Month: March 2017

Stimulated passion

garbagefinds18 Comments

Last week wasn’t particularly productive but I nearly always have something to show you regardless. I found this MSR camping stove thingy just up the street, I have no idea if it works but if it does it should sell for around 40$.

The recently intriguing spot in the Mile End wasn’t too interesting this time around; my only notable finds there were two never used 4ml vintage bottles of Jovan Musk Oil. According to this blog post, musk scents were pretty popular in the 1970s and this Jovan scent was the most successful of the bunch. Their success was due in large part to a sexy ad campaign that promoted the musky scent as an aphrodisiac of sorts.

I listed one bottle on eBay and it sold rather quickly for 65$. Not bad for just a 4ml bottle! I guess they’re getting pretty rare these days, especially ones that come in their original box. I still have the other bottle which I’ll list soon.

I’ve having good luck with vintage musk scents recently. I’ll tell you more about that next week!

I found some nice Burberry frames in the Mile End. I listed them on eBay for 50$, and we’ll see how they do.

I found a bit of neat junk just off Boulevard Decarie. I like the vintage industrial brush and the little painted tree segment. It features a well known British Columbia tourist attraction, can you guess what it is?

My best find from that spot though was this cool framed, roughly 8×10″ photograph. I thought it was taken at Parc Jeanne-Mance because of the statue, but someone on a local Montreal history Facebook page correctly pointed out that the statue is actually the Dollard-des-Ormeaux monument at Parc Lafontaine. Regardless, it’s a very cool old photo that was probably taken around the 1920s. I wonder how common dog sledding was in Montreal at the time.

Otherwise, I found a bunch of junk on my Friday morning run but nothing really inspired me. I did find a bit of cash though, and that’s always fun. There were four American dollar bills, 2000 Vietnamese dong (which is worth approximately 10 cents), a fifty cent piece and a collection of largely worthless foreign coins. I should be able cash the American dollars pretty easily (they’re worth roughly 5 Canadian dollars) and the rest will go in the yard sale bin.

That’s pretty much it for last week. I know this was a relatively light post, so here’s some extra stuff from that spot in the Mile End that I didn’t get around to sharing previously. The little ashtray with the 25c sticker is stamped Herend Hungary and seems to have a bit of value. A similar one sold recently on eBay for 30$. Not bad!

This week’s been a bit slow as well, though I did find some neat stuff yesterday in Villeray. Tomorrow’s my birthday (turning the big three-oh) so hopefully the universe bestows some good luck upon me. The end of the month is nigh, so people will be moving and that’s always a good thing.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute 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.

Precisa

garbagefinds26 Comments

I had some decent luck early last week. On Monday I stopped at this pile and met a lady who was clearing out her son’s apartment. She told me he had moved up north. Why he didn’t deal with his own stuff, I don’t know but maybe he just ran out of time. She seemed nice and offered me a few things but the best stuff was in the bags.

One of them held a bunch of jewelry, some of which was silver.

The rings were the most interesting pieces from that lot. The bottom row are all silver, except the one second from the left which is stamped 10k gold. The top middle ring might be silver too, but I haven’t tested it to confirm.

A couple of the rings look incomplete. The top middle one for instance has prongs for stones, but they aren’t bent as you’d expect to see if they were removed afterwards. There’s also a bit of extra material on the back that wasn’t filed off. The ring marked 10k gold may be finished, but is missing its decorations (perhaps pearls?).

I like the ring at bottom middle, it has a sort of mid-century look. It’s not stamped but my acid test confirmed that it’s silver. The ring (or at least I think it’s a ring) on the bottom left is also kind of cool. It’s marked sterling and is signed, but unfortunately as with most signatures it’s largely incomprehensible. I have no idea how to describe the style, so if you have any keyword ideas let me know in the comments!

Here’s some more jewelry. This stuff is mostly yard sale material except for that thing on the bottom.

I thought it looked special, so I posted some pictures on Reddit to see if anyone could help me identify it. There weren’t many guesses, but one person somehow found a link to a very similar “Rajasthan 19th c Anklet” on an antiques website. I don’t know how the seller came to that conclusion, but so far that link is the only information I have to work with. Regardless, the listed price is 120 British pounds (roughly 200 Canadian dollars) and I’ll be happy if that number is even vaguely realistic.

Here’s some more junk from that spot. I haven’t had to buy soap for a long time because people keep throwing it out! I always like finding vintage tins like the Borax on the right.

I also found this large 8″ “Malcolm X World Tour” patch that was made for the 1992 Spike Lee movie. It looks to have been signed on the X, by who I have no idea. If you have any guesses let me know! This should be something I can sell for a modest price on eBay.

On Tuesday I found some miscellaneous stuff in Park Ex and Villeray. The best find might be the TI-83+ calculator, which should be good for around 30-40$ though I haven’t tested it yet. The “vintage” phone is going into my electronics recycling pile. The YSL Opium is a decent find too, it’s only around 40% full but a new one costs 95$.

I was excited when I found the iPhone but it turned out to be a fake. It was modeled to look like a iPhone 5s (the phone I’m currently using), and while the phone looks good at first glance it doesn’t take long to realize that it’s junk. The fake is on the bottom in this picture – you can see how the buttons don’t fit very well, and how the material is a cheaper plastic that’s already starting to crack. Anyways, the phone doesn’t turn on and isn’t worth fixing, but at least now it’ll get properly recycled. This is the first time I’ve found a fake iPhone.

Otherwise, my spot in the Mile End continued to produce. I found some more sewing stuff, most of which wasn’t particularly exciting. However, these two unopened boxes of 100 Schmetz needles were a nice get.

Similar boxes sell for between 25 and 95$ each. The price seems to depend a lot on these numbers but I have no idea how to read them. If anyone can help me figure out what they mean I’d appreciate it!

One pretty random find was a folder containing a list of doctors who practiced at the Jewish General Hospital. I’d guess this was typed up in the 1960s.

I do well with vintage calculators. This 1970s Panasonic 1212 doesn’t work perfectly (divide and subtract seem to be glitchy) but I expect it’ll sell for around 100$ regardless. It’s in nice cosmetic condition, especially after I wiped it down with a microfibre cloth.

In one bag was a smaller shopping bag filled with miniature furniture. I would guess these were part of a dollhouse kit. Some were broken but most of those could be easily fixed. I might keep a couple pieces for my collection, I think they’re pretty cute.

My favourite find though was probably this box of watches. There are no mechanisms, just cases. Most of the watches are branded Precisa. The company is not well known, but they made some decent looking watches back in the day. A few of the cases are marked “plaque” or gold plate. All have a very mid-century look to them.

I haven’t really done much research into their value but I’m sure someone will have interest!

I didn’t get much picking done later in the week. There was a big snowstorm on Tuesday night, so I skipped my Wednesday and most of my Thursday run. It’s just too annoying to get around when there’s so much snow. On Friday I had my root canal, so I didn’t get anything done then either. Oh well! The beginning of this week was a bit slow, so hopefully I come across some good stuff on Thursday and Friday to make up for it.

Svijet

garbagefinds21 Comments

Last week wasn’t particularly productive but I have some things to show you nonetheless. That apartment building again supplied most of my finds.

It’s pretty clear now that whoever lives, or lived here worked in the fashion industry. A while back I found this folder full of designs, and now I find …

… a whole bunch of buttons, many of which are sets. Most look to have been made in the 70s and 80s, but some of them could be a bit older. I put them all in one medium-sized box and listed them as an eBay auction – I usually do “Buy it Now,” but I don’t really know much about the market and didn’t feel like listing them individually.

There’s some nice stuff in there, like these mother of pearl (?) buttons that were made in Japan …

… and some vintage needles and threads. The auctions ends today at 10:10PM EST, so if you’re interested put in a bid! Unfortunately, because of the weight of the package it would be kind of expensive to ship to the States. A local buyer who can come and pick them up would definitely get the best deal. Here's the link, and there’s more pictures on the listing if you want a better look.

Some of my favourite finds from this spot were tucked away in this 1960s Chatelaine magazine. I didn’t even know they were there until a few days ago.

They were four hand-drawn fashion designs. The art is classic and very much “of its time.” I think they’d look great framed, even the one with a piece cut out as that part would have been negative space anyways. Do you like them too? Zoom in for a better look!

There’s a little description glued to the back of each of the coloured drawings. They look to be written in Italian, but I’m not sure.

I also thought this book was cool. It contains a collection of Svijet (which according to Google means “world” in Bosnian) magazines dating from the mid 1950s. From what I can tell this magazine was about the fashion scene, but I have a hard time figuring it out exactly.

Regardless, the images inside are pretty cool. The graphic design is very 1950s, and distinctly Eastern European.

Buttons nearly always come with other small items that aren’t buttons. This time it was vintage Christmas lights. These actually have decent value on eBay, and sell for 1-3$ each depending on the condition. Some other, more unusual ones sell for a lot more. I’ll hold onto these until next fall, by that time the Christmas light market should pick up again. Otherwise, I found a vintage receipt, some scissors, an old toothbrush, and a stamp last used on August 10 1984.

I also found a cool vintage Shell Oil file holder (I listed it on eBay for 100$, my go-to totally made up price in hopes that a petroliana collector might want it, but so far no bites) …

… some miscellaneous paper stuff, including a 1960s guide to Montreal and a small folder with photos inside (most of the photos I’ve seen here have been ripped up, so it’s nice to find some that aren’t);

… and a small collection of 1970s Playboys. These always make good yard sale material.

This spot produced a lot more stuff this week, I look forward to showing it to you!

The week was pretty dismal otherwise. I will share the story though of a random trash can that in recent times has offered me a small collection of books nearly every week.

Sometimes the books are cool, sometimes not so much (ie: textbooks from the 70s and 80s). This was my selection from last week’s offerings. My favourite of the bunch is the 1920s Ritter Practice Building Suggestions book, which details how new dentists should design their facilities. It’s in very nice condition for its age. The others I’ll try to sell at a yard sale, though I expect some will end up in a free box or donation bin.

A good number of the books feature old Montreal City Library bookplates. I imagine these were discards though they’re not marked as such. This one was last taken out in 1985.

Here’s the section for Montreal from that old 50s lodging book if anyone’s interested.

Some of the books I find there have been ruined by moisture. However, I salvaged these encyclopedias despite their non-optimal condition. The covers are in pretty rough shape, but the pages are in good condition.

A lot of people like making art, or doing collage with these. The print and the drawings can be pretty fun to work with.

One was an atlas. Most of the maps unfortunately are printed over two pages which makes them less desirable for framing. However, if someone was careful they might be able to cut them out and reattach them mostly seamlessly. The encyclopedias are from 1909 if I remember right, and as you’d expect the maps are very outdated. For instance, in this map Newfoundland is still its own dominion, and what’s now the north of Quebec is a territory called Ungava. Can you spot any more differences?

This week has been better, even with the recent snowstorm that mostly cancelled my Wednesday and Thursday runs. I’ll share it all with you soon!

Tomorrow I’m finally getting that root canal that I’ve been putting off. It’s my first one, and I hear they’re not that bad but I would appreciate any words of encouragement!

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute 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.