Sometimes things happen that make you question whether there is such a thing as a coincidence.
Case in point: Last week, I sat down for an interview with American McGee on the subject of his revived Alice. I never played the original 2000 PC game, and it is well out of print and hard to find. I’d been on the lookout for it during my thrift store runs, but never saw one. Coming out of the interview, I’d resolved to find a copy even if I had to pay the going rate of about $30-40 for the common jewel case-only version.
That Saturday, out with a group of friends, I asked everybody if they wouldn’t mind swinging into a Half-Price Books store to see if there was anything in there. And was there ever: A boxed copy of American McGee’s Alice was sitting in a locked case. Since I’d been learning a little about collectible PC games of late, I knew it was also the most valuable edition of the game: the big-box “butcher knife” edition, in which Alice is shown holding a bloody Vorpal sword.
Electronic Arts later took this box off the market, replacing the offending cleaver with a much less appealing (but sanitized) magic ice wand. Even that version of the game sells for around $75. This version always fetches well over $100.
Even so, Half Price Books had it at $40, so we quickly did some research on our phones before I committed to buying it. I hope the serial number still works.
Read on for more of my recent finds from thrift stores, collectibles shops and garage sales. You know you love it.
Sitting next to Alice is 3 in Three, which I found covered in dust on a high shelf in a dark, tiny Berkeley collectibles store. It’s one of the legendary Macintosh puzzle games by Cliff Johnson, who’s best known for creating The Fool’s Errand and was profiled in Wired last year about the game’s (still) upcoming sequel.
This version of the game is apparently the second boxed edition; it was originally released by Cinemaware and later in this version by Inline Design. Now it’s freeware. At $2, this complete boxed copy seemed to be worth it, although it’s hard to actually put a value on it since demand is so low.