I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.
The finds on Tuesday morning were good, but the evening was pretty dry.
I did find this luggage inside one of the above bags. It was musty and a bit damp – it’d probably been in a basement for a long time. There were some pretty random things in there, like a couple of clipboards and a VCR tape for some movie. There was also a bunch of jewelry.
It was all vintage, but not much in the way of precious metals (my standards are getting high eh?). I’ll show you a few pieces though.
A little bracelet (I think) marked “Adrienne.” It’s marked as being “Gold filled” “Sterling base” and “Gold seal.”
A couple of cute teddy bear hair clips.
A nice old sterling silver ring. A few rocks are missing on the front.
Another Waltham watch. This one’s not worth nearly as much as the last one though!
This is an odd little metal box (only 1 inch tall) which opens up to show a figurine of Jesus. The figurine is marked “Germany” on the bottom.
Finally, this is a wooden box I found with the gold Waltham watch from a few weeks back. It contained some of the tobacciana that I posted in the past, so I’m guessing it would have been for that purpose originally.
It’s in decent shape – a little love would probably make it really great. The coolest part though is the inscription (last picture):
“Alfred Wood Lee from Ada Lee Willis, Christmas 1888.” There’s a few symbols lower than that but I don’t recognize them.
This box (and maybe some contents) were a gift for someone about 125 years ago!
I decided to get up early today (well, at 8am) and check out the trash day in the Hochelega neighborhood, which does their trash pick-up in the morning. I’ve gone their at night before and there was never much out so I figured I’d have to check it out in the morning sometime.
Sure enough the streets were full of trash. It was nice to explore a new neighborhood, and also nice that there was actual light outside.
I did have a few nice finds. I’m going to start with a few items from last week I haven’t posted about.
I salvaged this cast iron pan (marked “L’islet Canada”) from certain doom. It’s in fine shape, other than the handle which is a bit broken but still functional. I have two cast iron pans as is so I’ll probably give it away on Craigslist.
Outside of an art supplies store on Villeneuve were these old tapes, most of which seemed to be from the 70s and 80s. I saw a fair bit of classical music and some CBC Radio broadcasts. There were a lot that were unmarked as well. I took a few, but I don’t even know what kind of machine would play these, so I’ll probably leave them on the street where hopefully some audiophile will take a liking to them.
I rummaged through an interesting looking bag and pulled out these cool Buddha themed candleholders. They’re pretty nice, but I’ll likely gift them to someone on Craigslist. Also pictured: ping pong ball my roommate found on the street.
A big stuffed animal tossed on top of a trash pile outside of a daycare. Given that it’s a daycare I imagine there was good reason for this (poop?).
Now for the stuff I found today in Hochelaga:
These old encyclopedias from 1931 were sitting in a box along with a book (in many parts) about World War II by Winston Churchill (in French). I took these largely because the covers were gorgeous. It’s really an amazing looking set. Well, not quite a set, as maybe half are missing, but still good. I may just give these away on Craigslist too. Either that or try to get a small sum on Ebay.
Not far away from the books was this old Aluminum Christmas tree made by a company called “Everglean”. Here’s a great read about the history of the aluminum Christmas tree, which I must admit I never heard of before. That link also contains the picture below, which I can’t help but add to my blog.
I think it’s pretty charming! It’s definitely shiny. In fact that might be the shiniest picture I’ve ever seen.
I snapped a picture of this little desk not long before the garbage truck came and took it away.
I came across a box with six of these textbooks. They’re brand new and still wrapped in plastic. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t want to take that last picture (apparently the cold is indeed hard on batteries). They looked pretty modern and 2011 was marked on the box, so I took and chance and brought them home. New textbooks hold their value pretty well.
When I got home I looked up the ISBN number on my university “book buyback” page, where I discovered that they were offering 40$ for the book. 40 x 6 = 240. I was pretty excited and decided to make a special trip. I knew they’d be a bit skeptical, as having six identical books still in their cover makes one wonder where the books came from (understandably).
In the end they refused to accept the books, saying they were “new” which seemed like an odd reason (and perhaps a made-up one). More likely it was because of what I said above, or the fact that I said I found them in the trash.
I returned home and looked up the book on Ebay. Others of the same kind are selling for 75 dollars. I put mine up for 65, so hopefully I can unload them and make a bit more than I would have got from the university to boot!
A while back I found some old pins, which I included in a post but mostly glazed over. I was poking through my room today and came across them again. I held onto them because they were small, but also because I admired their design and high quality of craftsmanship.
Today I’m going to take a closer look at these pins, which I’m sure tells a little story about the previous owner.
This pin looks fairly militaristic. With some research I found the same one online which provided with a bit of information. The only writing on the front is the letter “EIS,” which apparently stands for Ecole Interarmées des Sports, which is a sports school in France that seems to be closely tied with the military.
A couple of skiing pins, I’m guessing for tournaments in Grenoble and Annecy. I really like the image on the Annecy pin. Both are marked “Augis” (a pin and medal making company) and Lyon.
A couple more pins, likely for skiing. The Flaine one is also made by Augis. I’m not sure what ACSQ stands for, but anything that ends in Q I reckon is probably from Quebec.
This little medal is marked “Champion de France – ASSU 1970” on the back.
A gold medal with no imprints on it. It’s not real gold – a bit has chipped off in a couple of places. It might be gold plate though. There’s a little symbol on the front which looks like a joined up A and L or maybe a U and L. On the back is faintly engraved “Stokes Mele,” or at least that’s what I think it says. I can’t find that on Google though, so who knows.
Finally, this is a 1968 Grenoble Olympcs Participation pin. The guy on Ebay is trying to sell it for over 100$, so this might be a good find after all. There’s something to be said for looking through your old stuff!
