March 2025 – Things I find in the garbage

February silver score pt.2

March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 garbagefinds10 Comments

Sorry for the wait. My mom was in town last week, and I was busy entertaining. Of course, she likes old junk (runs in the family I guess), so much of that entertaining involved helping me get work done. “Put me to work,” she tells me verbatim. So, I got a bunch of stuff done. We organized my garage a bit, sorted through found clothes, relocated junk from one storage to the other, brought my bucket of e-waste to the eco-centre, and dropped off items to be sold by others. We also had some non-garbage related fun of course.

Otherwise, I’m looking to move for the first time in 9 years. I plan on finding my own spot after about two decades of doing the roommate thing. I can’t afford anything too fancy, but if you happen to know of something in the Mile End or nearby, shoot me an email!

Today I’ll share some extra finds from the same spot as that big silver score. These gold plated dominoes were made by Faberge. They usually have a nice wooden display box, but it’s still a complete set in nice condition. These are worth about 200$.

I saved a little box full of these KLM (airline) “liquor houses”, which are presents given to business class types. There seems to be a solid collector market for these, and altogether they should net me a few hundred bucks.

I picked up a couple of nice vintage lamps. The wiring on the brass one was busted, but I did a patch job and got it working again.

I also found a whole bunch of photos. I’ll share only the most exceptional one, which is this fun photo from the “Au Lutin Qui Bouffe” restaurant which operated on the corner of St-Hubert and St-Gregoire until it burned down in the 70s. They had a schtick where they’d bring a pig to your table for a photoshoot, and a professional photographer would take a picture. I’ve found a few of these photos before (and a menu, which I forgot about until I saw the picture in the article I linked to!), but this is the first one I found framed. Also, I’ve only ever seen these with the pig, but this one has a pig AND a goat. I think I’ll be keeping this one for my personal collection.

Spring is here. That means spring cleaning, McGill move-out day, and of course another yard sale season. I look forward to all that.

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.

Bits and bobs

March 16, 2025March 16, 2025 garbagefinds6 Comments

I got pulled over by the cops last week. It went well enough, better than the last time that’s for sure. I basically had to explain what I was doing, and convince them I wasn’t planning any home invasions.

It seems like someone was worried about me. I kind of get it. I make a point of trying not to trash pick while people are watching, especially in the suburbs. So when I was picking at this one place, and the neighbours pulled up in their car, I decided to leave and come back when they were inside. When I passed again, the garage door was still open, so I continued on. I passed again, and saw someone in that house looking out their window kind of sketchily. Then next time I passed, the cops pulled me over immediately. Passing by the same place repeatedly was cited as the reason I was pulled over. I probably should have waited longer between passes, but I was excited to inspect this trash.

I don’t think I explained this super well to the police, but I guess I did well enough to not get arrested. Regardless, it’s a bit annoying. Because this paranoid person lives across from a good trash producer, I’ll probably have to switch up my routine for the foreseeable future. But who knows, maybe this will end up being a good thing. Change is beneficial sometimes!

Anyways, here’s a few things I picked up just down the road, before getting pulled over. This clown needlepoint is perfect for the Instagram selling account.

That same spot also tossed a couple old brass sacred heart thingies, which I think are meant to be hung from a wall. Both have compartments to hold requests and whatnot. Also, a Prince brand egg shaped table lighter.

The week I found all that silver, I saved this tiny silver bar a couple days later. It was given as a gift for being a customer of the Avery label company for 25 years. 1 gram of .999 silver is worth a bit over 1 dollar, but it’s a funny thing to find. I think I’ll keep it for my personal collection.

And here’s a picture that I just plain forgot to add to my last post. Those transistor radios don’t work, but a collector will buy them regardless. Also, that Olympus Stylus camera is worth a bit of money. From what I can tell, somewhere around 100$ give or take. I’m not sure why people are paying that much for what looks to be a pretty basic film camera, but that just goes to show how it pays to do your research.

The all-nighter pt.3

March 8, 2025March 8, 2025 garbagefinds3 Comments

I spent about 8 hours at the garage this week, organizing my new finds and processing some of the old ones. I took a few pictures of stuff I found when I pulled that all-nighter about a year and a half ago. I started with this batch of silver, or maybe not silver. Only one piece was hallmarked (the little mirror on the right), but I decided to test the rest to see if anything else was solid and not plated. As it turned out, according to my acid test everything except the brush was solid silver. That’s another 360 grams, worth around 4-500$ depending on the purity.

Most is scrap, including the cigarette case because the latch that keeps it closed is broken. But that flat, ornate piece on the top right is intriguing. There are little nail holes around the edges, so it was clearly attached to something at some point. Here’s a closer look, after I cleaned off a bit of dirt with a toothbrush. If anyone has any ideas as to what it is, let us know in the comments! These people had Iraqi & Armenian roots, if that helps.

I also took a picture of my perfume finds. I know that little Chanel #5 (I can’t remember if it’s worth something, the rest I’ll have to look up. Van Cleef & Arpels is a brand I associate with fancy jewelry on Antiques Roadshow though, so that one is probably good!