September 2024 – Things I find in the garbage

Last week’s trash haul was one of my best in a while. While there were no “omg” finds, there was lots of quality junk that I was able to liquidate at two yard sales this past weekend.

In front of one house I found a whole bunch of framed art and prints. There were several bags full, and also some bigger ones leaning against the pile. I picked out about 30-40 of the nicer frames, many of which sold for between 3-10$ each at the sale.

I took pictures of a few favourites, which I didn’t bring to the sale. The pair of very (late 50s?) framed dancers above are iconic enough to be worthy of listing on Facebook Marketplace. Below are a couple of nice pieces of art, both of which are by someone named “HJ Doran.”

I also saved a bunch of cookbooks, including some old collections of Montreal restaurant menus (in book form), and a bunch of nice chandelier crystals. These went to my Instagram seller, and sold pretty quickly for decent money.

On Tuesday evening I picked up this walnut dresser, which I was able to quickly flip for 120 plus a delivery fee. Maybe I could have gotten a few more dollars for it, but when it comes to big stuff I prefer to move it quickly rather than have it clutter up my storage.

On Wednesday night I ended up in St Michel. That run was a bit of a dud, at least until I found two vintage ammo crates filled with records. Unfortunately, the record sleeves were damaged around the bottom, maybe from the big storm a month or so ago. However, most of the records themselves were in very good condition, protected by the inner sleeve or perhaps divine intervention. Also, a lot of the records were jazz, which isn’t as common as some other genres (like classical), and are fairly sought after. I put them out at the sale, and within a couple hours 75% of the records (and the crates themselves) were gone, and I made around 200$ or so. As a result, that ended up being a worthwhile outing as well.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck this week. My van also needs a bit of work, so I’ve taken it easy on the trash runs. I’ve been waiting on one semi-necessary part for almost 3 months now (apparently Kia is not great when it comes to supplying less common parts), and on Tuesday the occasional squealing from the back became a constant squealing that, even if not dangerous, annoyed me greatly and induced feelings of rage. I also noticed that I had a headlight out, and have been driving with a nail in the tire for a couple of months (hoping for this other part to arrive so I could do both jobs at once), so I made the call to get those latter things fixed on Monday. I’ll still have to wait for that part though, which is just absurd at this point. All in all, this car (and my repair shop) have been very good to me, so I blame Kia’s management for the inconvenience.

Since we’re on the topic of quick flips, here’s a few other furniture pieces I saved recently. This art deco dresser/wardrobe sold for 150 (iirc) to an Instagram follower. I was able to drop it off the day after I found it, so it never even made it to my storage… which was good because getting it in the car by myself was a feat of strength of its own.

Vintage dressers seem to be easy to sell, even when they’re really basic like this one. It sold via FB for 60$.

The market for these old round kitchen tables isn’t so hot, though. I’ve been holding the bag on this one for over a month now, and I’m not getting much interest even at 60$. Fortunately the legs come off so it doesn’t take up that much space, but I might pass on similar tables in the future (considering how much effort it took to get it in the car… this thing is heavy!).

I’ll finish off with this unusual find. I wasn’t sure about picking it up because, speaking of heavy, this thing was solid cast iron and weighed probably 80 pounds, give or take. Sometimes I pick these kinds of random things up and end up regretting it, when I end up putting the item back on the curb and get nothing for my efforts.

Anyways, thanks to Google Lens, I was able to identify it as an old dough divider, the same brand as seen here. However, it was pretty dirty, a bit rusty, and the mechanism seized up after I brought it to my garage. I listed it at 250$, an aspirational price, but was pretty happy when someone eventually showed up and offered me 100$ for it. It needs a lot of work, so I’m just glad it went to a better home. And I feel no regrets, because it only took a few weeks to sell, and it sold for a decent price.

I was planning to take a weekend off from regular yard sales, but my friend Louis (who runs ArcMtl as well as Expozine) talked me into doing a combined sale this weekend. He’ll bring records and maybe some art books, and I’ll have a selection of my usual stuff. The plan is to be at the usual 4100 Coloniale spot on Saturday, from 11-6pm.

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. Help support the blog, or just buy me a coffee! PayPal link below.

With only mild success on the picking front, I’ve continued to focus more on the decluttering arena. I sold the 14 boxes of books for my asking price (plus an extra 20$, the buyer was very happy), I held a very successful Labour Day yard sale which helped clear out some yard sale stock (although I still have too much), and I’ve been pulling more garbage deadstock off the shelves and documenting it.

This box is relatively fresh compared to some of the other ones up there. It contained all the copper and brass items from that “all-nighter” spot, which I happened upon a little over a year ago.

I see this kind of stuff often enough. These are the kinds of things that tourists buy when they’re in Middle East. But the quality of these items was a little nicer, and these folks also had roots in Iraq, so I figured I’d post them here first before throwing them in the yard sale (or scrap metal) pile.

Sometimes I also wonder if I might overlook a real antique, especially when it comes to these copper things. Would I be able to tell if one of these was made in the 1850s, versus the 1950s? I think the giveaways are probably in the details, like the little loop on the back of a decorative plate and whatnot. This samovar was easy to recognize, given that it was made using a piece of a tin can that probably dates to the 1950s, plus or minus 20 years. It’s missing pieces as well, so it’s destiny is the scrap bin. Who knows, maybe it’ll be recycled into another samovar.

Here’s a few more things from the box. I really doubt I have anything mind-blowing here, but if you know anything about selling this kind of stuff let me know in the comments!

Oh, and I also fished a bunch of Red Rose figurines from the bottom of a recycling bin there. These are always good for a buck or two a piece (sometimes more, for rarer ones like the Gingerbread Man).

Here’s some things from some Gen Xer’s childhood junk purge. I took these pictures inside, before I set up my photo lights, so they aren’t that good. But I still made the effort to take the pictures, so I figured I might as well share them in the gallery format. Most of these items aren’t all that valuable, but they’re fun and good for yard sales or Instagram. The Seiko watch might be the most valuable piece (100-200$ if I recall correctly), if it works.

And finally, here’s the remains of a fun Villeray score from a few years back. There was more, but over the years I whittled the collection down to just these small things (most pens and pencils) to save space. I haven’t done much research yet, but I’m confident that some of the writing instruments (in particular, the gold-filled pendant fountain pen and the wood grain Waterman mechanical pencil) have value. Other items of note include the cow bone rosary ft. Stanhope viewer, and a silver pendant doohickey (which I’m guessing held a little sewing kit).

I took these photos using my lights, and you can really see the difference in quality. The next step might be to get my old camera up and running again. As good as the iPhone is for photography, a nice camera is better with contrast, colour saturation, and so on, even if it’s a little more work getting the “perfect shot.”

Anyways that’s all for now. I am planning another sale for the 4100 Coloniale spot tomorrow, even though the temperature is going to be a relatively chilly 14 degrees. Foot traffic was really good last week, and the McGill kids are back in the neighbourhood (and are hungry for junk). If you came to the last one, there might be a bit of fresh stuff, although maybe not enough to make a special trip for. I plan on being out from about 1-7pm.

Month: September 2024

Quick turnaround

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The decluttering continues

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