This week has been a lot slower than expected. There’s a lot of luck involved in trash picking, and I’m simply not getting as lucky as I was at this time a month ago. I miss those times when it seemed like another great find was just around the corner! On the plus side, this mini garbage drought has given me a lot more time to pack for my move.
Anyways, I didn’t come up totally empty-handed! Well, I did the first three days of the week.
Thursday offered a brief respite when a spot in the Plateau produced a few yard-salable toy cars.
Friday was my first passable run, however. I went first to Rosemont (between Iberville and Saint-Michel), a traditionally Quebecois working class neighbourhood. I was joined by my friend Sarah.
One spot produced a bit of nostalgia. I think anyone growing up in the 80s and 90s will remember these colorful shaped erasers. You might even have collected them, like this person apparently did. They’re not worth much, but I figure they’ll make for fun yard sale material.
We came across this spot a little later on. There were buttons strewn across on part of the pile (bottom right). I took the corner shelf, but my favourite find was inside on the bags.
It’s an old medical instrument sterilizer made by a company called Castle. It works fine, though the wiring is a bit sketchy.
There are two patent dates on the back, one from 1916 and one from 1919.
It was pretty grungy when I found it (not gross, just age-related grime) but it cleaned off pretty nice! Now I have to figure out a way to get that soap scum off the nice chrome finish… would straight up vinegar work? I don’t think it’s worth a tonne of money (I found one on eBay that sold for 50$ + shipping, and mine is missing its interior tray) but it’s definitely a cool piece. I might just use it as a funky decor at my new place.
After finishing in Rosemont we drove to Westmount, one of North America’s most affluent neighbourhoods. This pile was next to a moving truck that was being loaded with stuff, which (especially in Westmount) is a good sign that good trash is about!
On the bottom you can see something all wrapped up in plastic. It was a nice Yamaha amp, which I assume they never unpacked since their last move. Either that, or they packed it for this move and then decided not to take it. Either way, it’s a pretty nice amp (a HTR-5560 with a remote) that I might just keep for myself. I plan on getting a record player set up once I move, so I’ll need something like this to get it going!
(I’m kind of assuming that it works, since I don’t want to take it out of its wrapping just to wrap it up again, but my instincts for this are generally right).
There were more things on the other side of the driveway, including a bunch of books. Someone was into dystopian fiction – they owned Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, and 1984.
I also found some photo paper, a nice notebook, …
… a cashew container with a bunch of pennies (and a few pesos) inside,
… and a busted Samsung NP300V5A laptop. The power button lights up but the screen doesn’t turn on. It should be worth a bit of money for parts though. It’s a relatively modern machine that runs Windows 7, at least in theory.
So, the week wasn’t all bad. Next week should be interesting. I’m moving on the 1st and that’s going to take up some time. I’ve started packing early in hopes that I won’t get totally overwhelmed why the process. I want to do my normal slate of trash runs (it seems silly to miss the most famous trash day of the year!) and also keep up with the blog. However, if you don’t hear from me you’ll know that moving (as it often is) was much worse than I anticipated. Wish me luck!