Recent sales – January 2017

This is the first “recent sales” post that summarizes by the month. My first such posts were by the week, and became every two weeks at some point. Then I remember having a really slow month where I summarized by the four weeks, and I ended up continuing with that for quite some time. Anyways, it just so happened that the end of the last sales period was near New Years, and I decided it was time to switch it to something more intuitive. Exciting story, I know.

I made decent money this month but I find myself totally broke regardless. I’ve had to deal with a lot of car stuff recently, including that mechanical inspection as well as a flat tire that required me having to buy two new tires (apparently it’s not good to have a tire on one side that’s notably newer than the tire on the other side). I also haven’t been picking as often these last few months, in part due to motivation issues that resulted from that experience with the police, so the once steady stream of new eBayable junk has slowed to a crawl, like molasses in January (or February).

On the plus side, I do have lots of stuff listed on eBay / Etsy, so I should be able to scrape by until yard sale season. At that point I’ll at least be able to raise quick cash when needed. I expect that my first two yard sales will be very profitable. I’m starting to get a better eye for the kind of things people will buy, and because of that my yard sale boxes are filling up a lot faster. Needless to say I’m looking forward to spring for a variety of reasons.

Anyways, lets get to the sales! There’s lots of different and interesting things this time around.

1. c.1930s Chateau Frontenac booklet: On eBay for 50$. There’s good money in old hotel stuff, particularly when it’s a hotel as fancy as the Chateau Frontenac. This brochure featured a lot of cool floor plans that may have been of interest to collectors. Found in NDG back in September 2015.

2. NAD 6220 cassette deck: On eBay for 125$. NAD is known among collectors for their quality and minimal design, and some of their receivers sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Their cassette players apparently aren’t as good, but this one still sold for a nice price. I found it a long time ago but only got around to testing it relatively recently. It worked fine, and was in great cosmetic condition. I found it while walking around the Plateau with someone doing an interview with me for a local magazine.

3. Atari 1040ST: On eBay for 175$. This one tested the limits of my light box! I’m not great at fixing stuff, but I do consider myself pretty skilled at cleaning my finds and making them look nice for the camera. This Atari was kind of grody when I found it, but it looked a lot nicer once I wiped it down with a microfiber cloth. Maybe it seems obvious that one should do this, but when I did my research I saw a lot of grungy looking 1040STs for sale. A little cleaning helps a collector see the item’s greatest cosmetic potential. I wasn’t actually able to test it beyond turning it on and seeing a light, but I was able to sell it for a good price regardless. Found in NDG sometime this summer.

4. Expo 67 key map: On eBay for 150$. I had this listed for a long time, slowly reducing the price from whatever ridiculous number I started it at. It finally sold for 150$ which I’m pretty happy with. The buyer was also happy with the map so it’s a win/win. Found in Hampstead way back in March 2015.

5. Canadian Constitution proposed resolution – 1980 official booklet: On eBay for 6$. I thought a collector might be interested in this, but after having it sit around for a year or more I decided to lower the price to the point where it was nearly free. I’m just glad it’s gone. Found in Westmount back in the summer of 2015.

6. Royal Secret by Germaine Monteil, 2oz: On eBay for 60$. Part of that great collection I found a few months back.

7. Vintage Waterman pens: On eBay for 60$. I’m a member of a local Facebook trading page, and a while back someone posted about an apartment in Villeray that was being cleared out. I went to check it out and found a gaggle of people already looking through the bags. Many of the bags had been ripped apart, creating a terrible mess that I’m sure the neighbours, not to mention the garbage collectors weren’t happy about. I looked around anyways and managed to find a few things that other people had overlooked. These pens were the main score of the day, and made the trip worthwhile.

8. Vintage 1950s Gubelin catalogue: On eBay for 12$. I thought this would sell for more, but I guess people aren’t that interested the Gubelin name. Regardless, 12$ for a hunk of paper isn’t bad! Found in Westmount in the summer of 2015.

9. Blush by Marc Jacobs: On eBay for 30$. This went to a local buyer who came to pick it up. I found it just down the road from my new place in the Mile End.

10. Vintage Casio Mini-TV in original box: On eBay for 35$. Found at the same place as the perfumes.

11. c.1940s Racist Chief Wahoo rubber toy: On eBay for 30$. It wasn’t in perfect condition, but sold for a decent price nonetheless. This depiction of Chief Wahoo (the mascot of the Cleveland Indians baseball team) makes the modern version look progressive by comparison.

12. Hagen family coat of arms plaque: On eBay for 30$. From my experience these kinds of vintage wall plaques are worth between 23-30$ in good condition. Better than nothing right? Found in Hampstead last fall.

13. Paranoia Agent DVD set: On eBay for 140$. This was the last premium title from that anime collection I found while walking with my sister back in October of 2015. I only have six more titles / sets listed on eBay.

14. Please Save My Earth DVD: On eBay for 34$. Once part of the same collection I just mentioned, this went to another local buyer who wanted to come pick it up.

15. Lot of 4 Sony Magneto-Optical disks: On eBay for 40$. Someone offered me a whole box of these while I looked through some trash on St Urbain last summer. I only took these four, but I wish I took more now – never opened old tech stuff is usually worth listing on eBay. I had never even heard of Magneto-Optical disks before, but it seems that some people swear by them.

16. Postcards – two lots for 30$. Part of the big postcard collection I found last summer. I had forgotten about the lot of vintage military postcards above, but once I got them listed they sold pretty quickly.

17. Marzocchi Dirt Jam Bike Fork: On Kijiji for 50$. I thought this would take forever to sell, but it didn’t take long at all. Found in Outremont relatively recently.

18. Essick humidifier: On Kijiji for 40$. I almost left this on the curb when I moved but decided to take it with me. It was a bit of a hassle, but I guess I’m 40$ richer as a result. I’m happy it’s gone though because it took up a fair bit of space. Found last summer in Montreal West.

19. Guerlain “La Petite Robe Noire” EdP: To a reader for 30$. A quick flip! Found in the Mile End a few weeks ago.

20. Scrap gold / silver: To a local antiques dealer for 850$. Precious metal scrap is a semi-regular income source for me. I gather the pieces, most of which are broken or mediocre jewelry, and store them in a box until the collection is big enough to bring to the shop. I know silver and gold fairly well, but there’s always a few pieces that I’m not 100% sure about so I bring them in to be tested. I was hoping that length of thick gold chain on the bottom was solid gold, for example, but it turned out not to be. Oh well.

One win was a vase I begrudgingly held onto for like a year (I forgot to bring it in last time) on the off chance it was silver. The vase looked like it had been run over by a truck. I don’t have a picture of it unfortunately, but the thing was squished. I almost threw it out myself on a few occasions, as I really doubted it was silver and was sick of looking at it, but I didn’t. As it turns out the vase was indeed silver, and its weight probably added somewhere between 30-50$ to the final total.

Thankfully the guy who runs the shop doesn’t seem to mind testing a bunch of random, sometimes tiny crap. He makes decent money from this, so I guess it benefits him to keep me happy. He takes roughly 15% of the total scrap value, meaning that he personally made around 200$ from this transaction. Not bad for about half an hours work.

For reference, I’ve been putting the stuff I know is gold in a separate container (below). I often use that smaller collection to determine when I go to bring it all in, as gold is the real moneymaker in the transaction. I don’t bother going unless I know for sure I have at least 500$ worth of stuff, and preferably more.

Total: 1943$

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Donate to Garbagefinds.com

Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.