I had planned to take last Thursday off to get myself organized. However, I ended up doing a mini-run when I agreed to pick up a friend in the Golden Square Mile area. This pile sat in front of a gigantic house north of Docteur Penfield.
Inside the boxes were more boxes full of Kashi granola bars and Kellogg’s Rice Krispie squares. All the bars are hermetically sealed and don’t even seem to be expired. My room-mates and I have been eating them without any problems. The Kashi bars are actually reasonably healthy and have made for a good morning snack. This stuff ain’t cheap – I imagine that all of this would cost over 100$ if bought new in the store.
Just off Cote-des-Neiges I found a few small, salvageable items in a black bag, including: a funky candle-holder, a pair of 9kt gold cufflinks, earrings (also likely made from gold), and an odd piece (perhaps a former magnifying glass?) made from sterling silver. The precious metals are going into my scrap tin for eventual sale to a jeweller. The picture frames were a bit worn out, otherwise they would have been a great find as well.
I also stopped at the place where I found that beautiful cast iron pan a couple weeks ago. This time there was a bit more kitchenware, including four corkscrews (one of which is a cool wooden one), a nice Corningware casserole dish, a 1950s-era ashtray from a restaurant in New York, and a pot full of perfectly healthy baby jade plants. If not for a little chip and mild discolouration I could maybe get 20$ for the ashtray; instead it’s just good yard sale material. I always love saving Corningware stuff – it’s a great product that’s still perfectly useful today.
I took Friday off but got back on the hunt early Monday morning. I woke up very early, around 4am, to give my friend a ride to the airport bus. I decided to take advantage of the early start, checking out familiar spots in St Henri and Ville St Laurent before going to check out Côte Saint-Luc for the first time.
Côte Saint-Luc was better than expected, given that the borough imposes a maximum of three garbage bags per household. This recently sold house definitely exceeded that limit, though most of the stuff ended up being junk. I saved a Wollensak cassette recorder, a couple of ancient bottles of wine made for the Opimian Society (a Montreal-based wine club), and a little 40 card tarot deck.
This house in Côte Saint-Luc was more productive. There was a bunch of good stuff packed away in that bin, such as: a nice baseball trophy; four glass flowers (that somehow weren’t broken); a set of coasters; a birdhouse; a Montreal “March to Jerusalem” medallion; some wine and shot glasses; and two Expo 67 season passes, both of which are packed with stamps. The watch is nice, but unfortunately doesn’t seem to work.
However, my favourite find since last post came totally by accident. I was out walking to a friend’s house in the Mile End on Saturday and came across this stuff on Clark. It had been raining heavily.
This trunk caught my eye immediately. It was beautiful and I wanted it bad – I just had to make sure there weren’t any bugs involved in its tossing.
Fortunately, while I doing an inspection a pizza delivery guy came and rang the bell of the house. After the transaction was completed I asked the person who lived there if they were throwing out the trunk, and if it was good to take. He told me he was moving and he didn’t have any use for it, which is what I expected given the “for sale” sign in front of his house and the delivered pizza (classic moving food!). I called my friend and she helped me get it home.
It’s a really great piece. It was made from cedar by the Honderich Furniture Company of Milverton Ontario, likely in the 30s or 40s. It has the usual trunk space but also a shelf at the bottom. There’s a few small cosmetic issues but overall it’s in amazing condition. If I were to sell it I imagine I could get at least 200, maybe even 300 dollars for it, but since it’s so useful for storage I’m going to keep it myself.
On Tuesday I went on a run through Montreal North, Anjou, and a little bit of RDP but came away totally empty-handed. I doubt I’ll go back to these boroughs any time soon – it’s a long way to go for a two-days-a-week garbage pick-up. My preference is neighbourhoods with only one garbage pick-up day a week, as such as arrangement offers much more bang for the buck. Regardless, I’m trying to explore some new neighbourhoods before the cold comes. My next new stop might be Lasalle or Lachine.
Last weeks garbage sales / trades (October 13 – October 19)
-Shell’s Wide World of Golf magazine, 1965: on eBay for 34$. Found early this summer in Snowdon.
-3 teacups: to a reader for 45$. From the October 11th post.
-Film slides: traded to a friend for a sandwich. From the October 17th post.
-Sugar refractometer and salt box: to a reader for 13$ and a jar of honey. The honey is home-made and delicious. It will be put to good use! The sugar refractometer was from the post on October 11th while the salt box was part of the kitchenwares from October 5th.
Total: 92$ (+ sandwich and honey), 4806.75$ since May 18th. A below average week, but one that still provided a bit of cash flow.
New listings
Lot of 11 vintage batteries
Lot of 3 Merkur “Tribes of Israel” ball point pens
Vintage Bulova Sea King automatic watch movement
Set of 2 Aynsley tea cups, fruit, signed D Jones
Vintage Maruyama figurine, “Made in Occupied Japan”
Vintage Footed JL Menau trinket / jewellery box
Vintage Chinese cloisonné urn
Black, floral Paragon Fine Bone China tea cup and saucer
Flaine (France) skiing pin
“Needle Point” Royal Albert bone china tea cup
Beck of London magnifier
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If you have a question, see anything that you’re interesting in buying, or to just want to say hello feel free to email me at thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I also enjoy reading your comments!