Last week began with a Sunday night run to Cote St-Luc. I went mostly to check on a recently-sold house that’s been somewhat productive recently. This time around the garbage gods offered me a Nikon film camera (with case and another lens); a collection of softballs and baseballs; two frisbees; a nice crystal glass ashtray; a portable radio; and a bundle of thin candles.
It’s always nice finding film cameras. The market (especially in my area of Montreal) seems to be pretty strong these days and I shouldn’t have any trouble unloading it.
This spot in Ville St-Laurent produced most of my best finds of the week. It was heavy garbage day, which in VSL means you can put out whatever you want. This stuff looked to be the remains of someone cleaning out a house. The boxes were mostly filled with old books and decades worth of National Geographic magazines.
From the many boxes I saved: a complete set of 1926 “The Source Book” encyclopedias; a complete set of 1937 “World’s Popular Encyclopedias”; a collection of Canadian and Quebec law books from the early 1900s; books about insurance law and industrial psychology; beautiful tomes on the topics of municipal and commercial law (from 1917 and 1916 respectively); a series of Canadian Annual Reviews from the 20s and 30s; an early 50s “Royal Romance” magazine by the Daily Mail; two nice old missals from the early 50s (with an embroidered lithograph of Pope John VI tucked away inside); a few of the older National Geographic magazines; a photo book about the death of President Kennedy; a 1946 copy of Tolstoi’s “Anna Karenine”; “New book of stories for the young,” written by Mary Howitt and published in 1850; a cool book about pure-breed dogs published by the American Kennel Club in 1935; and an interesting but horribly backwards book about heredity, featuring some now reprehensible views on eugenics.
Apart from all the books, I also saved a great old hand-carved jewellery box, a cute old picture frame, and a box of vintage “Made in Canada” mason jars.
This little pile wasn’t too far away. I took away two nice vintage lampshades and a few good picture frames.
This was an odd find. This plaque, made from some type of hardboard, commemorates the thousands of Irish that died from ship fever (typhus) while coming to Canada to escape from famine in 1847 and 1848. Most died at a quarantine facility on Grosse Île, an island near Quebec City. I’m not sure if it’s actually from 1909, but I imagine it’s quite old either way. It definitely tells an interesting story! My guess is that it had been in a garage or basement for quite some time. If anyone has anything to add to the story let us know in the comments.
On the way home I took a little detour through Hampstead. I originally stopped just to take a photo of all the junk left behind from Halloween decorating, but decided to take a closer look when I saw a “fun-sized” box of Smarties on the sidewalk. It lay right next to a bag that squirrels had chewed a hole through. When I opened the bag I found five large boxes (four unopened) of Halloween candy. It had just expired so maybe whoever it was didn’t want to hold onto it for another year. Either way, my room-mates and I gorged ourselves for days! It’s finally (and thankfully!) all gone, as of yesterday.
Speaking of halloween-related waste, t’is the season for tossing away perfectly good pumpkins! I think lots of people forget that you can totally eat pumpkins. Just to clarify, these aren’t jack-o-lanterns, which I personally wouldn’t eat, but complete pumpkins used for decoration. My room-mate has made a couple of these into food (soup as well as muffins) but a few still need to be processed before they truly go rotten.
The rest of the week was pretty slow. I came up mostly empty in Mount Royal, outside of one spot that produced a painting easel, 1.35$ in Canadian tire money, and a mound of small change (but including one loonie). I didn’t go on much of a run on Thursday, though I did find a nice vintage / antique office chair (made by PH Krug of Kitchener) on Drummond in the Golden Square Mile. Friday’s run in Cote St-Paul was complete dud!
Last week’s garbage sales (November 3 – November 9)
-Tobacco pipe: to a reader for 5$. From my last post.
-Blue glass cups, figurines: to a reader for 10$. The cups were from Mount Royal, the figurines from Park Ex.
-EG&G flash tube: on eBay for 46$. Found last heavy garbage day in Ville St Laurent.
-Rollei camera filters: on eBay for 116$. Nice sale! I listed this early last week, and it sold within a day. Found last week in Mount Royal.
Total: 177$, 5563.75$ since May 18th. A solid, move the chains type of week.
New listings
Rollei color filters, hood (SOLD!)
Old Spice shaving mug and two razors
Vintage cigar cutter / utility knife
Frontenac Export Ale vintage bottle opener, copyright 1912
Grindley England Electrolux mug
Three lids for vintage Pyrex refrigerator dishes
Vintage Telefunken portable radio
Link to my 129 eBay listings
Link to my Etsy store
Note: I offer local buyers a (often significant) discount on all eBay prices. Email me for more details.
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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!