Just down the road

Posted on by garbagefinds

It’s been a classic Montreal January thus far – fairly cold, and a moderate amount of snow. I haven’t felt too motivated to get out there. Fortunately, it’ll be over by the time you read this post. February is always a little better, and by the time March comes around, you’ll start to see glimmers of spring.

My attention span has been shot lately, but I have put a bit of effort into cleaning up my random junk in the basement. It feels like a good task for January. I’m not sure when I’ll end up moving from my current spot, but it’s inevitable that I’ll move at some point … and when that time comes, it’ll be nice not to have so many loose ends down there.

Half of it is my own personal stuff. I finally tossed my high school yearbook, which was ruined in a flood several years back. Some things are just garbage! The rest are former finds – some things I wanted to keep for my personal collection, some things I had trouble researching, and other things I just didn’t have time to deal with. I’ve listed some of these items on eBay, put others in the yard sale pile, and kept some favourites for myself.

What do I collect for myself? Well, that’s a topic for another day. As is the potential impact of the orange guy’s tariffs on my garbage business.

This haul came to me around mid-December, not too far from home.

This old leather envelope held a bunch of old photographs, including four tintypes.

Apparently the heyday for the tintype was the 1860s-1870s, but some were produced up until the 1930s. Probably the only way to identify the exact time period would be to look at the fashions of the subjects. Zoom in for a closer look, and if you have any insights let us know in the comments!

The rest were carte de visite style photos, most of which were taken in Quebec City and Montreal.

There were more photos elsewhere. I picked out a few favorites to share here. That photo of the plane looks pretty old. Anyone know anything about that?

And then there was a bit of quality junk (as I like to call it). I saved a nice sterling silver rosary, a small silver funnel, a little hand clip that may also be silver, an old Zippo, some doodads for the yard sale bin…

… a couple fish-shaped pens, a Louis Marx budget bank, an old bottle of Eau Sauvage;

… and three bronze medals, one of which I sold for 50$.

They aren’t as old as they say, but they’re still nice re-strikes that probably date to the early 1900s.

Otherwise, one of these people worked for different local media stations. I found a few mementos, including two signed images of “Les trois Menestrels” and another of a different band I’m not familiar with.

Most interesting was a press pass from Expo 67. I’ve found a couple of these now – the other is still in quarantine (since late 2023, a little excessive most likely, but better safe than sorry) because it came from an apartment with bedbugs. These seem to be fairly uncommon, so they are likely worth something to a passionate Expo 67 collector.

That’s all for now. I’ll share some more finds soon enough!

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 these links, I get a small cut of the profit!
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefindssells on Instagram (this is managed by a friend, I’ve quit Instagram for the time being)
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.


26 thoughts on “Just down the road”

  3. A word about the promotional print «Les Compagnons de la chanson», to the left of Les 3 Ménestrels. They where the the French singing ensemble accompanying Édith Piaf when she came to New York and Montréal in 1948. If you look carefully, under the signature «Paul», you find it is Paul Buissoneau, their 9th member, who will decide to stay in Quebec and change the course of life of so many artists here, founder of «La Roulotte», the famous mobile open air theatre for children. He was, for many of my age, the Radio-Canada television character «Picolo» for children…

  5. I’ve only gotten as far as the first tin types and have to sign off, but wanted to say what you likely already know – you can also date photos from hair and facial hair styles. Per Ancestry.com (Facial Hair Styles Throughout History), muttonchops were in vogue from 1860s to 1890s, with men becoming clean-shaven from 1900s to 1940s. Hope this helps a little. I’ll be back when I have more time 🙂

  6. If you are insistent upon insulting our wonderful President… let’s talk about that retarded fellow who has led your government for years.

    1. Take a breather. I called him orange – that’s not an insult, that’s a description. I don’t think much of him though. Above all the other things he appears to be, I don’t think he’s nearly as smart as he think he is. I think it will be worse this time because he’s trying harder… I won’t get too deep in the weeds here but I think many Americans will come to regret their choice over the next four years. In the meantime, Canadians – your longstanding ally who have worked with you, fought with you, died with you (something the bone spurs guy knows nothing about) – are going to have to deal with tariffs resulting from some delusions he has about a barely-there trade deficit and fentanyl, despite him renegotiating NAFTA as the USMCA just 4 years ago. The “Art of the Deal” … hah!

  7. Love the first photo with the trash cans and chairs. It’s very artistic. I think you could create a themed book of some of your outdoor trash photographs, perhaps with a little commentary on the politics of garbage 🙂
    Is that a skeleton key I see before me?!

  8. You have so many amazing followers. I’d love a post asking everyone to comment on how they found you…what did you Google that led you to Garbage Finds?

    1. It’s a fun question, I hope people answer. From my website stats, I have 2.3k unique visitors so far in 2025. This will go up a lot over the year (there were close to 27k visitors last year, despite the fact that I didn’t post much), because it’s barely February and a lot of people find my blog because they’re researching some junk they have (which they find on posts indexed on Google). Most won’t stay long but they get here. As for where they’re from, over half my page visits are American, about a quarter are Canadian, and the UK is a distant but distinct 3rd. I get visitors from across the world otherwise, though Europe is more represented than other continents.

      1. I’m not sure if you’re going to ask in a separate post or not, but I’ll start, since I asked.
        I’m a Canadian (Greater Toronto area) who was travelling to Portugal in 2016. I like trying local “firewater” and was wondering what they called it there (aguardiente, I’ve since learned).
        Searching “Portuguese Booze” led me to you!
        https://garbagefinds.com/2013/03/18/anis-escarchado-torriano/
        I’ve been a follower ever since.

        1. Maybe I’ll ask in a separate post. That’s a funny way to find the blog though. Back in 2013 I was still new to this, so anything fun and unusual made its way to the blog. I’d probably do well to channel some of that energy from my mid 20s to today’s version. I can’t remember if I tried that booze… I probably did though, given that I was young and stupid at the time.

          1. Were you ever on a podcast? I think that is how I found you, but it was a really long time ago. I still read, and enjoy, every post you do. Thanks!

      2. I *think* I found you when I was reading the Mr. Money Mustache forums, many years ago.

  9. Just thinking further, if any of the people in the photos can be identified as eminent persons of the time, that could also make the photos valuable and of historic significance. Something that may be worth researching.

  10. I live in Halifax. I discovered you in a ‘down the rabbit hole way while browsing in a SuperStore garden/plant tent. Another browser was wearing a very interesting pendant and I had to ask her about it. She told me it was by a Quebec Brutalist artist and she’d purchased it at a church sale. Brutalism was a movement I had never heard of so of course off I went. I discovered a fair number of Brutalist style buildings here in Halifax, mostly academic and government, built in the 60s and early 70s. I had always liked them. Although not for me personally I love Brutalist design jewelry. The point of all this is that I discovered you during one of my internet searches and have followed your trials and tribulations ever since. I admire the care you take with all your finds, your searches for their background, and your way of talking about them, as if they had a life before being discarded. Thank you and take care of yourself please.

  11. I think I found you via a blog called “The Non consumer Advocate”. I’m American but I did not vote for the rapist felon orange Cheeto guy….

  13. For the group of four tintypes, the dresses worn by the women were likely from 1870s. Wider skirt indicates earlier in the decade (“First bustle era”) and narrower skirt would be the second half of the decade (this is called “Natural Form era”). Unfortunately the only standing women were wearing riding habits so the skirts were made for practicality and not by fashion so it’s hard to nail down a more precise date.

    In the group of 6 photos, the women wore 1860s fashion. The woman in white was probably taken later than the rest or even possibly very early 1870s. Her hoop skirt is shifting towards the back instead of being a round bell shape like the other woman or the little girl. It’s a transition into the back heavy skirts of 1870s.

  15. Hi Martin! I found your blog several years ago when I began restoring road-side furniture finds! I started stopping for curb furniture and began discovering “other treasures.” I started picking them up and selling “garbage” on ebay. An internet search of “trash picking” brought me to your site!

    As an aside, I am American but did not support or vote for the criminal, racist, moron that we now have in charge. Biden was horrible too… USA has been a ONE party political machine for decades… working exclusively for the wealthy.

    Keep on junking! xx Liz

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