Month: November 2012

VIC 20

garbagefinds7 Comments

Here’s what I found last night:

I pulled a big box of cutlery out of a trash bag somewhere in the lower Plateau. I don’t really need cutlery (see previous post), so I just left it next to a couple of park benches nearby. There was also a couple of cutting boards, a decent looking teflon frying pan, and a paintbrush.

I guess someone did some cleaning and decided to get rid of their old collection of trophies. They seems to be from the late 80s to early 90s, covering a range of sports including hockey and soccer.

A pile of trash eh? Let’s take a look.

Old electronics eh? I’m always a sucker for old electronics…

Looks like I found an old computer setup. The main piece is the Commodore VIC 20, a machine that was made in the early 80s and predates the more famous Commodore 64. I imagine the VIC 20 to be the androgynous, kinder hearted sibling of Hal 9000, but I might be weird. There’s also a disk drive (1541), a printer (MP 801), and a tape drive (datassette), all of which bear the Commodore name. Back in the day you’d hook this all up to the TV and play really old games or write books or do whatever it is that people did on computer back in the early 80s.

The only part missing is the power cable for the VIC 20, which is unfortunately because it’s the part that makes the whole deal basically untestable. A couple of pieces you could turn on independently though. I turned on the printer and it made those nice dot matrix sounds and moved around a bit. The disk drive turned on and made an effort to read what wasn’t there. That’s a good sign for those pieces and the likelihood that the other pieces work too.

There’s some collectors value to the VIC 20, though less so without being able to test it. I may try to buy that wire, see if it works, and then sell it or barter it or whatever. I’ll keep you posted!

Old silver cutlery

garbagefinds5 Comments

I found this silver plated cutlery with the stuff from a few weeks back. One of the guys bringing things from the apartment down to the curb offered this to me, talking about how good it is and how much nicer it is to use than normal cutlery.

It was all somewhat tarnished so I figured I’d clean it up.

I used this fairly natural technique, which only uses baking soda (and aluminum foil). It ended up working pretty well.

Most of them shined up pretty nice! Some are probably a bit worn from years of use and so probably can’t be fully cleaned, but they’re still good to use. They’ll probably go into my cutlery drawer, replacing the stainless steel stuff.

Much of the cutlery are marked as being made by the Oneida Community. The Oneida Community was a Christian socialist commune that emerged in the mid 1800s. They engaged in group marriage, selective breeding (a form of eugenics), communal parenting, and shared work. They were pretty industrious, creating many businesses including the silverware company which still exists today.

There’s a few other names in here: W.M.A Rogers (which was bought out by Oneida at some point), 1881 Rogers, Winthrop, Deerfield, Peerless, and Cassidy’s Hotel.

A couple of spoons stood out from the bunch:

This spoon, marked “Tudor Plate Oneida Community” on the back, has an odd bowling pin design on the top and is marked “W M 228” on the front. A brief google search didn’t help me discover what was different about this spoon.

And this was the only sterling silver spoon. It has some really nice enamel at the top which livens up a nice maple leaf design. It feels very Canadian. I feel like it’s the slightest bit bent and there’s some discoloration on the spoon that I don’t think I can get off. Still, pretty cute spoon which worst comes to worst is probably worth a bit in melt value alone!

That’s all for now. I’m going to bike around and look for some more stuff – I have a feeling that there’ll be some nice stuff out tonight.

Site News: Etsy store now live

garbagefinds1 Comment

I’m happy to announce that my Etsy store is finally up and running! I have 20 things on there, which I figure is enough to call it a store. I should be adding more things soon as I still have a lot of stuff in my room (a lot of which is ephemera). The store revolves nearly exclusively on the vintage stuff I’ve found.

I do my research on each item to try to ascertain the “market value” of the items. I strive to have competitive prices and also to make a little salary from the hours I’ve invested. Etsy listings last four months before having to be renewed, so I figure if a listing lasts three months without selling I’ll put it on sale. Something to keep in mind if you see something but you’re not sure if you want to spend that kind of cash.

Without further ado, here it is!