I’ve knocked off several cheap and thrift store puzzles in the past few months. I took some chances and literally paid the price on a few of these, but I’m still learning what sort of puzzle images, brands, number of pieces, and quality work well for me, and overall it’s been worth the learning.

A few puzzles into this post I finally got a proper surface (not packaging cardboard on the floor) to do puzzles bigger than 500 pieces, and about a month ago I serendipitously happened to visit the garbage area where I live to find someone had dropped off an old Ikea table that – after I cleaned it – I can now use for smaller 1000 piece puzzles if I wish. Pretty crazy how I was thinking out loud about that in the last puzzle post and I ended up with both solutions. Seems to me the universe appreciates my lowered anxiety at this time thanks to staring at screens less.

Onto the puzzles I did earlier this summer.

Buffalo London Rain Puzzle from the “Cities in Color” Series

I’m not a fan of the semi-realistic digital art style common with puzzles lately, but I paid a measly $3.99 for this and it ended up being a fairly enjoyable experience. At 750 pieces it wasn’t terribly challenging, but the art style took a while to decipher what went where once I’d conquered some obvious parts. This had a lot of similar colors in it. I don’t see too many copies of this online now as it’s an older puzzle, so pardon the overpriced Walmart link.

Ppuzzling Enchanted Mushroom Library Puzzle

Well, we have to learn somehow. I had an inkling this was an AI image, but I couldn’t let the cheap price go and decided to give it a chance. Much of the image was clear, if dark, but logic broke down at the attempt of lettering on the books that gave away that it was definitely AI made. I ended up spending less time than perhaps I might have as I eventually ended up using the back letters of the pieces to help me make sure the pieces were at least in the right quadrant as some of the leafy parts were painful. Note to self: stick to recognizable brands.

Cra-Z-Art Catching Rays Lighthouse

Gorgeous puzzle, but the color family has a target audience of younger people, and with that I might have expected missing pieces if I hadn’t lucked out with the thrift store puzzles already. Three pieces just gone, and of course that led to some confusion while I was putting the puzzle together. Similarly, the puzzle had lint and a scent akin to having been in a kid’s hands and placed on a gross carpeted floor, so I was washing my hands a lot working on this one. Otherwise, this puzzle, despite it’s clear color zones, was a challenge. It wasn’t difficult at all since I could easily tell the general area where something worked, but it still took some real thought.

Aquarius Beetlejuice Puzzle

I didn’t pay full price for this one, but I bought it new since it came with a lunchbox tin and I’m a sucker for pretty bags and boxes. As with the movie poster, there are whole zones of single colors, which made this puzzle a pain in the ass to finish. The unusual puzzle shapes made it extra interesting, at least.

Catfly Mushroom & The Black Cat Puzzle

Pretty sure this was another AI puzzle, with similar letters on the back, so I ended up doing a lot of sorting based on those letters rather than focusing primarily on the image itself. The design is more cohesive and attractive, at least, but of course it’s nowhere to be found online. In any case, I got through this one a day or two faster than most because of the quadrant sorting I did.

RoseArt Pop Tarts Party Puzzle

This puzzle kicked my ass. To say it was a challenge is an understatement. I ended up leaving the brand lettering to do last, thinking that would be the hardest part because of how many times those words show up in the puzzle, but it was the texture of the sprinkles and frosting that got me. Since I had finished the Mystic Maze puzzle I hadn’t yet spent a full week on a puzzle, but I spent over a week on this one tediously trying to sort out which sprinkles went where.

Blanc (Buffalo Games) Day at the Beach, Mexico Puzzle

I needed a breezy choice after the previous puzzle, so I chose a 500 piece puzzle. I think any larger piece amount would have made this puzzle tedious, but at 500 it was fairly easy to sort out the subtle color and texture shifts of the sand and water. This was my first Blanc puzzle – my local store couldn’t get enough of them last year and it had been heavily discounted – and it was an interesting change of piece shapes with a slightly bulkier feel.

Buffalo Dancing Pheasant Farms Puzzle

My first Charles Wysocki image and it won’t be my last. This puzzle was challenging – fuck them trees, yo – but hit that sweet spot of still being fun every time I sat down to work on it. Despite some blocks of similar colors and textures, the image was crisp enough to decipher where something belonged with minimal issue. Still can’t believe I only paid $4 for this and not a single piece was missing.

Buffalo Rendezvous Positano Puzzle

Another challenging one I paid next to nothing for. I was able to sort out sections of items but it took some time to figure out exactly what went where. I thought the sky and moon of this one were going to be difficult, but it ended up being the first thing I finished as the rest of the image was proving difficult. I was going back and forth between sections slowly finding a place for a single piece at a time after I conquered the obvious spots. I think about this time I learned 1000 piece puzzles really need to be properly sorted out, too.

I’ve done several more puzzles since Rendezvous, but I wanted to give a relatively brief update before what’s probably going to look like a tonal shift by the time I update about the next batch. Much of this batch was about experimenting with cheap puzzles, seeing what sort of images might appeal, and getting a sense of what works for me before I start paying more than $5 for puzzles I don’t intend on keeping. I’ll undoubtedly end up doing more sketchy thrift store puzzles, but from here I know I want images that appeal to me aesthetically and brands with history.

Currently looking forward to doing more Magic Puzzle Company puzzles and checking out some Aimee Stewart retro art puzzles, but the season beckons spooky and autumnal images and some of those will likely be first in line. Might even read something spoopy and burn some spicy candles to match.