The trash was flowing pretty consistently for a while, with lots of interesting and valuable finds, though not much in the way of gold and silver. The past few weeks have been relatively slow, with old spots drying up and no one stepping up to replace them. I’ve noticed a reduced flow around this time of year before; I figure it’s because it’s the time of year when people are most likely to go on vacation.
Fortunately, I could probably find nothing for a year and still have enough to get by. I spent a full workweek just in my garage not long ago, just organizing and researching, and after all that work it barely looked like I had done anything at all. I keep picking though obviously, because it’s fun and because it’s good to go out in hopes of finding that major score.
This spot in NDG was a regular stop for a little while. My best haul came this day, when the tossers unloaded a large collection of vintage sports memorabilia.
I saved a big haul of 1950s/1960s Sports Illustrated magazines. These are now listed on Facebook Marketplace, which I’m using a bit more these days. The “is this still available” people are annoying, but my strategy is not to chase them. Usually they’re not serious buyers anyways, so I wait for people who express a real interest in the item, and then I’ll make more of an effort.
FB Marketplace is now the best way to locally sell stuff like furniture, and also other items with mainstream demand. eBay is still my go-to for more niche items, especially when they’re easy to ship.
I found a few of the early Montreal Expos yearbooks, including the one from their first season in 1969. I sold one on eBay previously, I think for 40$. My plan this time is to sell the three as a lot. There doesn’t seem to be huge interest in Montreal Manic stuff, but I’m sure someone at a yard sale will like it.
These two Canadiens magazines have signatures on them. The signature on the left looks kind of like Jean Beliveau’s, though not one he put a lot of effort into. If true it would bump of the value of the magazine a bit that’s for sure. The one on the right looks to be signed as well, though all those scratches look like gibberish to me. There’s more on the back, which I forgot to get a photo of. If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments! Click on the picture to zoom in for a better look.
These old schedules can be worth money sometimes. It seems like anything made in the 80s or later is yard sale material, but before that they can have some real value, especially stuff from the 60s or earlier. None of these ones are particularly valuable, though the 1970s Expos and NHL schedules are worth around 10-20$ each.
Tickets can be worth good money as well. Older ones, and ones from notable games command a premium. It can be worth the effort to Google the date of the game to see if anything special happened. One of my Canadiens tickets (not pictured), for example, turned out to be from a game that was Guy LaFleur’s last at the Forum (as a Nordique). So that one is listed for 100$ on eBay, and has garnered some interest though I’ll likely have to come down on the price a bit. These other tickets don’t seem to be too special, I may group them by team and sell them via auction on eBay at some point once it starts getting colder.
That’s all for now, but here’s hoping I don’t take so long to get to the new post… for real this time!
Links
1. My eBay listings. Sign up for eBay (Canada, US). Search for something you want / research something you have (Canada, US). — These are Ebay Partner Network links. If you create an account or buy something after getting to eBay from here, I get a small cut of the profit! —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Donate to the blog. It costs close to 500$ a year to maintain (no ads, domain name, storage space, etc) which ain’t cheap. Otherwise, it’s nice to get a few bucks for coffee, food, or gas!