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.

Goodwill Store Finds: Sure-Lox "Art Gallery" Comes in at 6750 Pieces in Total

"Art Gallery" puzzles, Sure-Lox, 6750 total pieces

I got up early this morning to drive my granddaughter to Texas A&M University to meet with her advisor so that she could set her fall 2018 schedule (she's one class short of being a junior). That's a drive of almost 80 miles each way, so I was surprised to be back in town by 10:20 this morning - still with time for my usual breakfast stop. And, as I've mentioned before, in the same parking lot is a Goodwill Store, so why not pop in there while I was at it?

I was about to leave the store when it finally clicked that the big green box on the end of the toy counter was actually a collection of ten puzzles rather than the large game that I had been assuming it was. Needless to say, the box didn't stay on the shelf much longer because I truly like many of the images on the cover and the three dollar price was just about perfect. As you can see from the cover, there are five 500-piece puzzles, three 750-piece ones, and two 1000-pieces ones in the box. If my historical odds concerning missing pieces from thrift shop puzzles hold up, that means that roughly two of the puzzles probably have a missing piece or two. 

As you can see from this picture, the puzzles are separately packed in resealable plastic bags - always a good sign as to completeness - and there is a fairly large poster to help puzzlers in their work. Maybe the best thing about this "art collection" is that all of the images are identified by artist - and two of my puzzle favorites are included (a 500-piece Susan Brabeau and a 750-piece Ann Stookey). Other artists contributing to the collection are: Loren Blackburn, Ginger Cook, Alan Giana, Bill Bell, James Coleman, Michael Jackson, and Schaefer/Miles. 

I'm posting several of the puzzle images (despite the wear on the poster that shows up in the photos) so that everyone can get a better idea of what the puzzles in this collection are like - and why I like at least half of them. I'll list the artist name below each image:

Schaefer/Miles, 1000 pieces

Loren Blackburn, 500 pieces

Ann Stookey, 750 pieces

Alan Giana, 500 pieces

Ginger Cook, 500 pieces

Susan Brabeau, 500 pieces

This will be my first experience with the Sure-Lox company. Sure-Lox is a Canadian puzzle company that, I assume, exports puzzles into the U.S. market. A quick glance at the puzzle pieces indicates that Sure-Lox quality is most likely somewhere near the middle of the pack of companies I've experienced in the last few months (this puzzle was produced and sold in 2007).