I was out doing errands on Monday and came across these three large, somewhat angular trash bags. I remembered seeing a moving truck in the same general area only a few days prior and decided they were worth checking out – sometimes people leave behind good stuff when they move.
Inside one of the bags was a bow with a quiver and arrows. The bow isn’t anything too fancy but it’s still very tight and functional. I had a fun time learning how to shoot it and did a reasonable job aiming at a target around 20 metres away. The quiver looks hand-made as do some of the arrows, though there are a couple that look to have been store bought. I’m going to play around with this a bit longer before I think about selling it.
I went to my top “producer” spot around midnight that same day. I usually go in the mornings but there was rain in the forecast and I figured it would be best if I got there early.
The first thing I noticed was this beautiful old Underwood typewriter (on the left hand side near the pole). It’s in pretty good cosmetic condition but there’s some rusting on the mechanism that makes typing impossible. The space bar also doesn’t seem to work. These are things that could potentially be fixed but it’s not worth it for me to try. If you’d like this as a project or just as a decoration send me an email at thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com and maybe we can work something out.
In three different bags I found three separate collections of coins – I’d guess mementos from different vacations or trips. Most of the coins were from 1940s-1960s Europe with the ones in the plastic bag tending to be the oldest.
My favourite coins were a 1884 20 Rappen coin from Switzerland and a 1943 Franc from Nazi-occupied France (“État Français” instead of the usual “Republique”). I also took a liking to a New York City Transit token, a France public telephone token (dated 1937), a 1955 Farthing with a cute image of a bird on it and an old, likely silver-plated Israeli pendant.
This vintage casino chip is pretty cool too. It has a very pleasant yellow hue and lustre while also having a nice feel and sound. The design looks very 30s or 40s and it’s likely made of an early plastic such as Bakelite or Catalin.
I was planning on taking a few weeks off from my usual Wednesday TMR run but ended up going there this morning anyway.
I found some decent books in front of a recently sold house. The Mordecai Richler books will definitely sell at a yard sale as he’s one of Montreal’s most famous writers. I’ve heard good things about Timothy Findley too.
I also found a working lamp and a pair of opera binoculars.
These bags contained a lot of old electronic junk.
I saw this doohickey and had to have it. I have no idea what it does – the only writing on the thing is “Taiwan.” Red dots on the right hand side light up when you turn it on and you can illuminate other areas using the various dials and switches. If anyone has an idea what this is let me know. The design looks very 70s.
I also brought home some unused circuit-boards and 5.25″ floppies. One pack of floppies is unopened while the other contains DOS and an early version of Windows. People still pay for sealed floppies believe it or not – this pack went for 14$.
There wasn’t much else so I figured I’d beef up this post with a few deserving finds that didn’t make the blog previously. I’ve been stopping at one house near the northern end of the neighbourhood for a couple of months now (you can tell from the snow!). There’s never been enough to warrant a separate blog post but there’s a couple of things I want to show you.
I found this nice sterling silver pillbox pendant inside a bag with a bunch of old pencils and other miscellaneous junk. It’s made by a company (or person?) called Mackenzie. There are still pills (or mints) inside the container which you open by lifting the black tab. I remember doing my research on this and concluding it was worth around 80 bucks. It’s heavily tarnished and I have to figure out whether to clean it or sell it as is.
I really love this 1977 Montreal Grey Cup flag. I like the design and the way it features Olympic Stadium – it was a novel piece of architecture at the time! I think I could sell it for 50$ or more as it seems to be hard to find (a google search brought up no similar items) but for now I enjoy having it on the wall above the chair in my den.
I’m going to start detailing my sales a little better. Here’s the tally for last week (May 18-25):
–Selle Italia bike seat (f. April 5) – Ebay for 85.88$
-Specialized bike seat (f. April 5) – Ebay for 50$
–Ste Therese shrine (f. May 16) – to a reader for 15$
Not a banner week for sales but not bad either. I’m nearing maximum capacity for yard sale stuff so I’ll have to have another one soon, that should boost profits a bit. I’m going to go back and try to calculate my income for the year to date. I hope to have that ready for you by next post.