Short posts say so much

Posted on by garbagefinds

I’ve been pretty lucky with the rich people garbage lately. I came across a haul of electronic stuff a few weeks ago in Westmount, including: an iPod, iPad (though I can’t get it working thus far), Apple Time Capsule (basically, a router), Roku 3 streaming device, a couple of fitness / GPS watches, and some other doohickeys. This stuff isn’t worth a tonne, but I should be able to net around 150-250$ here overall. And, as I’ve mentioned before this sort of electronic stuff shouldn’t be in the garbage anyways!

I was biking around the Plateau that same day and found some more electronics, most notably this Samsung Galaxy S4 that seems to work totally fine. My guess is that they got a newer one and put this old guy in a drawer, where it sat before being tossed during a move. This cell phone is still pretty useful and is worth around 80-100$.

It’s funny, not long ago the Plateau was actually a low-income neighbourhood, but the gentrification here in the last couple decades has brought a fair number of rich folks to the area. The garbage has gotten a lot better as a result, though I find there is less cool vintage stuff these days.

Last week was one of my best in a while. It started with my finding all those vintage electronics (including the transistor radio) from the last post. Even better though was an epic pile of rich people garbage which provided a wide range of great finds – I’ll detail those in some upcoming posts.

For now I’ll share with you this digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix S9100) which I found in Westmount on Friday. When I first saw it the lens was open like in the picture above. I figured it was busted, but took it because it was relatively modern and I knew it was probably worth something even if just for parts or recycling. However, to my surprise it ended up working fine once charged (luckily, I also found the charger). It’s worth around 50$.

Otherwise, my current plan is to try writing shorter blogs posts more often. It’s a little easier to write shorter posts for a variety of reasons, and I think writing more posts will benefit my blog traffic as well. Anyways, we’ll see how it goes and I hope you like the change!

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.

12 thoughts on “Short posts say so much”

  1. Made 1k this weekend in 7 hours selling my stuff from the garbage! My days of being broke are over!

  2. Wow, an S3…in the garbage! I’m still rockin my S2, so no doubt, that S3 is still viable. Great finds!

  3. Electronics aren’t necessarily exciting, but it’s good money-making stuff, and requires far less research. That said … bring on the vintage stuff and ephemera you like so much. 🙂

  5. Great finds.Electronic finds are moneymakers,no disputing that.Read this ad from Craigslist Montreal.If you find old comics,consider contacting him.

    I’ll buy your old comics, pay you in cash! Please contact me – $5000 (Montreal) cacher cette annonce

    CASH FOR YOUR OLD COMICS, TODAY!

    I buy almost all comics dated before 1969, please contact
    me by email, or leave me your phone number.

    Polite, courteous, I can come pickup in person and pay you fairly in cash TODAY!
    Please email me or call
    514-262-2220

    Examples of what I’m looking for:

    – ALL Superhero style Comics from the 1940’s
    – Amazing Spider-man (12,15 cent cover)
    – Action Comics 10c
    – Adventure Comics 10c, 12c
    – Captain America (10, 12 cent cover)
    – Fantastic Four (12 cent cover)
    – Hulk (10, 12, 25 cent cover)
    – Human Torch
    – Journey into Mystery 10c, 12c
    – Tales to Astonish 10c, 12c
    – Flash 10c, 12c
    – Green Lantern 10c, 12c
    – Detective Comics 10c, 12c
    – Batman 10c, 12c
    – Superman 10c, 12c
    – Jumbo Comics, Jungle, Sheena 10c
    – Horror (10c covers)
    – Tales of Suspense 12c
    – Strange tales 10c
    – Startling comics 10c
    – Whiz Comic 10c
    – Zip Comics, Captain Marvel 10c
    – X-men 12c

    … and any other oldies that are in decent shape!

    – no animal / disney comics
    – American comics only pls

    Please email or call

    Thank you !
    514-262-2220

    •

  6. I am always flabbergasted about what people throw in the garbage! I don’t go through rich neighborhoods garbage, but I find that in the Plateau the most wasteful are Anglo students from other provinces or the US…I am glad your parents are loaded enough to send you to study here but….they should teach you about waste, about drugs and alcool consumption, respect for the property of others, and keeping the noise level down!
    Some of you might think that I’ m exagerrating but….every Thursday and Friday night I hear the yelling, swearing and partying and my house has been spray painted on multiple times, not counting the times it has been pissed on…..funny it stops when the students leave……

    1. I’d agree with that. They’re the main reason the McGill move-out trash is so good. There’s also a lot of “nouveau riche” yuppies, particularly in the east. A lot of them I think are better stewards of their junk than other rich folk, but some still toss their old useful junk.

  7. As I have previously mentioned in other posts, I’m originally from Montreal but moved to Ontario a few years ago. We garbage picked last night and we filled the car up right to the top! We picked up not one, not two but three antique chests! All really old and each worth a couple of hundred each! One house, we picked up lots of antiques! It’s mind boggling the stuff that’s in the garbage but we’re quite happy and excited for our future! Were planning trips to Europe and buying a place in the south to escape our cold Canadian winters! Also it’s just a matter of time before my bf quits his job because what he makes in a week, he can make in one day selling our garbage!!

  8. I live in LaSalle and work in the Plateau in a coffee shop.I see twice more garbage output in the Plateau than in LaSalle.How can you be proud to live in a borough with such wasteful residents?I love your blog,but not the mentality of people in your borough.So wasteful in a supposedly progressive borough,Ah.

    1. I don’t think you can generalize so easily. There’s a lot of people here who aren’t wasteful, put out boxes of stuff with “free” written on them, and so on. The population density here is also high (highest in the city other than downtown I expect) so you’re more likely to see big piles of trash.

      There are a lot of rich kids some yuppies who just don’t care, but I don’t think it’s fair to say everyone here is wasteful.

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