Month: July 2017

Canadair pt. 1

garbagefinds29 Comments

In the spring I was cruising around Villeray and spotted an intriguing collection of bags on the curb. Inside I found some cool old stuff, including an old iron and other items in their original boxes.

None of that stuff was super valuable, but finding old things in their boxes can be a good omen that other quality trash might emerge. Over the next few months I made sure to check that spot every garbage day. There wasn’t always a heck of a lot, and a good portion of the stuff was dirty or damaged by dampness. However, I still found plenty of interesting items, including two finds of particular note.

I managed to get 20$ for the Commodore calculator at the bottom left. The internals were probably bad, but it was in decent cosmetic condition and it seems that collectors like the model. There were plenty of stencils here as you’ll see in future photos. Also, whoever lived here probably worked for Canadair as I found a number of items related to the company. My plan it to group all the Canadair items together and sell them on eBay to an aviation collector.

I have this sealed Nintendo game listed on eBay for its sticker price of 39.95$. That might be asking too much, but maybe someone will bite.

I found this odd wooden box, which I’d guess is a little tube radio made as a high school project. I have no idea if it works or how one is supposed to work it, but I’m guessing that someone at a yard sale will buy it regardless.

I’d never seen a figurine like this before, so I was pretty interested to find out what it was. Honestly, my first guess was that it was sci-fi related – the dress, “helmet,” pose, and eyes reminded me of sci-fi characters from the 30s and 40s. However, it turns out it’s much more likely a Balinese figurine from the 1950s. In my defense it does look to be an unusual variant of that type of figurine.

I found some neat old books, including a large collection of airplane construction training books published around 1940. They’re pretty neat, see the pictures below if you want a better look (and remember there’s a “view full size” link on the bottom right of the page if you want to zoom in a bit). I listed them for 75$ but no one’s bit yet.

Otherwise, most of the books were old textbooks dating back to the 1920s.

None of them are super valuable, but they do make good yard sale material. I particularly like old geography textbooks, I’ve loved looking at maps ever since I was a little kid. Here’s a map of the regions of Quebec c. 1920. I grew up in the Pontiac, not far from Bryson.

I often check between the pages of old books to see if anything neat is stuck between the pages. The practice paid off this time, as one of the papers ended up being pretty valuable.

It’s a small piece of paper, a little larger than your average business card. On it was printed the Montreal Canadiens 1944-1945 season schedule. It was made for Henri Henri, a local hat shop that’s still open today. I’m not sure how it was intended to be used, but it does say to “insert [the card] into your leather hat band.” Henri Henri claims to have invented the hat trick by offering a free hat to any Canadien that scored three goals in Montreal, though others have made similar assertions. Regardless, I tried hard to find another such schedule online but had no luck. It seems to be a pretty uncommon piece.

At first I thought it was cool and that a collector would probably pay around 20$ to have it, but after seeing what some other vintage hockey schedules were selling for on eBay I decided to price mine a fair bit higher. It ended up selling fairly quickly for 150$, and I got good feedback to boot. Pretty sweet eh? Not bad for a small piece of paper!

This spot provided another unusual but profitable find. I’ll share that with you soon enough.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to garbagefinds.com
6. Follow me on Instagram

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.

Very rich people pt. 2

garbagefinds27 Comments

Part one

Let’s go back to that great haul from a few weeks back, which also produced a bunch of miscellaneous electronics. I saved some nice headphones, the best of which are the Bose noise-cancelling earbuds on the bottom. Bose is a great brand and the earbuds looked almost new. I recently sold them on eBay for 200$. The Beats by Dre at the top right should also make me some money, while the other pair is solid but unspectacular (5-10$ at a yard sale).

The nice thing about rich people junk is that they tend to buy higher quality items to start, so their stuff is more likely to hold its value even after it becomes “obsolete.” That Sony CD Walkman for instance is not exactly current, but it still sells for around 50-60$ because it’s one of the better ones on the market. The mini Sony AM/FM walkman is also surprisingly valuable, going for at least 35$. The antenna inside that thing must be pretty good because the sound is great considering its size.

The most interesting piece is the Sangean DT-200X radio. It’s one of the few radios on the market that can be converted to a “ghost box”, or a device that spirits can more easily communicate through. Basically, by removing one of the circuit board pins the radio can play audio while also scanning the airways. You end up hearing random bits of audio, some of which might sound like someone trying to communicate. I don’t really believe in this kind of stuff, but I don’t mind if other people do. Ghost boxes are hard to find these days, so they often sell for 100$ or more. Originally I chose not to hack it, but once I realized how easy it was I opened it up and got it done. It’ll probably sell for a bit more as a result, and it was good to make sure that it was indeed a hackable model (as Sangeans made after 2012 apparently cannot be hacked).

The Expos radio is pretty neat as well. It’s not particularly good (the antenna probably sucks), but it works and should sell at a yard sale.

I saved two Ti-83 calculators. The Silver Edition model worked but the other did not. I left the latter on the curb in hopes that someone would pick it up and fix it, but I’m not sure if anyone did. The SE should sell for around 50$.

I found a bunch of disposable cameras, some with many shots still left on them, as well as a Canon Ultrasonic camera lens.

That Magellan GPS looks really old, but it still has value because the model is desirable to outdoorsy types. It sells for around 65$. Unfortunately I didn’t find the power adapters to go with the walkie-talkies, so I’ll probably just end up selling them “as is” on eBay. The thing with the screen is an iSonic HD8000 projector, or something like that. I can’t find any info about it online, but I get the feeling it’s one of those things that people sell out of white vans, or pretend is worth a lot of money when it’s not. That at least is true with the iSonic 800HD.

Otherwise, I unfortunately didn’t find any MacBook Pros or iPads. On the plus side, I did find a couple of iPods. Usually I only find the older models, but these were relatively new, from 2010 and 2012 respectively. Neither looked to have been used very often. I already sold the one on the right for 115$, and the one on the left (which comes with a nice strap) should go for close to 100$.

Otherwise, I saved an Apple DVD drive, a few Apple adapters (which sometimes sell for good money), and some other miscellaneous bits and bobs. Overall, I should be able to make at least 700$, and quite possibly a fair bit more from these electronics.

Some of the stuff, like the iPods have obvious value, but a lot of that total comes from things that might not look like much, but are of value to the right person. That’s why it’s always a good idea to look up your finds on eBay’s completed listings to see what they sell for – it’s the best way to learn the potential value of your stuff.

Also, I figure I’d mention again that I’m part of the eBay Partner Network, which means that I sometimes made money when people go to eBay from my blog via clicking one of my eBay links (like the “completed listings” link above, and the link to my eBay listings below). Specifically, I make money if you buy something (not necessarily my items) or sign up for an account after clicking to the site from my page, at which point you can go anywhere via the search engine. It’s not much money, it might be anywhere from 1 cent to 10$, but it does add up. Anyways, consider it if you plan on buying something through eBay regardless. I think I’ve made like 40$ over two years so far, but I haven’t really marketed it that well either.

I have lots more very rich people garbage to show you (from various location), as well as some interesting stuff I found in Villeray a while back.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to garbagefinds.com
6. Follow me on Instragram

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.

Mousely Crew / Garage

garbagefinds40 Comments

I forgot to mention in my last post this box of dolls, figurines, and other miniatures I found in Westmount. I was pretty busy at the time and I only got around to looking at the things inside this week. I knew the box held some very cute figurines, but as it turned out it contained some minor treasures as well.

As you can see, many of the figurines were wrapped in toilet paper. The box looked like it had been tossed without much of a thought.

There were lots of mice, but also plenty of other animals.

A lot of the fabric figures are kind of dirty but maybe someone could clean them. I think a bunch of them are supposed to be Christmas tree decorations, they have green string coming out of their backs. It’s a shame that both those rabbits in the back right are missing a part of their ear – fortunately, they still look nice viewed from their profile. I found a similar rabbit a while ago, I forget who designed them but I remember that they are collectible in good condition.

Otherwise, there’s a Wade cat figurine, a few other vintage cat figurines, and a stone mouse marked as being made in Italy.

My favourites are the extra small pieces. I wish the photo turned out better, but you can still get a better look by clicking on the picture and zooming in. The dragon-like creatures on the left might be made by the same company that did the rabbits above, the glaze is quite similar. Otherwise, there’s lots of other animals here, and many of them are vintage as well.

I did some research on the little metal mouse at bottom, second from the right, which had Austria stamped on the bottom. As it turns out it was designed by Walter Bosse, a noted mid-century craftsman. 1stDibs has one for sale at 250$. The prices at 1stDibs are super marked up (it’s a website for interior designers and the super rich) but I still think I can get at least 50$ for it.

If you know anything about any of the other figurines let me know! I’m not really an expert on the topic.

There was also a tiny Windsor Star newspaper, made around the time of Pope John Paul I’s death in 1978. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

Inside the box were several bracelets. None are wildly spectacular, but the two on top are made from sterling silver.

My favourite find might be this thimble, which is made from 10k gold. This is the first time I’ve found one! It’s worth close to 100$ in scrap, but I should be able to sell it for a bit more than that.

Otherwise, I mentioned in my last post that I was looking for a garage. Well, I finally found one. It’s not too far away either, in the Plateau near Laurier Park. I’m still going to use my other storage place, but this one has a few features the other doesn’t, like electricity, running water, and lights. It’ll be a lot easier to take photos of my finds which should lead to more garbage making the blog! I also like that I can easily test my electric finds and clean some of the dirty ones, making for better and more organized yard sales.

The rent is 200$ a month, but I’ll be sharing it with my friend who wants to repair and bring new life to largely dumpster dived furniture, some of which I’ve found or we’ve found together. Once she repairs a few pieces I’ll post some before and afters so that you can see the transformation!

It’s going to be a bit of work cleaning it up and getting it set up, but I’m excited to have a space like this at my disposal.

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.