I don’t think it’s news to anybody that the days of being able to go to thrift stores and find interesting retro computers and software without any effort are over, and probably not coming back. And last week, I lamented about what ruined thrift stores. But that’s not to say there aren’t interesting and useful retro items you can still find at thrift stores. I’ll give you a dozen ideas.
Keyboards
The majority of keyboards you find at a thrift store are going to be HP and Dell keyboards and more likely USB than PS/2 at this point. But a PS/2 keyboard can certainly be useful, especially if you don’t have many. And if you look carefully, you will sometimes find something a little bit older, and potentially retro. Don’t get your hopes up about finding IBM model M keyboards with any regularity, but you may very well be able to find some keyboards of various ’90s computer brands. These are definitely worth picking up, because you never know and you will be able to use one to complete a set or help a friend complete theirs.
Mice
I don’t find mice nearly as often as I find keyboards, but I have occasionally found and interesting and useful older computer mouse at a thrift store. They don’t jump out the way keyboards do, so sometimes you will have to dig, and sometimes they end up in the housewares section instead of the electronics section. But if you see a box of random electronics, it can be worth digging through it to see if there might be a branded mouse hiding in there that you can use. Maybe even something with an obscure connector, if you’re lucky.
Monitors
Thrift stores stopped accepting CRT displays a very long time ago, and as best I can tell, most of them haven’t figured out that demand for CRTs is on the upswing again.
But even though you aren’t going to find a CRT, you may be able to find a useful flat panel display. 4×3 and 5×4 displays have been out of production a very long time, but since they tend to also last a very long time, they still turn up in thrift stores with some regularity. It is also surprising how frequently usable 1080p displays turn up.
Books
If you’ll be at the thrift store anyway, perusing the books section is usually worthwhile. Some stores just throw every book they get on a shelf haphazardly, and some of them go to an effort to divide them by subject the way old book stores used to.
Most thrift stores sell anything they can get that has going rate of $5 or more online rather than putting it in the store. But fortunately for us, outdated computer books frequently are inexpensive, and so many of them are inexpensive that most thrift stores aren’t going to try to figure out which ones are old enough to potentially be valuable again.
This is an opportunity for you to pick up some books to complete your setup. Books on popular application software like Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3 as well as MS-DOS itself sitting next to your vintage PC will definitely make it look more genuine. There was a time almost everyone kept a copy of DOS for Dummies by their PC.
Sometimes the books make for interesting reading as well. You can get contemporary insights from those old books that may run counter to what you find on the Internet today.
Disk files
This is another item that frequently ends up in the housewares section rather than the electronics section, but always keep your eye out for disk files. These were usually plastic boxes with a flip top lid that held floppy disks and frequently came with dividers to make it easy for you to group related disks together.
One time I even scored a pair of wooden disk boxes. Honestly, I’m not 100% certain whether they were intended to hold floppies or recipe cards, but five and a quarter inch floppies fit in them perfectly. I use those next to my IBM 5170 since they look a little bit higher end than plastic boxes.
Disks
Sometimes you can get lucky and find disks at thrift stores as well. Some stores have a policy of throwing them away when they receive them, but others will sell them when they come in. Look in the section of the store where they sell grouped items in plastic bags. If you are going to find floppies, that’s usually where they turn up.
If you are feeling lucky, when you find a bag of 3.5-inch floppies, go ahead and buy it. It’s likely to be mostly high density floppies, but sometimes you get lucky and find double density floppies mixed in with them.
Furniture
If you want a retro computer desk to place your retro computer on for a more authentic experience, these are something that turn up with some regularity at thrift stores. I’m not saying you will find the perfect retro desk the first time you venture out, but if you go out with some regularity and keep your eyes open, within a few months you will find something nice, and you probably won’t pay much for it.
When it comes to used computer desks, especially household computer desks, supply is much higher than demand. The last time I bought one, I saw one in the store that I liked, but not enough to pay $40 for it. A week later, it was still there, and marked down to $20. I thought about it but still didn’t buy it, on a week after that, they were asking $10. I bought it at that price.
Power center
Power centers fell out of fashion a very long time ago, but in the ’80s and ’90s, they were very common. The idea was to plug all of your peripherals into the back of a plastic or metal box that sat under your monitor and had power switches on the front. Then you could use the power switches on the front to selectively power things on and off if you needed them.
I don’t find these very often, but I buy them when I do. I would much rather wear out a power switch on one of those stations then on a piece of vintage equipment.
And when I have a broken switch that I haven’t gotten around to replacing yet, I can defeat the switch and use the switch on the power center to operate it and postpone the repair indefinitely. No, I didn’t just glance over nervously at my Commodore 1084 monitor. Its power switch works just fine. No, don’t touch it, just take my word for it.
Cables
Cables aren’t necessarily something I find with great regularity, but they do show up. I picked up a VGA cable with only 14 pins in it, perfect for use with VGA PCs from before 1995. I’m not sure I’ve ever found anything more exciting than that in a thrift store, but you never know. Sometimes I find useful modern cables as well. If I can find an HDMI cable and pay two or three dollars for it as opposed to $20 at retail, I always grab them.
Cables often lurk in the bagged goods section, but sometimes you will find them in a box of random stuff in the electronics section. It really depends on the store.
Tool kits
For some reason my wife has better luck finding computer tool kits than I do, but she does find them with some regularity. These are usually fake leather pouches that close with a zipper and hold an assortment of screwdrivers and tweezers. Frequently they have a nut driver perfect for working on IBM PC and 80 computers.
Slightly obsolete video games
You won’t find vintage video games with much regularity at thrift stores these days, but you frequently can get the vintage video games of the future. These would be games from 1-2 generations back. If you have the space, it is worth picking up and non-sports titles you find and set them back for about five years.
Systems
And although finding a vintage computer or game system at a thrift store doesn’t happen very often anymore, sometimes it does happen. But you probably won’t find it in the electronics section. Go to the boutique section, where they keep things under glass. If they have something, that’s probably where they will keep it. The price probably won’t be a bargain, but if it’s something that interests you, you may consider picking it up. The last two I saw were an Apple IIc with a monitor and second drive for $175, and an Atari 2600 console for $40. I already have one Apple IIc and several 2600s, so I didn’t get them. Someone else did though, so I was glad to see them go to good homes.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.