This was bound to happen to me someday, acquiring used puzzles as I do. Even for its age (made almost twenty years ago) this one was decent in quality. The pieces have average shape variety, they’re a bit on the small side and a tad too shiny, but that’s okay. Problem is who donated this to the thrift store: it’s missing a ton of pieces. I noticed right away when I was sorting out edges, that I was hardly finding any. A five-hundred piece puzzle, and this was all the edges I got:
That couldn’t be right. I put all the dark ones on a lighter board, to visualize easier. Nope, no more edges.
Spread out the lighter pieces carefully: no more there, either.
At this point I realized it was probably very incomplete. Why did I put it all together anyway? I suppose I was curious to know if just the edges were missing, and how bad it was. In fact the curiosity and aggravation drove me so much, I ended staying up way too late last night working on this one (which is why some of the photos in the middle of the assembly shots have different lighting).
Pretty bad, turns out. I counted at the end. Ninety-five pieces missing. Wow. This one is going to turn into crafts, or maybe just get tossed in the recycling bin. Shame.