Month: August 2018

Pickin’ from the bottom of the bag

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Longtime readers know that the smallest treasures often make their way to the bottom of the trash bag. One of my best finds recently was in St Michel where someone decided to dump a jewelry box (and seemingly all its contents) into the trash along with the pizza crusts. I threw the bag in the car for later sorting because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

(Sidenote: I happened to be followed by a photographer that day. He was taking pictures for an upcoming interview in a local magazine, and I’m glad I actually found something of value in the short time we had available! Usually I end up having to feign interest in a junky pile just to get a good shot. I’ll share the interview here when it’s out).

By scrounging amongst the crusts I was able to refill the jewelry box. Some pieces were indeed worthy of the trash, but most were not and some will end up being fairly valuable.

These tie pins were likely a service award given out by the Steinberg’s supermarket chain that operated from 1917 to 1992. One is silver and the one with the ruby is 10k gold. I brought these to the auction house – Steinberg’s was a Montreal institution for many years, so the name invokes a lot of nostalgia (and hopefully many bids).

Speaking of nostalgia, I also found these cool “Man and his World” Expo 67 cufflinks. They’re in pretty good condition, and I expect them to sell for around 50-60$.

Here’s the best of the costume stuff. I really like that leaf brooch but unfortunately it’s unsigned. I’m mildly hopeful that the bracelet on the right is unsigned gold but that’s probably wishful thinking.

Finally, here’s the stuff that’s marked as silver or gold. There’s three Air Canada service pins on the left, all of which are sterling silver (the latter two might be gold plated as well). The religious medallions on the bottom right are 18k gold, as is the bowtie brooch above it. Overall this was an awesome haul, and I expect that it’ll earn me four figures once it’s all processed!

I haven’t seen much here (besides a box of nice German crystal since). I’ll try to keep an eye on the situation, but I’m also planning on retiring the St Michel route for a while – it hasn’t been productive for a few weeks now.

I saved these items from the bottom of a bag in Hampstead. There’s a mini bottle of Christian Dior’s Eau Sauvage, a few coins, two pocket knives, a pipe reamer, a couple pins and a single bracelet link that I hope is gold. That Heil piece is actually a measuring tape made by the Zippo company, I’ve never seen such a thing previously.

I actually went to an estate sale at this place a couple weeks later. They might have made a few extra bucks if they put this stuff in a box and said “make an offer,” but I guess throwing things away helps to make the process a little less stressful. Or, maybe they legitimately thought that these items had no value. Who knows.

A bag in TMR contained: around 25 coins, a few of which date back to the early 1900s; a WWII food ration token; a couple of vintage bracelets (I particularly like the orange one – the beads don’t seem to be bakelite but are probably a different type of old plastic); a single gold earrings; two chains I hope are gold; 10 Hong Kong dollars from 1985; and a few other doodads.

Finally, I took a look at this trash while walking around my neighbourhood the other day. I kicked a bag and heard the familiar sound of coins.

There was indeed a sizeable collection of mostly foreign coins at the bottom of the bag. I gathered them all into that empty plastic cup at the top of the photo and brought them home for sorting.

Here’s a video of me dumping the haul into the light box. The coins aren’t worth much individually, but once I amass a big collection I can sell them at the auction house.

From all that I spotted three pieces of note: a 1945 Venezuelan 1/2 Bolivar (silver), a 1951 Canadian dime (also silver), and an old looking (brass?) button marked “Republique d’Haiti” featuring an image of a cannon. I couldn’t find any other buttons like it below, so if you happen to know something about it please share in the comments!

In other news I’ve been quite busy basically re-organizing my whole business with the auction house in mind. I’ve cleared all the random junk I’d never have time to deal with from the basement, sorted through and organized the junk in my garage and storage, purged my stash of clothes and brought a bunch to a local consignment shop, and all the the while found more garbage that I have to deal with! At some point the work should slow down and I’ll have more time to blog. This summer has been great for picking and I’ll try to share more of those finds here soon.

If the weather is good I plan on doing a yard sale this Saturday at my storage (4096 Coloniale near Duluth). I want to clear out a bunch of stuff and maybe you (and the university kids who are now returning for the fall semester) can help! I’ll start around 11am, and if it doesn’t work out for whatever reason I’ll edit this post to reflect that. Perhaps check back Friday evening just to be sure – if I have to cancel I’ll add a notice in bold below.

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Bits & bobs

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This past week was another busy one. I filled the car with quality garbage on three different runs, and came away with other great stuff (including what might be my best find of the year) on a couple others. All this extra junk made it hard to get around my garage; fortunately the auction house reopened after a two week vacation and I was able to bring four carloads of stuff there! I definitely went over their not strictly enforced limit of 20 items a week, but I got away with it by being charming and well prepared (plus, because I have a small car I never bring too much at one time).

I’m nowhere near close to cataloguing last week’s finds so here’s some random stuff from the last month or so. Some folks in NDG tossed a few interesting things, including this collection of tribal weapons. The previously owner wrote the origins of the pieces in pen: “Outback” is written on the top piece (which looks like a non-returning boomerang – I assumed all boomerangs returned before I did my research!); the club in the middle says “Masai” (an ethnic group in Kenya and Tanzania); and the sword on the bottom reads “Amazone.” All these pieces are wood and seem to be higher quality than your average tourist junk. I brought them to the auction house and we’ll see how they do.

I also found this signed Guy Lafleur sports card.

It’s hard to know why someone would throw this out, but I guess whoever owned (or inherited) it didn’t appreciate it fully.

I also found these Norman Bethune postage stamps inside a little envelope. Apparently Canada and China worked together to design these and they were issued in both countries. They’re signed by someone (on the left) though the scrawl doesn’t seem to match any name associated with the project.

This spot is still producing, though I haven’t found anything particularly interesting there since that first day.

A spot in Outremont has produced some great finds, including some paper ephemera that I was able to quickly sell for good money. Here’s a collection of business cards I found one garbage day.

Here’s a selection of some of my favourites. I love old business cards!

Tucked among those cards was a 1959-1960 Toronto Maple Leafs season schedule. It was printed for the Westbury Hotel, a luxury establishment that operated not far from Maple Leaf Gardens in downtown Toronto. I tried to find another like it online but had no luck, much like the 1944-1945 Montreal Canadiens schedule I found last year. I seem to have a knack for finding uncommon pocket schedules!

Pricing things without any specific precedent can be tough, but looking on eBay you can find that old NHL schedules can sell for a pretty penny. I sold that Canadiens schedule for 150$, but this one was a more recent so I priced it a little lower. It sold very quickly for 100$, and I already got positive feedback.

Maybe I could have gotten more for it, but I’m pretty happy to get 100$ for a little piece of paper!

Another quick seller was this vintage (I’m guessing late 50s or early 60s) Pepsi vending machine catalogue. I also couldn’t find any others like it online – it sold quickly on eBay for 75$. From what I can tell the previous owner ran a furniture store back in the day, and it looks like he went for the Model 6 in the gallery below.

Soft drink collectors are a passionate bunch so it’s always a good idea to aim high when pricing!

I also found some old store display signs, which I think were made in the 60s. I have three of these Zenith signs, two of which are still in their original plastic. I listed the non-bagged one for 60$ and it has a fair number of “watchers” already.

I also saved a similar sign for Kuba, a company known for their sometimes luxurious mid-century stereo consoles. This one sold pretty quickly for 50$.

This spot is still producing, though the quality junk to actual junk ratio is pretty high on the wrong end.

Westmount hasn’t been very productive for me lately, though this haul of vintage colognes was a pretty good find. I can’t remember which ones are worth eBaying (they’ve been in my basement since I found them) but I think the Dunhill Edition, Hermes, and Giorgio Beverly Hills VIP Edition are probably the most valuable. The ones I don’t list online will go to the auction house.

I happened upon this beast while walking to my space on Coloniale. Fortunately it sat only a few minutes from home, the thing weighed at least 100 pounds and quite likely more. I had to carry it there myself – I took breaks every 30 seconds or so. It’s an old industrial stapler made by Bostitch, I’m guessing in the 30s or 40s.

I’m not sure who’ll buy it, but I lubed up the mechanism and brought it to the auction house. We’ll see how it does!

Saint Michel has been pretty productive this summer. The first day I stopped at this section of the curb I saved a bunch of nice dishes (and a few other things, like a working fan).

Those teacups were pretty cute, if not particularly valuable. The Fire King stuff is very nice, but it’s mostly loose pieces so not worth listing on eBay. My plan is to group all my mismatched Fire King, Pyrex, Glasbake, Federal Glass, and other similar pieces together for an auction lot.

Those Pyrex mugs on the right are great. I sold the Corelle pieces at a yard sale for 3$, unfortunately there were a bunch missing from the set.

This spot produced some great stuff a couple weeks later, but that’ll have to wait for a future post!

I found these rings in an otherwise gross box elsewhere. The ones on top aren’t anything special but the three on the bottom are pretty cool. I took a more detailed picture which you can see below.

I’m guessing the one on the left is made of some kind of antler. I think the other two are ivory, though I don’t know for sure. The one on the right has a “crown” that could be abalone or mother of pearl (it also looks like it used to have a stone). If you know more than I do please let us know in the comments!

Last week this spot provided a deluxe version of Scrabble (with a rotating board and other accessories) and a few other wooden games. I’m hoping the finds keep coming, even if they’re few and far between.

I found this religious medal in Ahuntsic a little while back and was curious about its origins. On top is written “Paroisse de St-Laurent” while “Congregation de Sainte-Anne” is seen in the purple enamel. I found a similar piece before but these don’t turn up very often, at least for me. Is it the kind of thing that might have belonged to a nun? If you know anything about it please let us know in the comments!

Otherwise, a place not far from home tossed tonnes of great stuff last week. That’ll have to wait for another post, but for now here’s a couple of rosaries I found in the lead up to the big purge. The one with coloured beads is pretty cool, but the one with the clear beads has Italian silver hallmarks. It could be worth a bit of money. The next time I talk about this spot I’ll show you a pair of religious items that I haven’t seen in my travels previously.

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Recent sales: June

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June was the month I first started bringing my junk to the auction house. I had a lot to deal with at the time (including picking during move-out season, my move to a smaller garage, and that stressful yard sale) so I didn’t have time to take pictures of all my wares. Below is a rapid fire look at what sold at auction.

Auction results:

  • Mickey Mouse coin bank: 8$. Found in the Plateau.
  • 1976 Champion Gilles Villeneuve poster: 22$.
  • Small rug: 20$. Found in Outremont.
  • Victorian lamp stand: 18$. Found in Outremont.
  • Plaster plant stand: 10$. Found in St Michel.

  • Wooden trunk: 16$. Found in Ville St Laurent and brought to auction that same day.
  • Agatha silver ring: 12$. Found in Outremont.

  • Le Creuset casserole dish: 18$.

  • Parti Quebecois election sign: 95$. Found in Rosemont.
  • Handmade wooden vase: 10$. Found in Outremont.
  • Vintage cowhide doctor’s bag: 80$. Found in Westmount.
  • Spiderman deluxe box set: 16$. Found in Cartierville.
  • Large vintage speaker, as is: 9$. Found in the Mile End.
  • Vintage rocking chair: 32$. Found in TMR.

Total: 322$ – 80.50$ (25% fee) – 14$ (listing fees) =  227.50$

I’m satisfied with all of these results. A few, like the wooden trunk were slightly disappointing, but I was also quite happy to get these things out of my space. The disappointments were more than offset by the successes. The PQ sign went for about what I thought it should, but required much less effort to sell than if I was forced to go the Kijiji / eBay route. The doctor’s bag went for a lot more than I expected – I actually had it priced at 20$ during the pop-up market in April (I’m glad it didn’t sell then!). The Gilles Villeneuve poster went for a good sum as well.

Overall, I’ve very happy with the auction approach thus far, and especially the amount of work and storage space this avenue saves me. I expect that auction results will be a staple of these sales summaries going forward.

eBay sales

  • 2 SAP textbooks: 95$. I wasn’t sure about listing them at the time but enough have sold to make the effort worthwhile. Found in the lower Plateau.

  • 1950s / 1960s African missionary slides: 60$. These were part of that big photo haul I found thanks to a tip from a reader last year. Found in St Michel.

  • Vintage Triumph car badge: 50$. Found in TMR.
  • Simmons pocket knife: 30$. Found in the Mile End.

  • United Colors of Benetton silver cross pendant: 15$. I’m surprised this was such a hard sell, it took about three years to find a new home. Found in NDG.

  • Primrose plate cocktail shaker: 70$. I figured I’d get a good price for this! Found in NDG.

  • Vintage Quebec flag: 30$. Found in the Plateau.

  • Priest stole: 15$. I gave the buyer a 50% discount when I noticed that one of the tassels had been accidentally torn off. It wasn’t a hard fix, but I wanted to make sure the buyer was happy with what they ordered. Found in Outremont.

  • Miniature Expo 67 flag: 22.50$. Found in NDG.
  • House of Seagram printing plates: 18$. Found in Montreal Ouest.

  • Vintage car plates: 90$. Found in TMR.

  • Studebaker letterpress block: 27$. Found in Ahuntsic.

  • Stadium motorcycle goggles: 45$. These were probably made in the 30s or 40s. Found in NDG.

  • Vintage Bulova watch: 45$. Found just down the street.

  • Antique silver grouse foot pendant: 27$. Found in Westmount.

Total: 639.50$. A bit of a slow month, but that’s to be expected in the summer. If some of those numbers look funny it’s because I started a 10% off sale around this time, I don’t usually set prices with cents in them.

Yard sales

  • 800$. This was the one that got a bit out of hand. Still, the overall profits weren’t bad. I realized recently though that the lightbulbs to my photo equipment were also stolen, which will cost me around 50-75$. I may have had another minor sale in June, but I can’t remember for sure.

Gold / silver scrap

  • 800$. This batch was composed largely of silverware from the collection I found back in April. Some were good to sell on eBay, but others were worn past the point of being desirable (ie: some of the prongs of the forks had been grinded down somehow and were sharp / uneven). So, into the scrap pile they went, along with other unexceptional or damaged bits of jewelry.

Overall total: 2467$, 12066.50$ so far in 2018. I consider that a decent month – twelve of those brings me close to 30k gross for the year.