Coins & Watches

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I’ve been pretty prolific when it comes to taking photos of the stuff I find recently. However, I haven’t been nearly as good at posting them. I think I get a little overwhelmed trying to figure out how to group all these photos together for a post, and the overwhelm leads to inaction … so for now I think I’m going to switch to posting 1-3 photos at a time.

This batch of junk came from the CD/DVD tossers from a couple posts back. They seem to have moved now, so that’s it from them. Most notable from this batch was a big batch of mostly modern coins and a nice collection of fashion watches, including a DKNY and a Diesel and a stupid (in my opinion) novelty one made out of wood. The Victorinox pocket watch is pretty cool as well, and that G keychain is silver. I also saved a lot of saleable clothes (and a lot more donate bin-worthy ones), and like 6 big packs of brand new fancy wet wipes which are useful in the car for when I get my hands dirty.

Also, now that my mom’s in the “family business”, I thought that maybe I could get her to help with another duty I struggle with – emails. So if you have any purchase or other requests, you can send an email to thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com and actually get a response (I have given her a license to nag). Just remember some things will be gone by the time I post them. However, some won’t be. For example, I still have all these watches, partly because I need to get batteries in them before I know for sure if they actually work.

Family business

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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

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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!