May 2015 – Page 4 – Things I find in the garbage

Clubmaster

May 14, 2015 garbagefinds29 Comments

It’s a bit of a shorter post this week, though the sales section is a bit heftier than usual! I started my week with a heavy trash day in Ville St Laurent. I didn’t find much outside of this somewhat familiar spot. I saved the black chair on the right side of the photos, a few cans of food …

… and a cool Montreal Alouettes banner. The logo is similar to the one used between 1946 and 1969 (thanks to the people of the CFL subreddit for their help!) but it’s hard to pin down an exact date. I couldn’t find anything like it on eBay.

Hampstead and NDG (my recent Monday night runs) seem to be drying up, so my next notable finds came from Mount Royal. I stopped at the spot that produced all the postage stamps last week. The house is sold, so I presume they’re moving out pretty soon.

My finds this time were smaller and more manageable. Inside one bag was a 20gb iPod “U2 Special Edition” and 80gb Zune. I don’t have a cable for the Zune (though they are cheap to order online) and the iPod seems to have some issues, but I should be able to make some money off them regardless. An iPod in similar condition sold for around 40$ on eBay, while an 80gb Zune that doesn’t turn on seems to go for about 50$. If anyone out there is thinking of trying to make some money trash picking, it’s good to remember that broken stuff can still make you cash!

Otherwise I found a Mont Blanc pen, which is in fine shape other than the fact that it’s missing a little chunk of gold plate;

… a pair of cufflinks, which test as being sterling silver (the logo on the back is a bit strange – it looks like a portrait of a wolf in a suit);

… a little stone trinket box marked as being made in India;

… and a small rock collection. It seems like people are throwing out a lot of cool rocks these days!

I came across some moving sale remains later on. I know that because I found a sign to the sale in the recycling bin.

There were a lot of decent housewares but I could only save some of them. Having a small car, not much storage space, and no time (as I still have to run a business, make a living, and write the blog) means I have to leave behind a lot of good stuff that in a perfect world I’d take and donate to charity. It’s sometimes disheartening, but in the end there’s not much I can do. The most important thing for me is that I save the things that are most interesting and unique, and I think I do a good job at that.

I can’t figure out what these things are. They’re silver plate, and I found them inside a sealed plastic bag with a 50$ price tag stuck to it. My friend Sarah thought they might be those things you put on a turkey after you cook it, which is definitely better than any guess I had. What do you think?

This VCR was out in front of the pile. It’s a JVC HR-7650U, and believe it or not one that was brand new (never used, I guess) sold on eBay for 500$. That’s pretty nuts! I haven’t even tested this one out yet, but I suspect there’s a market for it even if it doesn’t work. Why exactly it’s collectible I can’t be sure but this machine is heavy and looks to be pretty well made.

Otherwise, I saved a stack of records,

… a few wooden trinket boxes,

… a collection of books,

… two stand-up bass figurines made by Lamore China in Occupied Japan,

… and a nice Sombrero. It was made by a company called Pigalle.

I also stopped at the place that provided the lawn bowling balls and chess board last week.

This week I found some cool Ray Ban “Clubmaster” sunglasses. These frames are totally hip right now and sell used for around 100$ on eBay.

There was also a box of musty clothes, inside of which was an old college football jacket. It looks like something a jock would wear in a heavily clichéd high school movie. Apparently whoever lives here was a college champion in the early 1980s. I’d show you a picture, but it probably makes the person a bit too easy to track down.

Wednesday night run through Cote St-Luc and Westmount produced little. I think I’ll change things up a bit next (this) week and maybe go to Verdun or Rosemont. On Thursday night I went to Westmount, and came across this little pile in Snowdon along the way.

There wasn’t much of note outside of this typewriter, which I found inside the brown case on the left. Some typewriters are worth more than others, but this – a Royal Futura 800 – seems to have a bit of value. They sell on eBay for between 50 and 100$ before shipping. It’s in beautiful cosmetic condition and all the keys seem to work. However, I can’t figure out how to make it write outside of a small space in the middle. I think it just has to do with how the margins are set, but I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. If I get it working it’ll be a nice find.

However, I went to Westmount mostly to check on a spot that made me a bunch of money last week (more on that later). I was excited to see all these bags, but in the end most of it was junk.

I found a couple cool rocks …

… and a little bag of change. The total came to just over 5$.

It was this iPod though that made it worth my while. I found it at the bottom of the last bag I sorted through. I tested it when I got home, and unlike the U2 iPod earlier it actually works fine. Good battery life and everything. It’s a first generation iPod Nano (4gb) and they go for around 90$+ shipping, though if someone local wants to come pick it up I’d sell it for 75$. It’s not a massive score, but it was satisfying after sorting through all the junk!

In other news

As some of you know I’ve been doing some smaller posts exclusively on Facebook. Mostly, I’ve shared finds that didn’t make the blog for whatever reason, and commented on garbage-related links and topics. However, I’m thinking about starting to post those on both WordPress and Facebook, since a lot of people aren’t on Facebook, don’t want to go on Facebook, or just don’t know about my page. I think it might also make the blog a bit more of a vibrant hub for all things garbage. What do you think? Do you like the blog being just my weekly summary posts, or would you like to see some links and smaller posts as well?

Last week’s garbage sales (May 4 – May 10)

1. Gold and silver scrap: Sold to a local antiques dealer for 826$. The gold went for around 750$, while the silver netted me around 75$. Selling gold and silver scrap might be one of the most satisfying transactions in the business. There’s nothing quite like being handed 800$ in bills, especially when you’re letting go of so little in terms of actual volume! About 200$ of the total came from dental gold, while metals from Westmount (as mentioned in my last post) contributed close to 400$ alone. He also tested the brooch I found in Hampstead a little over a month ago and confirmed that it was 18k gold. He offered me a little over 100$ (the scrap metal value) for it, but I figure I’ll try to sell it on eBay or Etsy for more.

2. Small change: deposited to my TD bank account (using their change machine) for 21$. My change box was getting full so I figured it was time to trade that in as well. Just over 5$ came from this week in Westmount. Otherwise, this was saved in various quantities all across the city. I accidentally mixed some foreign coins into the collection, but the machine does a good job sorting those ones out.

3. Bazaar / yard sale: many small things added up to a total of 194.25$. My most notable sales included 30$ for the microphone from last week (also from Westmount), some perfumes for 25$, and some WWII stuff for around 25$. It was a fun time and I’m happy with the profit.

4. iPod: On Kijiji for 40$. It would have gone for more but it had a few minor issues. Found in Mount Royal sometime last year but not mentioned in any post.

5. 1950s Red Skelton program: on eBay for 12$. This has been listed for a while, but it’s finally gone after many price reductions. Found in Mount Royal way back in September 2013

6. Liberty London silk scarf: On eBay for 35$. Found in Snowdon sometime last summer but not mentioned on the blog.

7. Songs of a Sourdough by Robert Service (1909): On eBay for 30$. This sold quite quickly, and I’ve already received positive feedback! Found around a month ago in Mount Royal.

Total: 1158.25$, 17313$ since May 18 2014 and 7631$ since the new year began. It’s always a good week when I trade in some gold and this time was no exception. I think this is the fourth time I’ve made over 1000$ in a week. It doesn’t happen too often, but reaching four figures definitely seems to be becoming more common.

New listings

1. Jaguar XJS Sports Steering Wheel

Email and links

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! I am especially behind on emails at the moment. my apologies to anyone whose been waiting for a long time.

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For Poland

May 7, 2015 garbagefinds34 Comments

I started my week Sunday night in NDG but didn’t find anything. I spotted this dumpster later on in Cote-des-Neiges. It sat in front of a house that I’d found a few things at in the past, though nothing that ever made it to the blog.

I looked in the dumpster and saw a whole bunch of books. They were generally musty and had probably been in a basement for years. I saved a bunch though, in particular some old books and magazines that I figured would be less common.

Many of the books and magazines were written in Polish. Here’s some Morze magazines that were published in the 1930s. These actually escaped the mildew quite well.

The art inside is pretty interesting, even if I can’t read what’s written. I’d guess this article is about Nazi propaganda.

There were tonnes of other magazines and newspapers too.

I’d be curious to know more about these. Does anyone read Polish?

These two look to be about car repair. Google translate converts “niedomagania samochodowych” to “car ailments.”

This book is one of my favourites. It seems to be about astrology and other such things, and was published in 1912.

Inside is some stuff written about palm reading (or chiromancy) and phrenology, a long disproven science that basically said that a persons character could be determined by the shape of ones head. This theory (as usual) justified a lot of racist and classist thought.

I also appreciated this poem titled “For Poland.” It was written in type (much like the Expo 67 theme song lyrics from last week), presumably sometime during WWII. I couldn’t find any reference to it on the internet, which could mean that it’s completely unique. I like finding things that there might be only be one copy of. It was written by a Jessica E. Money of Winnipeg.

It goes:

My heart is wrung for Poland,
and tears of shame and rage,
drop one by one,
(and still more come)
to smear across the page –

To think that she’s the victim
Of a brutal Bully’s hand,
while we, secure,
in this – Her Hour,
Can’t save her shell-torn lands –

Her land – and dying people,
Peasants – Nobles – Jews,
Who, one and all
Have heard The Call;
For us made “headline” news”.

My heart is wrung for Poland,
And that Polish scout I met
A symbol stands
For YOUTH – in lands
Where HONOUR’S honoured yet.

I went to the post office on Monday afternoon and came across a little pile along the way. The first thing I spotted was an external hard drive, but it doesn’t seem to work.

I saved a curious assortment of things, including: a broken 10k gold necklace stored inside a medicine bottle (likely worth around 25-30$);

… an ink and pen set;

… a couple padlocks with their keys;

… a Boss DB-12 digital metronome, which seems to sell for around 50$;

… a little but fairly heavy scupture (measures around 4″ tall);

… a knockoff Louis Vuitton wallet;

… and three more old photo albums. I’ve been finding a lot of photos recently! This album seems to be from the 1940s.

I always find one picture that sticks out. In this case, it’s this kid sitting in a dog-drawn carriage.

I was in Mount Royal on Tuesday night. This stuff sat in from of a recently sold house.

The briefcase contained four henselite balls that I think are for lawn bowling. They sell for a decent price on eBay..

I took a look in the recycling bin and found …

… a nice marble chess board. It’s crazy what people put in their recycling bin sometimes! These sell for for around 70$ (after factoring in shipping costs) so it’s a nice get. I’ll likely keep it for myself – I play chess and have been hoping to find a nice board for a while now.

Later on, I checked a recycling bin in front a different house and found …

… a massive quantity of postage stamps! The timing was a little funny – I happened to be listening to a Stuart McLean story about postage stamps not long before I stopped here.

There must have been thousands. I stuffed a plastic bag with the stamps most easily grabbed. Some stamped relatively modern, but others look to date back to the 30s and 40s. Most are still stuck to their envelope which I think helped to protect them from bending. I sold the last stamp collection I found for 50$ but I figure I have at least twice as many stamps this time around.

I drove through Westmount on my way to Cote St-Luc on Wednesday and stopped at this intriguing pile.

I saw a cool vintage toolbox under some junk. I sold it for 10$ at my yard sale this weekend.

Inside one of the black bags was a little jewelry box which I sold for 5$. It held a bit of kids jewelry, some of which are now pretty hip (including a few 1980s-era plastic rings given out by a dentist after a good checkup).

I also found a collection of records.

They were all children’s records. A buyer at my yard sale wanted them all, so I gave her a good deal at 50c each (I think 14$ total). I probably should have sold a few for more (like that Johnny Cash Christmas album, which I regret letting go of) but I’m still happy that they moved fast. I have a decent amount of storage now, but my motto (and justification for cheap yard sale prices) is “there’s always more garbage!”

Their neighbors had some interesting stuff too.

A couple of the boxes contained a small collection of books, of which I took a selection of the ones I thought were most marketable. I think I sold the creepy stories book for 2$.

I also found two official House of Commons debate reports from December of 1978.

My favourite though was this Marcel Marceau (a French-born actor and mime) show program.

The first page looks to be signed by Marceau! It was signed for a friend, whose game I blurred out for privacy purposes. I’d imagine it’s worth a bit of money, maybe 50$?

However, it was this place in Westmount that provided my most valuable finds of the week.

I opened one bag and saw a large collection of jewelry.

Another bag held even more! I put both bags in my car, without really looking at them much.

A lot was costume jewelry and loose beads. I imagine whoever owned this was a teenager with an interest in jewelry making. Pictured is what I decided to keep for my yard sales, most of which I put in containers I saved from the same spot. The rest – about twice as much as seen here – I’ll bring to Le Milieu, a local co-op that does skill-share workshops and sells second-hand art supplies on a pay-what-you-can basis.

It wasn’t all costume jewelry. There was also some silver …

… and a bit of gold. The gold is worth around 300$ in scrap value alone!

Specific pieces of note include these earrings marked as being by Tiffany …

… these modernist-style Mexican silver earrings;

… and a modernist-style necklace. This piece isn’t marked but it tests as sterling silver. The modernist pieces were the misfits of this collection.

Otherwise, I saved some coins (mostly American and Greek) and a 1$ American bill;

… a vintage-looking silver-plate baby photo holder by Birks;

… a little box with baby teeth inside;

… a fancy looking blue crystal dish that looks too new to be depression glass (it measures 6″ long);

… an odd but cool heavy red glass cup (about 6″ tall);

… a Jesus from a nativity set and a small doll made from a vintage plastic (marked “Made in France” with a few numbers on the back, though more might be written behind the dress);

… some bottles of perfume (the Christian Dior J’adore and Hypnotic Poison at each end might be worth a decent chunk of change);

… a couple of change purses;

… a decent looking Audio Technica microphone in its original box;

… a flower press;

… and some sunglasses. The Christan Dior frames are missing a few screws but look fixable. The Armani sunglasses look legit, while I’ll have to do a bit of research on the Chanel to make sure they’re not knockoffs. It was a pretty good week overall!

In other news

I’ll be selling things alongside many other crafty vendors at this bazaar in the Mile End on Saturday. There will be lattes made by the espresso machine I found a few weeks back. Food (that I didn’t find in the trash!) will also be served. Entry is free and there should be an ample amount of parking spaces available on Van Horne. It goes from noon to six and the location is 185 Van Horne (upstairs).

Last week’s garbage sales (April 27 – May 3)

1. Yard sale: 265$. This was one of my most successful yard sales yet. The sale was at my new storage area so I was able to put out more items than usual. It also made closing down much easier! A few readers dropped by too, which was nice.

2. Huronia travel guide and map: On eBay for 5$. I don’t normally list things that only make me 5$, but I don’t mind if the item fits in a regular envelope (making it cheap and easy to ship). Found last July in Mount Royal.

3. 1940s Black Cat fortune telling game: On eBay for 130$. I made good money here, and already received positive feedback. Found early February in Verdun.

4. Seven sex psychology books from the early 1900s, 6 by Havelock Ellis: On eBay for 250$. Another great sale! Books can take a while to sell, but I figured there would be a good market for these. Found mid March in Mount Royal.

5. Le Creuset dutch oven: To a friend for 25$. The shipping costs would have eaten up most of my profit if I sold it on eBay, so I gave my friend a good deal instead. Found in January in the Golden Square Mile.

Total: 675$, 16154.75$ since May 18 2014 and 6472.75$ since the new year began. A pretty solid week after a couple slower ones.

I started keeping track of my sales on May 18th of last year. I plan on doing a special post around May 18th of this year that will feature relevant finance-related statistics.

Just as a general clarification, the eBay prices I state include the price of shipping, but not the eBay fees (which are around 10%). I’ll take this into account when I do my fiscal year in review.

Email and links

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! I frequently get behind on emails so I apologize in advance if I take a few days or weeks to get back to you.

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Special edition! The McGill move-out day examined

May 2, 2015 garbagefinds30 Comments

I didn’t work the end of April for the first time in a few years. I previously held a regular temp job – basically doing small moves in the McGill area – that used to keep me very busy the second half of April and first few days of May.

The job helped me make a bit of extra cash, but it also meant I didn’t get to fully experience the phenomenon that is the McGill University move-out day. I’m glad I was able to go this time around, if only so that I could capture the experience as best I could and share it with you!

Many students move away from the Milton Parc area (more commonly known as the McGill ghetto) when school ends for the summer. Some go back home for the summer, while others just upgrade to nicer apartments. Regardless of why they leave, the exodus results in massive amounts of trash.

From what I hear this situation isn’t unique to McGill, and occurs in university towns all across the world.

Move-out day one the most well-known trash days in Montreal, second only to Moving Day (July 1st) which often receives international media attention. There’s a lot more competition due to the day’s somewhat underground fame, and various types of scavengers descend upon the area.

I saw a couple people, including a woman probably in her 60s, picking for cans. One man who I remembered from previous years walked around with a bag that held some wires, a modem, and a few other things I couldn’t make out. He asked what I was looking for. “I don’t know… iPhones!” I said after thinking about it for a second. He was looking for electronics.

There was a guy a few years younger than me stuffing things in a large hiking backpack. Another person peered at the huge trash piles while carrying a painting and a little Ikea push cart. I saw someone else put a bag of clothes in their car.

A man came by and threw this wheelchair into his pickup truck not long after I snapped this photo. I imagine he wanted it mostly for the scrap metal. I saw another scrap metal collector working the area with both a pickup and a trailer.

I also saw my first wasp of the year. It’s a scavenger too, I guess. Squirrels, cats, and raccoons (closer to the mountain) also enjoy the spoils.

While there’s definitely a lot of good stuff to be found, I personally don’t take move-out day too seriously. The increased competition makes it harder to find anything that’s really worth the effort, and it’s definitely true that a lot of what the students throw out is pure junk. From a business perspective, I’m better off continuing on my usual routes. Lots of other people move at the end of the month too.

Still, move-out day is a fun experience. There’s just so much going on. There are parents packing their cars full of their kids things, students walking pieces of furniture down the street, moving companies doing their thing, janitors and other workers trying their best to maintain order, and scavengers searching for whatever it is they’re most keen for. The ghetto becomes uniquely vibrant, and you kind of feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. It’s nice too that garbage picking is totally normalized, if only for a day or two.

The garbage truck apparently got a flat tire, which I’d never seen before. That almost certainly contributed to the high level of chaos, but likely helped the scavengers save more than they would have been able to otherwise.

Move-out day has its own particular brand of garbage. It’s similar to the kind of stuff people leave behind when they move far away, but different because there are thousands of almost exclusively 18-20 years old students moving at the same time. There’s a lot of Ikea furniture, as you can imagine. So many bags are filled with whatever was left in the refrigerator and pantry.

Binders make a regular appearance …

… as do course packs and books. The concept of recycling seems to take a back seat on move-out day, though I can’t say this tendency is unique to McGill students.

Many bags are stuffed with seemingly perfectly fine clothes …

… and kitchenwares.

There’s also a lot of random stuff, like this framed Pirates of the Carribean themed print …

… a larged stuffed fish …

… and a shopping cart adorned with tinsel garland.

I didn’t have high expectations going into the day. I hoped to find a little silver or gold in jewellery form, maybe some loose change or a still valuable textbook. If I was lucky, maybe I’d come across a relatively modern laptop or iPhone (even broken would be fine!). I wasn’t too worried about bringing home a big haul, though. I ended up saving two pairs of pants (the corduroys fit nicely, the others need hemming) …

… a few books …

… a container full of decent spices …

… some loose change, an iPhone cable, and a dumb pin that states “I heart buns.” I actually needed an iPhone cable, so that was handy.

A lot of useful things definitely met their demise in the ghetto the past few days in spite of the many scavengers working the streets. Binders, for example aren’t really valuable enough to take on a large scale, but are often in good enough condition to use again. The same is true for mugs, plates, other kitchenwares, and clothes. Leftover food, such as a half-full bag of macaroni noodles (a common sight in the ghetto) or half-used spices are still quite safe for consumption but not worth scavenging if you’re hoping for a bigger score.

I know McGill has some programs, particularly in their dorms that encourage students to donate what they can. However, this doesn’t apply to people living outside of dorms, and from experience I can say that a lot of good stuff still gets tossed at dorms as well. Is there a way we can get students to better reduce, reuse, and recycle? If you’re a student, does your university have a successful strategy for tackling this issue? I’d be interested in hearing your ideas!