Raccoon City

Posted on by garbagefinds

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The past two weeks have been relatively slow, outside of some great stuff I found two Tuesdays ago that I’ll share soon in a separate post. In the meantime here are some miscellaneous finds from that time span.

I found a family of raccoons feasting on garbage near Westmount (there were actually four, but one left before I was able to snap a photo); …

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… a beautiful hand made nativity scene that was likely made in the 1950s (Plateau);

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… a whole bunch of 1960s and 1970s colouring books, including two of Expo 67, two of the Montreal Expos baseball team, and one featuring the 1969 moon landing (Mount Royal);

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… a collection of vintage Post cereal hockey game pieces, which I put up for sale in an eBay auction (from the same spot in Mount Royal);

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… a fake Rolex, baby care timer, and portable cell phone charger (all working), as well as some nice Tiffany boxes that are good for shipping (Hampstead);

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… a vintage transistor radio (Hampstead, in a surprising resurgence of what I thought to be an extinct spot);

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… a collection of nice compacts (from the same spot in Hampstead);

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… a bunch of Canadian Tire money, which was clipped together and added up for my convenience (Mount Royal);

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… and a huge collection (three garbage bags full) of anime DVDs, which I found while walking around with my sister in the Plateau. I’ll likely try to sell these as three large lots on eBay.

Otherwise, I’ve been pretty busy with eBay listing, some of which have paid immediate benefits. I’ll show you what sold on my next sales summary post. I was also able to hold two decently successful yard sales this weekend. My finances are a little less dire, and I’m a bit more optimistic that I can reach 20k for the year.

Also, thanks again to all those who donated to the blog recently! In the interest of transparency I have now received 122$ since adding the donate widget around six months ago. I appreciate the help – the blog is more or less a non-profit project. These contributions help pay for related expenses while making the time spent on it more valuable in a tangible way.

Oh, and I’ve gotten a lot of hits from a Facebook link in the last few days. If anyone knows who shared my blog let me know! I’m always curious to see where my hits are coming from.

30 thoughts on “Raccoon City”

    1. But don’t try to sell the fake Rolex. Ebay will get you for that transgression. lol

      1. Yeah I don’t mess around with fake stuff. I make sure to research these things. I sold the fake Rolex at a yard sale for 5$ actually.

  2. That’s a very nice nativity stage. Do you think it’s old enough to qualify as primitive art?

    Great sale items. I foresee an excellent holiday-gift season for you. 🙂

    1. No idea what qualifies as primitive / folk art so it’s hard to say. It’s a beautiful piece regardless, and maybe I can market it somehow to that folk art audience.

  3. I would put the Tiffany boxes on ebay for sale too. Fabulous compacts!! Can’t believe they were thrown away.

  4. Not sure about that “nativity scene”. Never seen a “church” nativity scene before. It kind of defeats the concept of nativity scene as Jesus was not yet born to tell Peter (Pierre) to build his church on this rock (pierre).

    2. True point. It did come along with nativity scene pieces, however. It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s misunderstood the bible. Either way, it’s a very nice thing.

    1. Seems like there is money to be made there, but I have other plans for them. Well, one of them anyways – I have some Tiffany earrings listed on eBay and the small box would suit them perfectly! The larger one on it’s own isn’t worth a tonne, maybe 10-15$ before shipping, so I’ll probably just use it to package on of my finer Etsy pieces at some point. It’ll come as a pleasant surprise to whoever buys it. The boxes are of very nice quality.

  7. Hi
    am wondering if the Spica radio works/what you would charge for it/what shipping would cost to Calgary?

    my Mom had one, she gave to me, and I am sort of thinking this would be nice too. Looks just the same.

    Please let me know costs, and I will give it a thought

    thks

    1. Hi, it actually sold not long after I posted this. Went for 70$ + shipping, which seemed to be around market value. It was a good find!

        1. Anon, if you still want a radio similar to what your mother gave you, there are 2 on Ebay. This one says it works (Spica Transistors ST 600 Radio), but isn’t as nice nor has it a manual and is about what Martin’s sold for here http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Spica-Transistors-ST-600-Radio-MADE-IN-JAPAN-work-with-detailds-/161835813720?hash=item25ae2a8b58

          There is also one similar to what Martin’s sold for (Spica Transistors ST 608 Radio), but it doesn’t work and therefore less expensive, being about half the price here http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Spica-Transistors-ST-608-Radio-MADE-IN-JAPAN-NOT-WORK-/161847582762?hash=item25aede202a

          1. thank you for the heads up. however, I do still have my Mom’s. It was just nostalgia that prompted be to ask about this purchase. I have to tell you, it was probably forty yrs ago my Mom gave it to me, so I had a radio on a trip I was going on. It was a prized possession of her then, and not new even then. It has been a good radio, and I still use it, when the power goes off and I want to watch for weather alerts, etc..

            Anyone know how old it is?

  8. Just wanted to let you know that I found your site a few months ago on Reddit and subscribed as I really love your content. I did a quick search of reddit and your site was mentioned in a comment last week. That might account for some of the increased traffic although it wasn’t a particularly active post.

    1. Thanks, I can actually see what the sources are for my views pretty well with my WordPress stats page. For example, anytime I’m linked to on reddit I’m able to find the exact thread the link appears on using my WordPress stats page. For whatever reason though this doesn’t work for Facebook – I can only tell that people were referred from Facebook, not the exact page or person that referred them. It’s a minor annoyance because I like to know who’s talking about me!

  9. I found your blog via a post on a FB group called ebay Thrifters and so glad I did. Someone named Megan WS posted a link to your blog on Oct 4 there and asked others which blogs the rest of us read / recommend / follow. Here’s her post: “Does anyone follow any EBAY blogs? I have a few favorites and am posting my favorite one. The guy that writes this blog is decidedly interesting, and his writing is top notch. Plus, his finds blow my mind. I would love to hear of others’ fave EBAY Blogs or thrifting/picking blogs. I can obviously pick through GOOGLE to find other blogs, but it is much more interesting to hear about someone’s opinion. I like this attached blog b/c the picking is much more urban, as I live in rural NH. I love this blog b/c the writer make picking seem like an edgy adventure. Reading it almost reminds me of William Burroughs. For me, picking is almost always fun, but listing can be tiring. And isolating. Blogs help me get motivated.”

    1. Thanks for the tip, that’s a big group so I presume that’s where all the traffic and followers came from. Glad you like the blog!

  10. You might want to look into that middle compact. The swan is a Swarovski hallmark and it may be linked to that jewelry company.

    1. I was actually looking through the bags first, before I realized that this family of raccoons was descending upon me from the driveway. I backed off, figuring it was best not to mess with them, and they rummaged through the trash a bit before leaving for greener (?) pastures. I took the plant in the foreground.

      1. That was a smart move Martin, because you never know if you might run into one that has rabies. One night I was scavenging at this condo like I’ve done many times before, but this night when I reached my arm into the side of the dumpster, I could detect motion out of the corner of my eye and backed off. When I went around to the front I could see 2 racoons foraging, with one standing on 2 feet looking through the door I just blindly passed my hand through. I discovered why this night was different from all the other nights I searched there, this time there was a mattress leaning against the dumpster, right up to the open side door, so the racoons had an easy pathway to their meal. From now on when I approach any dumpster, I give it a slight tap to announce my arrival and not to surprise anything that may be feasting. I have had other encounters with racoons similar to Martin’s and one thing that I have learned is that they don’t back down, so it is smart to give them room and let them eat in peace.

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