Today’s trip to TMR was a bit more social than usual: two people went out of their way to offer me things to take home and one told me I didn’t have the “right” (tu n’as pas le droit!) to look through the trash. It was fine though, his bin contained nothing even vaguely interesting anyway.
There were plenty of decent things on the curb today. I ended up leaving a lot at the Give Box on St Viateur, including some nice dishes and knick-knacks. Nothing I took home was particularly mind-blowing but there were still some solid finds.
Recently I’ve been trying to snap shots of the trash before I start fully rummaging through it. I feel adding the pictures of the curbed trash to the blog adds context and helps to illustrate how unexceptional these piles often look from the outside. I prefer to include a picture where the garbage is unperturbed and truly “as it was”. However, I’m not sure it will always make sense to do this. Some trash looks interesting and then isn’t, making the photo-taking process useless. Taking a photo is also something that people find a bit sketchy and if someone happens to be watching they might feel the need to confront me or to call the authorities. Regardless, I’ll do this as long as I feel comfortable doing so going forward.
(To clarify, this comment is totally unrelated to the story of the man above who told me I didn’t have the “right.” I hadn’t taken a photo of his offerings.
Anyway, let’s get to the garbage. These bins were in front of the same place where I found a bunch of old framed photos a few weeks back. They’ve been slowly clearing house and throwing a bit of stuff away each week, though it’s not always particularly exciting.
And this week… more framed photos! There’s some nice old family photos but nothing quite as interesting as last time around. The frames are all great, however. I’ll give some to a friend to mine to put her artwork in.
Inside the blue bag in the left bin was this Coleman-brand propane camping stove. It even comes with a half-full propane canister, which I wouldn’t think is a good thing to throw in the compacter. It looks to be in pretty good condition.
Most of my take-homes came from this spot, the same one where I found the stamp collection two weeks ago. After looking through some of the trash bags a woman came outside and began offering me things. She ended up giving me a metal shovel, a little table and a big (again half-full) canister of propane propane (this is a reference to one of Leahy’s crazier moments on Trailer Park Boys if anyone’s wondering). She told me she was helping her mom clear house before a move.
She said she was going to bring things to Renaissance (a local thrift store) but there were definitely donate-able items inside the bags. Maybe there’s so much inside that it’s kind of overwhelming to sort through.
This vintage 1972 Raggedy Ann / Andy refuse bin is pretty cute and somewhat collectible. I have a friend I think might like it.
I really like the classic design of this mug made to commemorate Canada’s centennial. By the looks of it I’d guess it was made by Beauce, a company in the south of Quebec that produced a fair bit of ceramics back in the day.
Inside the black bags was a worldly collection of knick-knacks and souvenirs. The figures on the left, which have bells underneath by the way, are souvenirs of New Orleans. The container in the middle was made in the USSR. The brass plate in the background was made by Peerage in England and is somewhat collectible. We also have a couple Eiffel Towers (from France I’d presume), miniature swords from Toledo, and souvenirs from the port of Quebec and some railway in B.C. On the bottom is a 10k gold-filled retractable pencil made for IBM. It’s actually pretty sweet and a similar one on Ebay sold for 21$.
There were a few wooden plaques, one for something (?) in Germany, one commemorating the first Canada-US run by Via Rail (in 1982 if anyone’s wondering), and one for a Balliol College in Oxford (England).
This beautiful wooden crucifix possesses a secret compartment hidden behind the Christ. I can’t figure out how to open it, though from what I can see there’s just a couple candles in there anyway.
Two vintage tins. These are great for storing away junk you find in the trash!
This program from a 1973 recital at the NAC in Ottawa wraps up the items from that spot (for this week at least!). The show featured Joan Sutherland, a famous opera singer who died in 2010 at the age of 83. What’s interesting about the program is that it appears to be signed by Sutherland herself – a comparison with ones I see on Ebay checks out. I doubt it’s worth any more than 10$ but it’s still cool to find. I had never heard of her before, here’s a sample of her singing if you’re interested.
Now for a few things from last week. I found this vintage pack of cards in TMR last Wednesday and only today (upon cleaning out the car) did I notice that they were made by Gucci. A pair of decks like this recently sold on Ebay for 100$, believe it or not, and while mine aren’t in quite as good shape they should still garner 20-30$.
My Friday trip to Rosemont also provided a few good finds, including this brand-new-in-box Bally continental wallet. It came from the same house as where I found the stereo set-up the week prior. These people are apparently ballers – they also threw out three good watches and a couple pieces of silver jewellery. This is an excellent quality wallet that I have reasonably (based on my research) put on Ebay for 150$.
I came across a collection of black bags in front of a triplex somewhere on 7th Av. Inside the bags was a lot of Christian miscellanea (crucifixes and a 3d picture of Jesus, for example) and jars upon jars of old screws, nails and etc. Whoever owned this stuff was clearly older as no one holds onto things like that these days. My best find was this cute depression-glass ashtray. I’ll check back this Friday to see if I find anything else.
In other news a battery and a battery charger I ordered off Ebay came in. The charger was for a Sony digital camera I found back in December and the battery for a Video 8 Camcorder I procured just a few weeks ago. The new batteries confirm that these pieces work as I expected them to. The camera should sell for around 30-35$ (charger cost: 12$) while the camcorder should sell for around 80 (battery cost: 10$). I’m still expecting a charger for the other camera from that post in December.
I also made a couple of sales. A 10k gold ball necklace sold on Etsy for 96$ and a 1913 silver coin from Germany (which I found with the WWI dog tags a while back) sold for 39$.
Tomorrow morning will be pretty messy, both rain and snow are in the forecast. I plan on making it out regardless, however. If I’m feeling adventurous I’ll go to Westmount for the first time, if not I’ll go to Rosemont.
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If you are interested in buying any of the items you see on my blog I would love to hear from you! Email me at thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you within a few days.