The 5 million dollar house

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One of my most recent spots was a big house in a nice neighbourhood. It had been put on the market, and I guessed it was going for 5 million. I checked online and it turns out I was just about right, although I would have lost by Price is Right rules – 4.995m. It was a nice, if bland house with a sweet swimming pool. When I’m picking the trash of people this well off, I’m hoping they go “full privilege.” In my financial position, I can spend 1-10$ and not really regret it at all. I assume that some of the people that make 100x what I do, probably feel the same way about 100-1000$ transactions.

These guys never went full privilege, to their credit. No gold, not much jewelry. A lot of empty Hermes boxes, but only a couple of Hermes products (perfumes). I saved a bunch of clothes, but most were really boring so I donated them. Same with the household and kitchen stuff.

Of course I did save a few notable things, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting about it. One day a bunch of picture frames got tossed; I took some yard sale quality ones and left some junkier ones. This one looks pretty plain, but was easily the most valuable of that bunch. It’s a solid silver Tiffany frame, and given that it weighs over 100 grams, it’s worth about 400$ for scrap. Given the dents, scratches, and other defects, I think that’s all it is, but obviously a find like that makes my trash run worthwhile.

I also made a decent amount of money from these iPhones. It’s very rare that I find an iPhone that isn’t locked to iCloud (and therefore essentially a brick), but I usually give them a charge just in case. It turned out that two of the three were reset prior to being tossed. They both had a couple issues, one with the camera and one with a cracked back screen, but they were relatively modern (iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max), and I was able to easily sell them to a local business for 150$ and 195$ respectively. In the past I would have sold them on eBay, but this way saved me a lot of hassle and I think the price was very fair. The 3rd one is doomed to the e-waste pile unfortunately.

Other decent if unexciting finds include a couple small pieces of silver, a nice pewter wine funnel, and some new-in-box Wifi doohickies I was able to sell pretty easily on eBay for 80$ a pop. These folks have since moved, but this spot was nice while it lasted.

I decided to quit Instagram the other day. I just don’t like what the app has become. I first joined in 2015 when it was a fun, casual space. Now it’s all about reels, AI slop, and promoting addictive (and often fake) information. Funny enough though, after I quit I started having the temptation to post again. However, I think I can just post the same type of content here, where there are no ads and no BS. So, maybe I’ll do a new type of post soon, once I get enough random pictures to make it worthwhile.

I’ve been fairly lucky recently. Last week I had a couple nice gold hauls, from spots that were easy to pick. This week, I’ve come across two hoarder type piles, which were a lot of work to sort through and provided no easy money. However, there’s no way to know what you’re going to find, and who knows, maybe the easy money is coming next week. Also, the hoarder piles tend to produce more interesting yard sale quality junk.

Jim

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On February 15th, around 1:40 in the morning, my stepdad passed away after a long battle with Lewy Body dementia. Lewy Body is a progressive disease, so the outcome was largely foretold and the main unknown was the exact timing.

My biological dad died from lung cancer when I was 12, so in a lot of ways Jim ended up being the primary father figure in my life. And I’m not sure where I’d be if not for his influence. For example, when I was young, I was generally anxious, painfully shy and largely avoided other humans. I refused to eat much besides peanut butter and jam sandwiches and disliked most food. My dad was a little too laissez-faire, Jim was more proactive.

I remember he made me sit at the table until I finished my chunky soup. I cried a bunch (I was probably like 8, ha ha), but I ate that soup. And now today, the only food I truly hate is olives.

He also made me start talking to people. I would have to call restaurants to make reservations, golf courses to make tee times, and so on. And what do you know, I ended up coming out of my shell, and became a reasonably functional human bean (pun intended, one of his favourites). It was basic exposure therapy, but it worked.

He was determined and sometimes bull-headed, which led him down many different paths. Most famously, he formed Operation Dismantle to oppose nuclear proliferation, and if you were Canadian and watching or listening to the news in the late 70s and 80s, there’s a good chance you saw him on your TV. More recently, he was focused on his own vision of world federalism, where his idealism led him down a path well before its time.

I hadn’t seen him since 2014, due to my own illness (agoraphobia/fear of traveling), and then his progressing dementia. I’ll always regret my part in that, but it is what it is. We grew apart for a few years there, and then the Lewy Bodies made it impossible to build much on the foundation afterwards. He had a hard time relating to my mental issues, which are apparently too complicated to be solved by exposure therapy alone. He never really understood the trash picking either. I think he doubted the long-term viability of it, which is fair. Only in recent years do I think, without a doubt, that I’ve proven that making an ok living doing this is possible. But by that time, his brain wasn’t working so well anymore.

He always loved owls and had a nice collection of miniatures. I sold him a bunch more several years back, when I found a nice collection on the curb. His brain was starting to go around then, so I’m not sure the headspace he was in when he decided to buy them. Maybe he just liked the owls, or maybe he just wanted to connect. Regardless, I’ll soon inherit a few of my favourites, as well as some other stuff. Dealing with someone’s possessions can be overwhelming, which is partly why some of it ends up in the trash (even when it’s treasure), but I think our family knows how to deal with it in the best way possible.

Anyways, he could be a pain in the arse sometimes, but no one could dispute his passion and his dedication to the betterment of humanity as a whole. He didn’t like religion and didn’t believe in heaven, but I’m more of an agnostic. Who knows, maybe some part of him is still out there, and hopefully he’s proud of what comes next for both me and humanity (even if it’s looking a little bleak right now).

Stuff and things

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It’s been one of the harshest winters in recent memory, but enough decent trash has been trickling out to make my picking expeditions worthwhile. I went for a walk around my old neighbourhood in early January, and came across these bags.

Inside was mostly kid’s toys and junk, but for some reason a couple of doctor’s tools were mixed in. Maybe a retired doctor gave their grandkids their old devices to play with, who knows. Regardless, they were in pretty good cosmetic condition, and weren’t all that old either. The otoscope (above) battery was shot, but it held power for long enough to test the lights on the components. These things retail for over 1k new, and I was able to sell this one pretty quickly for 200$.

I also found and listed this sphygmomanometer. It’s not worth as much, but should fetch 50-100$.

I found another little jewelry stash that probably belonged to someone’s teenage years. Mostly junk, but there was one nice 14k gold butterfly necklace that made my trip worthwhile.

I mentioned one particular spot being notable for one other thing in my last post. That one thing was a big collection of perfume. Pretty nice stuff, and mostly fairly recent and fresh. I gave first dibs to someone who helps me sell things on Facebook, 2nd to a regular perfume buyer, and sold one on eBay for a total profit of around 400$. But I’ve still got a bunch left – selling used perfume on eBay is a pain after recent policy changes. If anyone knows any alternative selling platforms for perfume, let me know! Apparently Marketplace isn’t all that great for perfumes either, with lots of companies using algorithms to flag anyone trying to sell their used product. (To be fair, if they didn’t MP would be filled with fake Chanel #5 and whatnot).

Otherwise, I’ve done well this winter re-organizing and decluttering my garage. That includes listing some items that had been sitting around for years, and also processing some new arrivals quickly. The Breitling watch box and knife sharpener were recent finds that sold quickly (80 & 100$ respectively). The same applies to the otoscope above, which quickly listed then sold. Of the things that had been collecting dust for at least a year, my relatively quick sales included optometry paraphernalia, a stamp collection featuring a lot of vintage big blocks from Iraq, Pokemon-themed “Mighty Beanz”, an emergency beacon thing for avalanche safety, and an old projector lens. The lens felt like the dustiest of the bunch, but sold within an hour or so of listing for 100$. I still have some work to do, but am more organized than I’ve been in a very long time.

There was a death in my family recently. It wasn’t a surprise really, but regardless it sucks when that time comes. My next post will be dedicated to him.