Family business

garbagefinds6 Comments

Since my mom got settled here, which was starting in August give or take, she’s more or less entered the family business. I’ve got her researching and listing my stuff on Marketplace, in exchange for a cut of the profits of course.

In about two months, she’s sold 33 of my finds. She says she likes doing the research, and seems to be good at it given that many of these items are selling for a lot more than I expected. Like this damaged antique Dutch painting, which I picked off the curb in NDG. I wasn’t expecting much, but it ended up selling for 500$!

That’s our biggest sale thus far. It’s very helpful though to know that when I find something, I have someone who 100% can help me deal with it. Not only is it good for my income, it also helps minimize the overwhelming feeling when I have too much stuff to deal with. I struggle to keep up even now, so a lot of these things might have sat around the garage for years otherwise.

This arrangement is also better for things that are worth money, but don’t sell at yard sales. The best example of this so far is a set of vintage Ping irons that had been kicking around my yard sales all year. If anyone had asked, I probably would have sold them for like 5$ just to be done with them, but instead we ended up splitting 200$.

Anyways, here’s a batch of stuff she listed in her first month. Some of these things are pretty mundane, and others are pretty cool. Some are sold, some are waiting for a buyer.

Otherwise, finds have been plentiful and I’m struggling to stay on top of things even with the extra help. However, fall is here and once the weather cools down I too “chill out” when it comes to going out to look for fresh finds.

Summer pt.2

garbagefinds7 Comments

It’s been a fairly busy summer, although not busy enough to excuse such a long wait between posts. Things were slow but steady for a while, then a couple weeks of regularly filled cars, and now something in between. I didn’t have much luck on the precious metals front for a little while, but in recent weeks that’s picked up again as well. I did have a very busy Labour Day weekend, doing ~12 hour days between yard sales and picking.

Also, now that my mom is in town and living nearby, I’ve gotten her into the “family business”. She’s listing some stuff for me, and I’ve also given her a couple more complicated projects that I didn’t have time to focus on. I might talk a bit more about all that in my next post.

Early in the summer, someone threw out a big collection of CDs and DVDs over a couple of weeks. I had pretty much given up on the spot, figuring they were done decluttering or whatever, but then found a bit more stuff there including a Canon camera, nice stones, and a coin collection ft. silver. They seem to be done now, but I’ll keep an eye on the situation. There were probably 3x the number of CDs than there are in that picture, but I sold a bunch to a local store and some to friends. I brought the rest to a local auction place along with all the DVDs last week, and they are currently up for bidding. All the DVDs are in this one lot, minus a few box sets I gave to other sellers.

Here’s a few random finds. I just picked up that chair this week, it seems to be someone’s unfinished project piece. It has enough little flaws that maybe they gave up on finishing it, but it’s very throne-like and might be fun at a yard sale. If you remember the ones from the spring, I’ve had pretty good luck finding SLR/DSLR cameras this year. I give those to a friend to sell, she knows a lot more about them than I do.

And we’ll finish off with a couple treasures. Above are a few things I saved from a bin earlier in the summer. The picture turned out badly, but the compact is gold plated 800 silver featuring a nice enamel portrait. The single earring was 18k and pretty hefty, so worth several hundred dollars just for scrap. On the right is an Honest Ed 80th Birthday watch, maybe I’ll ad a better picture of that later. It’s not gold unfortunately, but a fun bit of Canadian/Torontonian history regardless.

Below is a bit of jewelry I picked up on a rainy day last week. Most of the necklaces were really tangled, perhaps to the point where they tossed them due to a mix of frustration and apathy. Most were Swarovski, and one was a fine 14k gold piece with lots of colourful stones (the top piece inside the box).

There’s a lot more to share, and hopefully I’ll get it done relatively soon!

Summer pt.1

garbagefinds8 Comments

Hello all. It’s been a busy month. My mom moved to the city in early July, and the family has been helping her settle in. I’ve also spent some more time in that hole, maybe I’ll post a few more finds from that next time. Moving day wasn’t all that exciting, but at least I got some exercise from biking and walking around the neighbourhood. I did find a few change dumps, and a mixer thingy I have to find a cable for.

 

In the spring, precious metals were near all-time high prices and seemed to be popping up pretty much everywhere. Now that the prices are lower, I’m not finding as much, which I think goes to show that there’s not much logic to what ends up in the trash. I still found a bit though, including a Tiffany baby rattle and a flimsy 10k gold bracelet at one spot, a tiny Tiffany heart and a couple other bits at another, and then a little bag filled with someone’s scrap silver elsewhere.

My favourite spot might have been this dumpster. It’s always a bit of a struggle to dig around in these things, but this one wasn’t too bad. I picked up a bunch of dishes, old jars, and miscellaneous junk.

I enjoyed saving this, which I think is a variety of a “God in a bottle.” Apparently these were popular in the Irish community, and this person did indeed appear to have Irish roots. Apparently it was made in Montreal in December 1938, and the images are covered in celluloid. It might have been made to hold holy water, but there isn’t any evidence anyone ever put water inside. I’d be afraid to now, since the celluloid appears to be peeling up in places (also, the cap doesn’t seem to open). Regardless, it’s a neat artifact, one I might keep for my own collection.

I also scrounged up some smaller treasures. There is a bit of silver and a tiny amount of gold in the middle box on the right. I was hoping that mesh bag was sterling, but it was not. Inside the plastic rosary case was an old Blarney pin.

Otherwise I have a few spots I’m currently keeping an eye on – I’ll save finds from those for another post. A friend was able to quickly flip a brand new Amazon quality espresso machine for 100$, and three of those Amisco stools for 200$. I was excited about the spot that produced those near-mint Christian Dior sunglasses, but I haven’t seen anything there since. The pottery is from that dumpster, just a bit of what I saved but the only pieces I had time to photograph.