January 2020 – Things I find in the garbage

Pass-pour pt.2

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 garbagefinds24 Comments

Let’s finish up with this stuff. I found a lot of old electronics here, including a whole bunch of vintage calculators. I always have a soft spot for those, even if most aren’t worth that much. That Grundig radio is pretty nice, and that SeaRanger weather radio is kind of cool. It also worked when I found it, indicating that it was used relatively recently (many portable radios I find have dead or corroded batteries inside). For some reason this person owned a whole bunch of those pens with digital clocks on them. None looked to have been used.

I saved three of these old Nokia cell phones. I was surprised to see that they actually held a charge after all these years. Also, I was surprised when the lot of three sold quickly on eBay for 45$. I guess this model is a “classic” at this point, and one of the phones was in basically new condition.

Here’s a couple more calculators, a toy gun of some kind, and some engineering tools. I wonder if the previous owner worked in the field.

Those old parallel rulers are kind of cool, as is the slide rule (a Diwa 913). At top right is a nice brass A.W. Faber “Mentor” pencil sharpener, which should sell for around 25-30$.

I really liked this old wooden toy CPR train, which I imagine was hand made. I’m sure it has a bit of value, but I’m tempted to keep it for myself.

At top left is a nice silver baby rattle. When I was digging through the bags I spotted that mother of pearl end piece, but left it because I assume it was broken off a manicure tool or something. Once I got home I researched the rest of the rattle and realized what I had left behind. So, I drove all the way back to find it again, which is something I rarely do. However, I knew it would bother me if I didn’t complete the rattle. Anyways, it was made in Birmingham, England in 1930 and is worth about 100$.

Otherwise, we have a nice Waterman pen, an old wood & brass slide caliper, and a J&R Weir Marine Engineers pin.

These buttons, stored in an old cigarette pack, were not to be thrown out (but were). They’re from the Lower Canada College, a private school in NDG, and look to be silver plated. I found a few more LCC buttons in a small plastic bag.

I found a bit of jewelry, mostly cufflinks. The Fenwick & Sailors silver gun cufflinks at top right are probably the nicest ones in this collection, they should sell for 60-75$. That grey and red stone thing is silver too, but it looks to have broken off of something.

My favourite cufflinks were the gold ones. I found around four pair, each of which were 9 or 10k gold. With the price of gold where it is (over 2000 Canadian dollars per ounce), this small collection is worth around 450$ for scrap.

However, my coolest find here might have been this silver plated nutcracker, which appears to be from the RMS Lusitania.

The Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine in 1915. 128 Americans were among the dead, which influenced their decision to join the war effort in 1917.

The Lusitania was only in service between 1907 and 1915, and I doubt they decided to switch the silverware in that length of time. My guess is that someone stole this from the ship way back in the day. I wasn’t able to find any others like it online (or Lusitania silverware in general, besides souvenir spoons), so it must be kind of rare.

It’s definitely a cool piece. It’s hard to research, but I’d guess it’s worth a bit of money, and might even be a worthy of a retroactive add to my best of 2019 list. If you can help me appraise it, please share your wisdom in the comments!

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George General mechanic, 11 Marie-Anne east. Faces Leonard Cohen’s old house. I took this photo about a year ago, but it still looks more or less the same today. I think this place has been abandoned ever since I arrived in the Mile End around eight years ago. I guess something will happen here at some point, I just hope it’s not turned into condos. I’d guess that this card dates to the 50s. #montreal #historyofmontreal #histoiredemontreal #vintagebusinesscard

A post shared by Martin (@wasonce.mtl) on Jan 20, 2020 at 1:41pm PST

In other news, I decided to start a new Instagram account where I trace old business cards and other ephemera (most of which I found in the trash) back to whence they came. It’s a fun way to explore the history of the city, and is also a good excuse to get out for a walk. If you’re interested in such a thing, check it out!

Links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings, Sign up for eBay, Search for something you want / research something you have (I’m a member of the eBay Partner Network so I make a bit of money if you buy things [even if they’re not mine] or sign up for an account via these links)
3. Help me pay off student loan debt / Contribute to the blog
4. Follow me on Instagram
5. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com – note that it might take me some time to reply, and that I am unlikely to be able to fulfill requests for items

Pass-pour pt.1

January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 garbagefinds9 Comments

I happened upon this pile about a couple months ago. It was pretty great, but unfortunately I haven’t seen anything there since.

I saved a lot of “smalls” here (I don’t know if that’s a term many people use, but I heard someone in the estate sale business use it to describe masses of small items). I love smalls, because they’re fun to look at and don’t take up much space. Also, they can be worth good money, if they’re made of gold for instance.

Here we have a bus ticket, a TTC token, a brass button, a brass link of some kind, a nice compass (though it might be broken), and lots of other stuff. That “distance and speed tables for shippers” book is pretty cool, it shows the number of nautical miles between different cities by boat.

I don’t remember seeing a date inside, but I’d guess it’s from the early 1900s.

Here’s some brushes, tins, and a first aid kit made as a promotion for the Maine Lions club.

I found several cell phones here, all of which were at least 10 years. That protractor / parallel rule is old and neat, as is that little brass footed box. I’m not sure what it was made to do. The box has a mark on the bottom but I haven’t been able to decipher it.

Old notebooks and organizers like the one at top left do pretty well at my yard sales. The black box is made of Bakelite and was probably made to store sewing accessories. Otherwise, we have a sealed vintage bottle of Antartic (Yves Rocher) aftershave and a pill bottle with teeth inside. They’re gross, but make for an interesting photo.

That “Qebec Passport (Pass-Pour)” is a 1970s parody of the separatist movement. Someone else took pictures of the inside, which you can see here. The Zippo was made for Ayers Felts, a local company that made wool blankets as well as felts for pulp & paper (though I’m not sure what that actually means). Those Air Canada wings are plastic. I think the pilots in those days had metal wings, so the plastic ones must have gone to someone a little less prestigious.

Here we have some tobacco pipes, a few miniature colognes, a nice cigarette case, and a couple basic but quality pens.

This printing paper wasn’t an exciting find, but it was useful. It means I won’t have to buy any for a while!

Soon I’ll share part two, which will feature some of my best finds from this spot.

The show must go on pt.2

January 17, 2020 garbagefinds7 Comments

Back to that house. Here’s one unusual thing I found, a mug-like object with two handles and different faces on both sides. It looks old, but there’s no marks on the bottom. I saw a similar piece when I went to the estate sale, which I bought because figured I might as well own both. That one is slightly larger, like the size of a big mug, with a blue glaze and a hard to decipher maker’s mark. I’m curious to know more about them, so please let me know if you’ve seen something similar!

I saved a few nice portable radios here. If I remember correctly, these are worth between 20-40$ each.

I found some eyeglasses, the finest of which were made by Giorgio Armani and Versace. The Armani ones (top) are particularly nice, and should sell for around 100$. The others were “yard sale quality.”

This collection of mostly foreign coins wasn’t super exciting, but coins are always fun to find regardless. There were some Euro and British pounds in there – I stash those away until I have enough to mention. The Canadian and American goes into an old tin for eventual rolling, and the rest (caveat below) goes into a McCoy cookie jar (like this one, which I found years ago) until I sell them at the auction or a yard sale.

These days I’m also saving Swiss francs, Australian dollars, and New Zealand dollars, because they come up often enough to be maybe worthwhile.

I found a nice little perfume collection here. The only one I listed on eBay was the Tamango by Leonard, the rest went to auction or local buyers.

I heard the word “hoarder” thrown around a lot at the sale. This person bought a lot of things, some of which didn’t look to be opened or ever used. There were lots of inukshuks for example, which I imagine came from Museum gift shops, and junky jewelry like the “I love opera” pin, which might have also come from a gift shop. Still, I found some stuff to sell, and some other stuff that I’ll give to others to sell. The “Rich Bitch” belt buckle at bottom right claims to be made by Gucci, but I have my doubts.

Here’s some of my best little finds. That letter opener featuring the 1838 5 Francs silver coin was made by someone named Eloi, and similar examples sell for around 100$ on eBay. The jewelry to the left of the coin is all silver. The ring must classify as a cocktail ring given the bigness of the stone. Otherwise, there’s a nice Mexican abalone letter opener, some small Catholic charms (a few of which are silver), a Seiko watch, and a busted MMA necklace. In this case, MMA means Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the necklace is probably designed in an ancient style. They seem to sell reasonably well in general, so I listed it on eBay. If it looks like something you want to re-string check it out!

Last but not least are these medals, which appear to have been made for the Order of Malta. I don’t really understand what these organizations actually do, but there does seem to be a good market for their medals online. I expect this set to sell for around 200$.

I went to that sale (again) on the final day, after six busy days of selling. There was still tonnes of stuff left, some of it junk, some of it not. If it finds its way to the curb and not 1-800 Got Junk, I’ll be there to pick it.

Otherwise, I finally sold some sinks today. Three of these yellow guys have now flown the coop, selling for 40$ each (120$ total). I wish they didn’t take so long to sell, given how much space they take up, but the delay might be partly my fault for not noting the dimensions on my listing. Regardless, I think the great sink experiment can be considered a reasonable success. They definitely do sell, you just need some storage space, elbow grease, and patience.

So, my sink inventory is now: two yellow, a white pedestal, and that cast iron industrial sink (which I finally finished cleaning and listed yesterday). They’ll sell eventually, but it might be a while.