Liquidated

The weather has been quite beautiful recently. Temperatures have stayed mostly above zero and the lack of rain, snow, or strong winds benefits me as a trash picker. There was a heavy rainfall on the weekend (when there is no pick-up) which helped clean the ice off the streets and sidewalks, thus making biking around much more pleasant.

Regardless, I haven’t come up with much so far. I went out on Monday and didn’t find anything of note. I went out both in the morning and in the evening on Tuesday and found little, this despite being “on the hunt” for close to five hours. This morning I went to TMR, finding enough to blog about but not enough to be considered a big score either.

The most notable garbage-related news is that I decided to sell off my scrap silver and gold. It was composed mostly of jewellery pieces that were either broken or not worth trying to sell for more on Ebay and Etsy. I haven’t made any big money or easily liquidated finds recently so it was time to tap into my “reserves.” I went to a store on Mont-Royal that I found on Kijiji and negotiated myself a fair price. All in all I made 1200$, 1150 for the gold and 50 for the silver. Not bad eh!

This influx of cash means I don’t have to worry about paying the rent and bills for a couple of months. I still have a little collection of nice gold and silver jewellery which can be sold for a nice profit as well. Overall I’m feeling much more financially secure than I was before. The feeling of security allows me to be more patient selling things on Ebay, and that’s always a good thing when thinking about long-term profits. It also helps me relax a bit because being broke sucks.

My only regret is that I forget to take a picture of the scrap to show you! All that’s left is these gold-crowned teeth that I spared from the transaction because I figured I should show them to you guys. I found them at that spot on Laval in the Plateau a month or so ago. An interesting thing to find to be sure, and depending on the quality of the gold could be worth around 30-60$.

Now for a bit of trash. Most of my finds came from this place, the same spot where I found some books last week.

I found a bunch of small bullets, which judging by the price sticker were probably bought in the 70s or 80s. Does anyone know if bullets “expire”? They at least seem to be in good cosmetic condition.

There were two ashtrays made from stone and two silver-plated cups. I think the ashtrays are pretty cool, they should sell for a decent bit of cash at a yard sale somewhere down the line.

My favourite find was this little thing, mostly because it’s marked as being 925 silver from Israel. It doesn’t really seem like jewellery as the chain is too small (for reference, the whole piece is about 3″ tall), maybe it’s meant to hang from a wall? Looking closer I think there is some Hebrew script at the bottom, perhaps it could be a religious decoration. I always love finding silver (and gold) and will add this to my collection with the purpose of eventually selling it off. Do you think I should clean it or leave it as is?

There were other finds but nothing too exciting. I left these on the curb for others to take. There’s a nice wooden storage box, a wine cooler, a box full of clothesline wheels and a bag I stuffed full of miscellaneous odds and ends. I expect a lot of this will be gone by the next time I go outside.

The warm weather has definitely energized me. I plan to push myself for the rest of the week. I’ll go out tomorrow morning to Rosemont, perhaps in the evening too if I feel like it. As usual I’ll let you know if I find anything sweet!