Some of you know the story with this spot by now, but here it is in condensed form if you’re new: very multigenerational house starts tossing stuff after a century plus of rarely doing so. This was definitely one of my favourite all-time spots, and I feel safe now saying that in the past tense because I haven’t seen any new trash there since the early summer. It was a great run – I found quality junk here nearly every week for like a year – so I can’t complain. Anyways, I need to post pics or get off the pot as they say. I have lots still to share, and a decent sized shelving unit full of stuff still to deal with.
Anyways, I won’t spend too much time on each picture. Here’s a load of wool blankets I found here, which did fairly well at auction. None were super fancy, but all were nice enough to sell.
These folks seemed to like celery a lot. I’ve never seen celery “flakes” before, and can’t imagine how they’d be used.
Most Canadians are probably familiar with Habitant pea soup, which is still one of the better canned soups out there (and pretty cheap as well). I sold this to a friend who plans on opening a restaurant one day, and who’ll probably use this as a display.
Metal scissors are always easy to sell, and there’s a couple of interesting ones here as well. The one on the left with the little wheelie thing in the middle are old buttonhole scissors. These ones are marked “H. Cromwell Criterion – Korn’s Patent” and I was only able to find two others on Google. The pair at the bottom with the stitching wheel were made by Pribyl Bros (if you can tell me what they sold for please do!).
I found lots of old books here.
A lot of what I have left to sort are really old photos and paper ephemera.
I’d never seen batteries like this before. I think they were probably used for photography sometime around 1950. They probably contain a lot of lead and other nasty stuff, so it’s good I saved them. I sold them to another junk oriented fellow who plans on turning them into some kind of industrial art.
These antique Persian tiles were pretty busted up, but fortunately I found all the pieces.
I saved a whole bunch of old films in varying condition.
I gave / sold (we have an informal arrangement) them to a local archivist who knows how to deal with film that’s in poor condition.
A lot of them were close to 100 years old, so it’s likely they contain footage that’s impossible to find elsewhere. There were a few mass produced cartoons in there as well, which aren’t so irreplaceable.
There’s a pretty good market for old flags from my experience. This Union Jack was marked “British Made” and in great condition for its age. I sold it on eBay, I think for 150-200$.
I found a lot of silver here, but the most valuable piece was probably this William Spratling Mexican silver & obsidian necklace which dates to the late 50s or early 60s. I remember it was missing two chunks at first, and then a week or two later I found one of them. Unfortunately, I never did find the other. Regardless, I listed it on eBay for 350$ and it sold very quickly. Spratling is a sought-after designer, and the missing chunk didn’t have obsidian so it might not be too hard for someone to reproduce.
Usually when I have an interesting “spot” I make a file folder on my computer devoted to the related photos. Right now I have 14 folders, several of which are getting pretty dated, so I want to clear out that old stock and stay more on top of the fresher junk. I’ve said that before, but now that people are selling stuff for me I feel like I have more time for blogging.
Three cheers for dependable old Booger I in the first pic! RIP Booger.
Love that little pocket writing desk book. Are the inside pages blank?
I love how you try to find the best possible home for some of your archive-worthy ephemera and art-potential finds.
Well, the place dried up, but it’s memorialized in nine interesting blog entries … and it garnered you a sweet influx of cash.
Colour me a happy reader.
That flag looks to be in pristine condition. Even after being a faithful reader of your blog for years, I still find it so hard to believe that someone can throw a necklace like that away.
The best news of all is that you said that you’ll be posting more often, so I can’t wait to see what else you’ve been finding. Each entry is very inspiring.
In case you’ve been hanging onto Euro coins and bills, I hope that we can meet up in the summer at one of your sales, though I would need a fair bit of advance notice as I’m on the other side of town from you, and it’s a fairly long bike ride.
Maybe they just didn’t like celery and that’s why the containers survived!
Re the film reel labelled “Mrs May, Mrs Warren & Self”
could you or your archivist could scan & post an image of the three people ? I might be able to identify one of them…….
what a find –
It’s gone to to this place, but it’ll probably be a while before they are dealt with… there’s too much stuff and not enough money to deal with it quickly. But you could always contact them to see what the plan is… https://www.arcmtl.org/en/
There is big nostalgia and ebay demand for satin bound blankets like the pink blanket. I remember them well for soft edges and the electric static that made a crackle noise in winter months. I was surprised that metal scissors are an easy sell. You used to do a financial pie chart of where your income came from While I am sure your tag sales are now a very sale part of total income, I am curious how your auction house, ebay sales and consigned items to other sellers are shaping up.
Yes it’s getting too hard to track my income at this point, but at this point I’d say that eBay is #1 and the auction is a fairly close #2. But if these folks I have selling for me keep up their good work, they could challenge for a high spot on this ranking. Yard sales, as you expect are fairly low now, especially given I pay friends to help.
Merrill Smith I have a question about that little brown covered book with the picture of an institute of learning on it. My father had several from that same institute. I thought my brother had them but he says no, so I guess they’re lost. Anyway, could you remind me of the name of the institute, please? Thank you.
The Keswick school? You might have to be more specific if not
With a little bit of Googling, what I should have tried first, I found that it was the International Correspondence School of Scranton, PA. Sorry to have bothered you. Cheers
I have been walking around the Streets these days in the morning in different burbs and find that very little good stuff is being thrown out.Is the fear of a recession or economic uncertainty making more people conservative and frugal?I do not think being frugal is bad -the environment always benefits when people junk less.Are you finding a lot of treasures in the wealthy neighborhoods these days?Is the curfew since the last two months affecting your scavenging?Curious.
After having great luck for months on end I haven’t found much of interest this February, probably due mostly to the terrible weather.