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.
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Interesting post. So many cool discards finding new homes, all thanks to you. But you gotta stop manhandling those heavy things solo, my man!
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-montreal-star/132730919/
Nice stuff! There is a Reverend Harold J Doran mentioned in this July 5, 1926 newspaper. I don’t have a subscription so can’t see it properly. The name is in the column on the left nearer the bottom.
Great finds.
Sorry about your car problems. I dreaded the unusual sounds that my vehicle would make because I knew that I was about to make a big, unwanted, and hardly affordable expenditure.
That art deco dresser/wardrobe is a real beauty!
Thanks for another great post, and I’m glad you’re getting some decent money for those nice dressers. I can’t stand FB but I’m tempted to follow if I’d get to see items before they’ve sold. Good luck with the sale this weekend. The weather should hold!
HI – Marty thanks for the new post. Very interesting things. Can’t see all the brass MCM Arabic trays, but they sell well for me. The arabic coffeepots that are very valuable are the ones with the duckbill lip. Do you use google lens id or translate? Would help id the difficult things. What is the marbleized item in the last pic?
Thanks. I use Google lens, for some things it works great but for others not so much. Do you mean the marbleized thing in the box with the tea figurines? If so, that’s a Bakelite doohickey. Maybe for perfume since if I recall correctly it has a dipstick. I set it aside because some Bakelite does really well. If you mean the marbelized thing in the pencil/pen pic, that’s the nice Waterman mechanical pencil
Forgot to mention. There are furniture flippers that may want to do biz with you on items that you don’t even think would sell. Very cool redo videos online
Dont know what part you need, Martin, but down south we have junkyards where totalled vehicles end up. If you know the part you need, you can pull it or have them pull it, and your mechanic could install it. Beats waiting for KIAP to respond with the part and it probably would not be as expensive as a new part. Love your picking, wish I could go!
We have those, the problem is probably that my year of this vehicle isn’t that common, and apparently the same part from other years won’t fit. My garage guys have connections and they’ve struggled to find a used part. I’m not sure there’s much to do but wait “3-4 months” for this kind of essential part.