how many pieces are actually in the box, but that's got to be acceptable to you going in or you shouldn't be buying used puzzles in the first place.)

"At the Wee Folks' Fair" is a Springbok puzzle from the period in which the Hallmark company owned Springbok. I'm guessing that it's from the eighties but there is no copyright year on the box so that's just an educated guess.

"Santa's Delivery" & "Eyes of Color," Springbok 2004 and 2008 puzzles, 1000 pieces

"Feathered Friends" & "The Toy Shoppe," Springbok 2004 and 2006 puzzles

"Butterfly Collection," Springbok 2004 puzzle, 500 pieces

I stumbled upon these five Springbok puzzles one morning at the Goodwill Store I most often visit. I had been there only the morning before, so these must have come in together sometime later on the day of my initial visit. Needless to say, I snapped up the lot of them, and the bargain price of seven dollars for the five helped seal the deal quickly before someone else noticed them.

The particularly interesting thing about these five is that they were obviously produced for the French Canadian market up in Quebec. Last time I checked, Quebec was still requiring that everything be labeled in both French and English - and these puzzles are all packaged that way. The picture below shows the "French side" of the boxes:

The slightly different (in translation) puzzle titles 

I also added these two puzzles from a different Goodwill outlet. The "Kodacolor Puzzle" from Rose Art has never been opened despite being some 27 years old, and the White Mountain one, despite having been previously worked, looks like new.

Unnamed Winter Scene, Rose Art, 500 pieces, 13 x 19 inches

"Candy Wrappers," White Mountain, 1000 pieces, 24 x 30 inches

And, last but not least, the one shown below is the only new puzzle I purchased this week. I got it from Half Price Books and was able to use a 20% discount coupon on their already reduced price, so it cost right at ten dollars with tax. I particularly like it because it features so many of my favorite authors, writers I've been reading for my whole life - and the images are a good bit larger than the impression you get from the box cover.

"Famous Writers," Eurographics, 1000 pieces, 19 x 27 inches

Goodwill Store Finds: Two from Springbok, One each from Ravensburger and Cobble Hill

"Roving Rascals," Springbok/Hallmark, over 500 pieces, 20 x 20 inches

I went to an estate sale on Saturday morning that turned out to be a complete dud, but I had to pass by a Goodwill Store on the way home, and I decided to stop by. Surprisingly, there were more puzzles on the toy shelf that morning than I've ever seen in that store at one time, and I grabbed the four that appealed to me, including the one shown above.

"Roving Rascals," I am guessing is from the 1980s, that period during which Springbok and Hallmark Cards were working together to produce some interesting images and puzzles. This one was marked at $1.99, but with my Saturday Senior Discount it rang up at only $1.39. I have a theory about how this Goodwill Store prices its puzzles...more later on that.

"Beautiful Vista," Ravensburger, 500 pieces, 27 x 20 inches

I'm not particularly fond of puzzles like this one that show some anonymous mountain range and lake, but I can seldom convince myself to leave behind a Ravensburger puzzle priced as low as this one - $2.09 with discount. It's of the larger-piece variety and its finished size of 27 x 20 inches is standard for the larger-count 1000-piece puzzles  used by so many puzzle companies.

"Americana," Springbok, 500 pieces, 18 x 24 inches

This 2014 puzzle was another of the $1.39 values, and I almost left it behind because the color tone is a little too warm and reddish to be attractive to my eye.  But I enjoy this kind of image enough that when someone else started sniffing around the puzzles, I went back and grabbed it before it was too late. Suddenly, it looked pretty good to me.

"Tis the Season," Cobble Hill, 500 pieces, 18 x 24 inches

I haven't had much experience with Cobble Hill puzzles yet, so why not grab something as nice as this puzzle for $2.09 while I could? It will probably sit around until the next Christmas season or two, but should be fun to work on during that time of the year. Too, the box says that this is a "random cut" puzzle, and that's my favorite puzzle cut style.

Now, my theory on how Goodwill prices jigsaw puzzles: sorters are highly influenced by two things - piece count and quality of the puzzle box. Box condition and quality may even be the most important factor, as I've seen 500-piece Ravensburger and Cobble Hill puzzles valued at one-third to one-half more than what the Goodwill store charges for 1000-piece puzzles of equal quality housed in cheaper-looking boxes. 

And the search goes on...sometimes I think I enjoy the search as much as I enjoy actually building a puzzle, and that strikes me as a bit weird when I think about it.