1. 1930s Canadian National Steamships pamphlet: On eBay for 10$. Found this summer in NDG.
2. Casio PB-110 data bank computer: On eBay for 60$. I bought a battery for this and it worked just fine. Found last November in Westmount.
3. Laptops: To my mom for 190$. I gave her a good family discount (275$ total). I also gave my sister a cut of the profits (75$) for helping me format the hard drives and reinstall Windows. I spent 10$ on an adapter for the HP, making the total net profit 190$. Found late May in Westmount.
4. Porsche Carrera sunglasses: On eBay for 82$. These sunglasses sold to someone in Italy. It would have cost a fortune to track them, so I just have to hope the recipient is honest and that the package won’t be stolen by postal workers. My luck has been good so far in that regard. Porsche Carrera sunglasses seem to have a fair bit of value. I have two other pairs listed, both of which are in much nicer condition and should sell for a lot more. All three pairs were found last April in Hampstead.
5. 17th century German book: To a reader for 30$. I did a lot of research to make sure this book was a) truly old and b) not super valuable. It doesn’t seem to be a unique book, and isn’t in very good condition so the value is fairly limited. Regardless, it was pretty cool and I’m happy to see it get a new home. Found last February in Outremont – see the link for more photos.
6. Royal Futura typewriter: On Kijiji for 60$. I had this listed for what felt like forever but it finally sold last week. It was a very nice typewriter (which also came with its original case) and I wasn’t willing to compromise much on the price. The guy who bought it told me he’s a collector and currently has around 30 typewriters in his possession. Found last May on Victoria Avenue in Cote-des-Neiges / Westmount adjacent.
7. Grease pot and Freemason medal: To a reader for 40$. Arranging the pickup was pretty easy because the buyer lives just a few blocks away. I love a quick flip! I gave them a bit of a discount because local pickups save me the effort of listing, packing, and shipping the item, as well as the eBay fees associated with the sale. I found the grease pot in Westmount and the medal in NDG.
7. Ephemera: To a local archivist for 50$. This included the student magazines from my last post (above), random film and audio reels, some 45s and photographs, and a bunch of other Montreal related stuff. This was found all across the city over the last couple months.
9. Voice recorder: On eBay for 34$. I forget where I found this now. Regardless, it worked fine and made me a little bit of cash.
10. Laptop for repair: On eBay for 60$. It’s kind of funny how many layers of garbage went into selling this laptop. I didn’t find an adapter with this computer, but I was able to test it using a cord I found with a very similar laptop (one of the ones mentioned earlier, actually). I able to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows thanks in large part to a copy of Windows Vista that I found several months ago. Otherwise, all the packing materials (including the box and bubble wrap) were saved from local recycling. As for the laptop, it had a dead battery and a finicky power input jack but was otherwise in fine condition. Found a few months ago in NDG.
11. Murano fish vase: On eBay for 40$. I think this is the first find from Ville-Émard to make one of these sales posts. I don’t go out there much, because it’s far away and not particularly wealthy making it a very hit and miss destination. Found last June.
12. Andirons: On Kijiji for 60$. These had a very distinct art deco style. I’m glad they’re going to a good home. Found this past November in TMR.
Total: 716$, 2086$ since the new year. I’ll meet my goal of 24k for the year if I can maintain this pace!
You managed to sell a few space hogs. Now you have more space to fill. 🙂
Here’s hoping you maintain the pace and make that 24k by year’s end.
I’d be a little concerned to ship anything untracked to Italy, specially high value items. Italy is well known to be a problematic destination. Your observations on honesty and postal service seem to me you’re aware of that. Their customs is slow and will probably delay your item way past eBay’s estimated delivery time. If the buyer is a bit unhappy, he’ll mostly claim an INR in order to avoid return postage or even if he’s unhappy with import charges.
Let’s hope everything goes smooth!
In a more positive note, I really enjoy reading your blog, which I only recently discovered. For looong now I had a similar idea which is becoming more real as I loose slowly shame and start diving. You’re an inspiration, thanks for that!
Yeah, I’m not pumped about it (this is why I exclude most of the world as a shipping option) but for low value / niche items like these well worn sunglasses I don’t mind taking the risk. It’s definitely at the upper end of what I’m taking a risk on though. Glad you like the blog!
I live in Ville Emard.You say Ville Emard is a hit-and-miss destination for scavengers.Ville Emard is pretty small compared to LaSalle,but of the 25 to 30 streets in Ville Emard,only 10 to 12 have much potential for garbage scavengers like you.I Know which ones;I live on Emard street in Ville Emard and on my street I very often find treasures on trash day like comic books,figurines,newish cutlery,posters,storage benches,books,etc and rescue them.A pity that I do not have the time to scavenge almost 50% of the weeks.But Ville Emard can be very fruitful if you only target 10 to 12 of its wealthy streets or so.Congratulations for selling the Murano vase you found in Ville Emard.Do not give up on Ville Emard.
I won’t, but I probably won’t be going until it gets warm out again. I look forward to that. Cote St-Paul is on the same day, so it’s fun to do both routes. If I remember right there is also only one garbage / recycling day a week, making it a good destination in that regard.
You inspired me to list a box Star Wars figurine set and leather clogs. Both recyling finds.
Excellent, good luck with that! People love Star Wars stuff
Most areas of Ahuntsic have garbage pick-up twice a week and recycling on another day.But the extreme western part of Ahuntsic near Cartierville seems to have garbage pick-up and trash pick-up on the same day.I walked all along Alice Nolin street in Ahuntsic today morning near Acadie boulevard after doing groceries at Adonis supermarket .I saw a lot of big green recycling bins with lids on top and a lot of black trash bags on the curb.I rifled through several recycling bins but found nothing of note except some soft drink cans which I took.However,just near the bottom of the stairs of a duplex along with black garbage bags and two recycling bins,I found two pairs of almost-new shoes,one from Rockport in shoe boxes.They were headed for the garbage dump.I took the shoes home and tried them.They fit me perfectly.These shoe finds saved me a lot of money.My current shoes are very worn out and I was about to buy new shoes.I saved 20 or 30$ because of my shoe finds.
I also walked on Maurice Lebel street,Olivier Berthelet street,Robertine Barry street and Caroline Beique street in the same part of Ahuntsic today morning and all of these streets had black garbage bags and recycling bins out on the curb..In this part of Ahuntsic,garbage and recycling pickup seem to be both done on Monday morning.Alice Nolin street has a big building of luxury condos.A lot of wealthy Arabs and Lebanese live on these streets.
Shoe finds can save those on a budget a lot of money.Please check out these streets on Monday mornings if you happen to be near the area
I don’t get out there very often so all the treasures are yours! Glad you found a good pair of shoes. I love finding shoes, it’s a great money saver
I hope you actually encounter some residents of The Town of Mount Royal who are friendly and actually encourage you to scavenge.Please keep us informed.Just waiting!
I have in the past. Some are pretty nice, like an old engineer who gave me his old tobacco pipe collection because he was moving.
https://garbagefinds.com/2014/04/23/public-relations/
Dude… Always shipped tracked to Italy. I don’t wanna worry you but yeah, Italy’s postal system is terrible. Nice sales otherwise!!! Cheers.
It’s a bit of a gamble yeah. Those sunglasses were about the highest value thing I’d ship out there without tracking. It’s really a niche item and they aren’t particularly nice so I figured it was worth the gamble (only 9$ to ship as well, so I wouldn’t be out much if they went missing). On the other hand, maybe it’d be better to only ship things worth 50$ or under overseas.
I mean, you can ship things independent of how much they cost, as long as you have a tracking number for it.. Maybe also insurrance. Crossing my fingers for that they arrive safely and the customers happy! 🙂
True, it’s just that any delivery option with tracking number to Italy costs like 40$ which is a lot. I consider paying that a different kind of gamble, because if the buyer ends up wanting to return the sunglasses (ie: didn’t read the listing to realize that they weren’t in particularly good condition) then I’d be out the extra 30$ I spent on shipping. It’s tough to figure out which of these scenarios is more likely – I don’t mind losing the value of the sunglasses as I do the shipping it cost me to get them there. In the future though I might make a point to exclude Italy from these types of listings regardless, as I’ve heard plenty of bad things about their shipping services.
I have had Italy on my blocked country list for the past 8 years after several INR’s. You might be lucky. I wasn’t.
All the best. Cold work these days. 🙂
You find the coolest stuff!!! Kudos!!!