It’s been a relatively slow stretch for trash, as is often the case during the dog days of summer, so I’ve been working to clear the old stock from my garage.
I started this blog in 2012 because I loved old junk, and I enjoyed saving it from the trash. At that point I picked pretty casually, usually just walking around my neighbourhood. I posted pictures of nearly everything I found. It hadn’t occurred to me that this might become my “job.” I was just young and having fun.
The blog helped ignite my passion, and frankly I became somewhat obsessed with the hunt, a the salvation of “quality junk”, and also sharing my finds. My desire to document everything became an issue when I started finding more than any one human could document, which was especially true once I started taking trash picking more seriously. Obviously, I could save a lot more with a car than I ever could walking or biking.
I tried my damnedest to keep up, and instead of admitting defeat to the junk gods, I started stashing stuff away for later documentation, whenever that was. My habits led to frequent burnouts, being in denial that my goals were unattainable.
One crappy thing about getting older is losing the appreciation for unexceptional objects that you just happen to be seeing for the first time. A lot of the stuff I posted in 2012, for example, seems pretty “meh” now – I probably wouldn’t even pick up a lot of it, let alone photograph it. However, one benefit of getting older is that you have a better understanding of what is actually special. So, I think going forward I’m going to focus more on what I personally deem as special, which I think will lighten my work load a lot. We shall see what form that takes.
Otherwise, using this new-found focus, I’ve cleared nearly all my “old stock” from the shelves. I think there’s just one small box left, which I think contains some noteworthy finds. This frees up a lot of space for other trash, for example my many bags of clothes, which have been stuck in someone’s basement for about a year because I just didn’t have the space at my garage.
Anyways, here’s the contents of one of my old boxes, which was stuff I found in Cote St Luc back in 2022. I remember this spot being very overwhelming, lots of big bags stuffed to the brim with interesting items. It would have been a good time to have my current van, instead of the little hatchback jalopy I had at the time – I would have just thrown everything in the back. Instead, I had to spend 3-4 hours sorting on the spot, which tends to be a pretty exhausting process.
These people were definitely collectors, and I definitely got the “dregs.” However, the dregs were pretty good and interesting. Some of these bits are silver, a few of the small pieces gold. Zoom in for a better look!
I also found a good number of old pens and mechanical pencils. I think the only one of this batch worth listing on its own is the Parker 51 mechanical pencil. My plan going forward is to sell the pens I value in the 20-40$ range in lots on eBay, in another move to lighten my workload.
I found a bunch of medals here. A few are from the 1800s, but none are super valuable.
My favourite are the aluminum ones, from when aluminum production was apparently special enough to release commemorative coins about. I’m keeping the one with the map of Canada for my personal collection.
I also found a cool 1930s Badminton trophy / cocktail mixer cup, and a silver ring by some modernist Danish designer (now on eBay).
I have a distillation of another two boxes from this spot yet to share. I might also have photos that I took a long time ago and just forgot about. If I track them down, I’ll probably just do a big photo dump post.