Month: August 2017

Tuesday in Rosemont

garbagefinds21 Comments

I didn’t find much this week. Perhaps that’s partly bad luck, but a lot of people go on vacation this time of year and I’ve taken a few extra days off as well. Next week seems like a better bet anyways, as the end of the month approaches and people prepare to move.

Around a month ago I found a nice collection of perfumes in a part of Rosemont with a Tuesday evening garbage pickup. I’ve been going back to that neighbourhood every garbage day since then, finding a few more good things at that spot (the homeowner also gave me a bunch of stuff, but I’ll share that story later). That well, and the neighbourhood in general looked to have run dry this week, but thankfully I happened upon this pile of trash on one of the last streets I was planning on covering. I was intrigued by the old school rocking chair and the larger than average collection of bags.

The biggest thing I saved was this old Chinese painting, which I’d guess was bought in Chinatown around the 1960s. However, most of my finds were small bits of vintage junk, also known as my favourite brand of stuff.

I’m sure some of you will appreciate these old button cards. I especially like the graphic design of the Select Quality Shirt Button cards, the ones with the drawings of an actual shirt. They’re not worth a lot, but I’m sure they’ll sell at a yard sale.

Inside a little bag was a collection of figurines. Elephants are well represented here. I particularly like the faux crystal rabbit and elephant, as well as the Jaguar, all of which look to be key fobs originally.

Here’s some miscellaneous doodads. There’s a few bits of vintage restaurant ephemera here, with two keychain fobs from the long gone Kon Tiki restaurant as well as a bowling pin fob from Da Giovani, which is still open today. Otherwise, I found a nice rosary, a small bag filled with key and lock charms, a coin commemorating Pope John Paul IIs visit to Montreal in 1984, an oven mitt clip, and a pill bottle filled with more junk.

Here’s the contents of the pill bottle, minus the three marbles that wouldn’t sit still for the photo. The tiny die on the left is kind of neat, it feels like it’s made of stone and looks to be hand painted. I have a similar one I found previously kicking around somewhere.

Otherwise I found an Avon perfume…

… and a cool vintage tin.

Inside the tin was a collection of sewing bric-a-brac, including lots of sharp pins. However, if you look closely you also notice that it holds a bunch of old medallions.

Here are the items that weren’t sewing related. Most of the medallions are Catholic. It’s not uncommon to find medallions of this kind in Quebec, but some of these are quite old, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. My favourite is the large Saint Christopher medallion (top right), but there’s also one commemorating the 700th anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi (which occurred in 1926), as well as several related to the Congregation des Enfants de Marie, which was some kind of Catholic association founded in France in 1838.

Otherwise, there’s a cool enameled Artisans Canadiens Francais cufflink (only one, unfortunately), an old Laramee transit token (from Sherbrooke Quebec, c.1952-1962), and a 10k gold pin that looks to have been given out for 35 years of service to Wabasso, an old textile company that used to have a factory in Trois-Rivieres. Finding gold is always nice, and I expect to get around 40$ for that pin.

Here’s the reverse side of some of the more notable pieces. I expect the darkened ones are silver plated, there’s no hallmarks to indicate that they’re solid silver.

I almost forgot to mention my only sterling silver find! It’s a pendant signed Creed Sterling, and should net me around 25-30$ once cleaned up.

I had been planning on taking a break from that Tuesday evening route, but thanks to these finds I’ll head out there again next week. Hopefully I’ll find more tiny vintage treasures.

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.

Recent sales – June

garbagefinds5 Comments

I’m a bit behind on sales posts so here you go. June was adequate if unspectacular. I didn’t have any particular successful yard sales, but my eBay sales were relatively high value items – I averaged around 80$ per transaction. A lot of the items came from the Plateau and Mile End neighbourhoods, and that spot with the vintage electronics provided a good chunk of the value. I certainly don’t get rich off months like June (or any month to be honest) but my profits were good enough to pay the bills and mostly neutralize financial stress.

1. Vintage 1944-1945 Montreal Canadiens Schedule: On eBay for 150$. I found no record of any similar schedules on the internet, so there’s a possibility that I found the only one left in existence. Who knows? At the very least they seem to be pretty uncommon. Regardless, I’m happy with the price I got here. This schedule, which was a bit bigger than your average business card, was worth around its weight in gold. Found in Villeray.

2. Five packs of Vintage MacDonald’s cigarettes: On eBay for 137.50$. I also sold another two to someone else for 70$. I only have a few left now. Unfortunately, eBay has since deleted my listing citing that tobacco sales are strictly prohibited. However, according to this page it seems that they allow cigarette sales as long as you say that they are being sold as collectible packaging only. I’ll have to call eBay to clarify these positions. Found in Villeray.

3. Sony Microcassette Recorder: On eBay for 40$. Found on St-Viateur in the Mile End.

4. Ortofon STM-72 Stereo Transformer: On eBay for 75$. I sold this one “untested, as is.”

5. Ortofon STM-72 Stereo Transformer: On eBay for 200$. I sold this as used, but I got a premium because it looked NIB, or new in box. Both were found in the lower Plateau.

6. Voigtlander film camera: On eBay for 25$. Found in Outremont, took a while to sell.

7. Vintage 1940s Jewish marriage certificate: On eBay for 35$. A neat find from Cote St-Luc. Also a slow seller.

8. Lizon vintage eyeglasses: On eBay for 20$. I was starting to think these would never sell, but then they did. Found in NDG.

9. Jackie Robinson 8×10 photo: On eBay for 60$. Found a while back in NDG but only recently listed. One of my garbage picking dreams is to find some Jackie ephemera from when he played with the Montreal Royals in 1946. Maybe one day it will come true.

10. Production Variance Analysis in SAP Controlling by John Jordan: On eBay for 65$. I was wondering if I had wasted my time listing that collection of slightly old SAP (programming) textbooks I found a while back. It had been a few months and not one had sold. Fortunately, I’ve now sold two for a prices high enough to justify the effort. Hopefully the rest sell at some point, but if not at least I made my three figures. Found in the lower Plateau.

11. Practical Guide to Sales and Distribution in SAP ERP: On eBay for 65$.

12. Tascam Porta-05 Mini-Studio: On eBay for 70$. I didn’t have the power cord for this, and new power cords were kind of expensive (at least 30$). Because of that I decided to list it “untested, as is” for what I thought was a pretty reasonable price. However, the buyer asked for a return because of some problem with the play button. That was annoying, because I made it pretty clear that the buyer shouldn’t expect the unit to work. On the other hand, I also screwed up by listing the condition as “used” (I’m not sure how that happened, brainfart on my part I guess) instead of “for parts, repair”. That meant I couldn’t reject the return outright – eBay states that things listed as used should be functional.

Anyways, the guy later said that his friend might be able to fix it, and I haven’t heard from him for around a month now. Maybe it’ll all work out. Found in NDG.

13. Vintage Order of Ahepa secret ritual: On eBay for 50$. Found a few years ago in Ville St Laurent.

14. Welch Allyn diagnostic set: On eBay for 90$. I got more for this than I expected to. Another item sold as “untested” – the battery had long since died, and I wasn’t going to go out of my way to replace it. Found in VMR.

15. Vintage 1920s / 1930s Westclox Big Ben alarm clock: On eBay for 70$. This was a beautiful clock but it ticked very loudly. Some people are into that, but I warned in my listing that others might not be. Found in the Mile End.

16. Sony TR-610 Transistor Radio: On eBay for 130$. I love finding old radios. Found in the lower Plateau.

17. Cross fountain pen, 14k gold nib: On eBay for 40$. Found in the Mile End.

18. NIB Logitech webcam: On eBay for 75$. This had never been opened. Found in VMR.

19. Nikon Coolpix camera: On Kijiji for 50$. Worked totally fine. Even came with the charger. Found in Westmount.

20. Vintage art: On Kijiji for 50$. I had this cool painting for quite some time. It looked to be painted on cloth, and was probably made in art deco times. Perhaps I could have gotten more for it on eBay, but it would have been a hassle to ship. I’m just happy it finally found a new home. Saved in Outremont.

21. Silver ring: On Etsy for 20$.

22. Yard sales: 225$. I had one mediocre and a few mini yard sales in June. I forget how much I made to be honest, but I think that’s a solid guess.

23. Vintage postcards from London, England: To a reader for 40$. These were part of that nice old collection I found in VMR back in May. There were more than what’s pictured above, and I still have the royalty postcards if anyone is interested in those.

Total: 1857.50$, 12459.50$ so far in 2017. Current projections put me at around 25k for the year, which would be a record!