There are worse ways to spend a day

With gas prices starting to temporarily come down, I can, in theory, start "traveling" again. Like most years, I had many plans for the summer before it actually arrived, then when it gets here, I find that I'm too busy to partake in any of said plans. I seem to be the opposite of most folks, in that my down time comes during the winter. Which of course does me no good at all, as I have no want to go anywhere when it's cold and dreary out. I don't why I always think that things will be different. It's the same every single year. 

It's not what most people would call "traveling", but I did take a day off to go to Knoxville two Fridays ago. And if you're me, you can't go to Knoxville without going to McKay's (a happy place for lovers of all things physical media). I went there back in early June too, brought home a bunch of books, but didn't feel like doing a post on them. This time I ended up getting more variety, but less stuff overall; and do feel like making a post about it...

Might as well start off with my biggest purchase of the day. Even when using credit, five dollars is my upper limit for a book (every single book that I've ever bought for more than that has disappointed me), and it's not very often anymore that I'll even go that high, but I've wanted to read this since it came out, and this is the first time that I've seen it in the wild. Knowing how things are these days, it's not inconceivable to think that I may never come across another one, so I sort of felt like I had to get it now, just in case. 

This appears to be in the same vein as the Ripley's Believe It or Not! books that I got from Scholastic as a kid. Without getting up and looking, I'm pretty sure too that the coffin story is even in one of them, though I'm guessing it'll be covered a little more in-depth here.

I didn't pay much attention to them at the time, but in recent years I've really been enjoying the 90's Marvel novels quite a bit. Depending on where you're looking, it can be difficult to find these books for reasonable prices; even at McKay's. They usually have a lot of them, at least at the Knoxville store, but are rarely under $4.50. I always look at them anyways, hoping to find any that have been marked down or possibly underpriced. I hadn't seen any books from this trilogy before, and since it was in really good shape, I didn't feel too bad about the $3.50 price tag.

I didn't know that there was a middle grade bargain section until about a year ago, but since then it's become one of my favorites. It's tough to beat 90's "horror" books for a quarter. Plus, there's film/TV themed stuff like this in there too.

I have a couple of books from this series now, but still don't understand who they were intended for. I mean I was 11 when The X-Files debuted on television, and was a devoted viewer from the get-go. These books were just novelized episodes (in this case, "D.P.O."), which were presumably targeted for kids in my age range when show got going (though I would've been 14 when this book came out). I'm not sure why a kid would be reading a random episode when they could've just been watching the show on television. Most folks did have a TV in the mid 90's, and the show was on a network, so one didn't even need cable to watch it. I don't know, like I said, I don't get it. All that being said, I do enjoy getting these books all of these years later.

This is the kind of book that you, or rather I, usually find in that middle grade bargain section. 

I haven't had much luck in finding cheap CD's (that I would listen to) my last couple of times there, but did a little bit better this time. It doesn't get too much better than Time-Life compilations, still in the shrink wrap, for less than two bucks, although...

... used ones for under a buck are pretty great too!

I've been tempted by this set at Walmart many times in recent years. $10 for six films didn't seem like that bad of a price, but I always thought that I might be able to get it cheaper someday. Apparently I was right. I wasn't even looking for it on this particular day, but cut down a book aisle and noticed it sitting out of place on one of the shelves (somebody was obviously too lazy to take it back to where that had gotten it), saw the price, checked the discs, and put it in my basket. I thought it was kind of funny that this set, which isn't that old, already had four different stickers on it. 

I've already got movies 4-6 on video, but it'll be nice to have them upgraded, as well as to have the other three that I didn't already own.

I know that folks are gaga over the Marvel live-action flicks these days, but for my money, DC's animated pictures are the best thing going as far as superheroes are concerned. I already bought this one at Big Lots a couple of years ago, but the disc with the main feature was all messed up. I took it back to get a replacement, but they didn't have any more, so I ended up just getting my $3 back. This one was 95¢, and after now watching the movie, I can say that it was well worth the wait. Very enjoyable!

I don't suppose anyone reading this is familiar with Light's Out, the radio show, or the subsequent television program? I have a few box sets in different formats for the radio show, and a couple of these Alpha releases for the TV show. This was the first time that I've seen one of the DVD's in the cheapie bins (95¢), and thankfully it wasn't one that I already had. On a semi-related note, I always thought that Alpha did themselves a disservice by colorizing the images for the packaging on a lot of their black and white releases. They do say B&W on the back, but I'm sure that more than a few people missed that and ended up being disappointed by the lack of color when they went to watch it.

I would've liked to have found some more music, but other than that, I was pretty content with what I left with. 

Since it was still early, I decided to go to the Bargain Hunters (flea market/antique mall - I've talked about them before), which is about five miles deeper into Knoxville. One of my great joys from going in that direction is that I get to see the Sunsphere, going there, and coming back...

I, of course, had to get a few pictures for the blog, as per usual. I never get tired of seeing that thing.

I didn't end up buying anything at the Bargain Hunters, but did take a couple of photos of things that were calling my name...

Despite the beat-up box, if this one worked, $27.99 was a pretty good price. I didn't want to take out of the box to see what kind of condition it was in, lest I be even more tempted. I knew a kid that had one of these way back when, and I thought it was cooler than shit at the time. Oh, what am I saying, they're still cooler than shit!

If this had been any time prior to the end of last year, I would've bought this little darling as soon as I laid eyes on her. However, I've got a bit of a life plan that I'm trying to work towards now, and having excessive amounts of stuff around isn't going to help me towards making it happen, so she stayed behind. I can honestly say though that, I have not been tempted to but anything more than I was with this television in recent memory. I took multiple pictures, but this is the only one that wasn't blurred, so it's hard to tell from this one that it didn't look like this set had ever been used. There wasn't a single sign of wear on it's entirety, and you just don't ever see sets from that era in this kind of condition. At $45, I fully expect this to be gone by the next time I'm there; it was priced to sell.

I doubt that anyone cares, but here were the specs.

Not a bad day, if I do say so myself. Well, trying to get out of Knoxville proper was kind of bitch that day (SO MANY PEOPLE!), but other than that it was a good day.

******Bonus Content******

My birthday was last weekend, and I got a couple of things from my mom, one of which fits in with the rest of this posts theme.

I've seen these online before, but had never looked to see what was actually on them. That was a mistake on my part. I've only watched the main feature so far, and it was really fun. The bonus features on this one are killer, I'll probably have gotten to Bail Out by the time this post goes live. Any body remember that one? It's got the Hoff and everyone's favorite little pea soup vomiter - albeit a bit more grown up at this point - Linda Blair. I vaguely remember watching it on cable back in the 90's, but aside from the plot, I couldn't tell you anything about it.

Speaking of birthdays, I splurged on a few cards for mine. The two purchases didn't turn out as well as I would've wanted (what else is new), but I'll be doing a post for them over on the 'Penny Sleeve' blog sometime in the near future.