Today’s post will be a short one, featuring some finds from a briefly productive spot in Outremont. My best find came from an oblong-shaped bag that was tossed to the curb on one of the snowiest days of the year.
Inside was an old violin in its original case. The tailpiece of the violin (the bottom part) wasn’t attached, but it looked reparable to me. It ended up selling at the auction house for 65$. Pretty easy money!
I also saved a touristy African instrument, which went into my yard sale pile.
Another day I saved a bunch of coins and a bit of jewelry, including two pairs of sterling silver + 14k gold earrings. The Canadian coins were mostly pennies, but I also found around 8 Euros and 10 Swiss Francs, both of which are currencies I can fairly easily exchange for cash.
I found a bit more musical stuff, including a couple of digital metronomes and a pair of lightly used Grado Labs SR225 headphones. I haven’t gotten around to testing the latter yet, but I expect them to work just fine. Others on eBay are selling easily for over 100$, so that was a nice get.
I also saved some designer sunglasses – Oakley’s on the left and Porsche Design on the right. Both are in pretty good condition, and should sell for around 50$ each.
A few weeks ago I saw a moving truck out front of this house, so I expect this is all I’m going to get! Still, I’m likely to earn a couple hundred bucks from their junk when it’s all said and done.
Otherwise, eBay has been very slow for me lately, as you might expect. One of my best recent sales was the handwritten Bulgarian cookbook I shared here not too long ago. I finally listed it at 225$, and it sold pretty quickly to a rare books librarian working for a university cookbook archive in the States (I looked up the buyer’s name out of curiosity). That seems like the ideal destination for a book like this, so I’m happy about that.
I haven’t been picking quite as often as I normally would, but my luck has been pretty good regardless. I’ll share some of my best recent finds here soon enough. There’s also many old finds I have yet to photograph and share, in particular from the “part x of a million” spot. I’ve been intending on writing more blog posts while the world is largely shut down, but so far I’ve had a hard time focusing, in large part because there’s just so much news to consume.
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
Martin, I will gladly buy your Euro and Swiss coins. I am local (and in good health) so let me know when and where I can stop by. So great that you could save that violin. Happy to see you get a good price on the cookbook too! Stay safe. If you practice good hand washing hygiene, you’ll be fine.
Let’s wait for yard sale season, social distancing and all but I’m open to making a deal.
Our ebay store is on fire right now! Keep listing. We’re easily averaging 1k a day- people are at home shopping. Love those Oakley’s!!!
Interesting. My decreased sales could be part coincidence as well. Sometimes things fly off the shelf, other times it’s slower for no particular reason. The important thing, like you say is to keep listing!
I agree, that cookbook has found a great place to be! It’s wonderful that you save things like that from destruction.
Great snow pic to start off your post. It gives readers a good notion of your working conditions sometimes. I can well imagine you finding a place to stop the car, and then clambering through all that snow to disinter your trash finds.
Nice batch of ebay-listable finds here! May the sales start rolling in.
What’s that item with the $ on it in the pic with the earphones and metronomes? A lighter?
I’m very happy your vintage cookbook found such an absolutely perfect home … kudos for your listing abilities and keyword choices. 🙂
Yup, it’s a Zippo. Good for the yard sale pile.
Did I see some teeth ? Such an interesting job you have.
I missed that. They do look like teeth! 🙂
Yup, lol. They sometimes appear along with other “junk drawer” stuff. Artsy types sometimes have interest in that kind of weird stuff.
But you keep the gold ones. 😀
At least until I bring them to my scrap gold guy!
I haven’t seen any of those for a little while though…
Thank you for another great post. I use a pair of those headphones. I bought them at least ten years ago at the recommendation of an Apple Store employee/musician and have been very happy with them. Your blog never ceases to amaze me regarding what other human beings will toss into the trash. So easy to donate decent stuff to a local thrift store but…. nope, into the trash! Bless you for retrieving as much as you do!!!