One of my most recent spots was a big house in a nice neighbourhood. It had been put on the market, and I guessed it was going for 5 million. I checked online and it turns out I was just about right, although I would have lost by Price is Right rules – 4.995m. It was a nice, if bland house with a sweet swimming pool. When I’m picking the trash of people this well off, I’m hoping they go “full privilege.” In my financial position, I can spend 1-10$ and not really regret it at all. I assume that some of the people that make 100x what I do, probably feel the same way about 100-1000$ transactions.
These guys never went full privilege, to their credit. No gold, not much jewelry. A lot of empty Hermes boxes, but only a couple of Hermes products (perfumes). I saved a bunch of clothes, but most were really boring so I donated them. Same with the household and kitchen stuff.
Of course I did save a few notable things, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting about it. One day a bunch of picture frames got tossed; I took some yard sale quality ones and left some junkier ones. This one looks pretty plain, but was easily the most valuable of that bunch. It’s a solid silver Tiffany frame, and given that it weighs over 100 grams, it’s worth about 400$ for scrap. Given the dents, scratches, and other defects, I think that’s all it is, but obviously a find like that makes my trash run worthwhile.
I also made a decent amount of money from these iPhones. It’s very rare that I find an iPhone that isn’t locked to iCloud (and therefore essentially a brick), but I usually give them a charge just in case. It turned out that two of the three were reset prior to being tossed. They both had a couple issues, one with the camera and one with a cracked back screen, but they were relatively modern (iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max), and I was able to easily sell them to a local business for 150$ and 195$ respectively. In the past I would have sold them on eBay, but this way saved me a lot of hassle and I think the price was very fair. The 3rd one is doomed to the e-waste pile unfortunately.
Other decent if unexciting finds include a couple small pieces of silver, a nice pewter wine funnel, and some new-in-box Wifi doohickies I was able to sell pretty easily on eBay for 80$ a pop. These folks have since moved, but this spot was nice while it lasted.
I decided to quit Instagram the other day. I just don’t like what the app has become. I first joined in 2015 when it was a fun, casual space. Now it’s all about reels, AI slop, and promoting addictive (and often fake) information. Funny enough though, after I quit I started having the temptation to post again. However, I think I can just post the same type of content here, where there are no ads and no BS. So, maybe I’ll do a new type of post soon, once I get enough random pictures to make it worthwhile.
I’ve been fairly lucky recently. Last week I had a couple nice gold hauls, from spots that were easy to pick. This week, I’ve come across two hoarder type piles, which were a lot of work to sort through and provided no easy money. However, there’s no way to know what you’re going to find, and who knows, maybe the easy money is coming next week. Also, the hoarder piles tend to produce more interesting yard sale quality junk.
Not every archaeological dig reaps a reward. There’s a certain excitement inherent in the search itself, even if the payoff isn’t particularly noteworthy. You done good that this house though. 🙂
Hi. I always like your posts! While I am not quite brave to go through people’s garbage (unless it is out in the open), I do collect wine and liquor bottles and beer cans. I am commenting because I found a sterling silver Tiffany frame at my local thrift store this week. They are usually pretty good at sifting through the donations and putting the better items out for the silent auction. However this frame was also in rough condition and very dirty. Nevertheless, I plan on keeping it for myself. It is the first time I have ever found anything this high end! Thanks for all your very informative posts.
Nice. They are pretty plain and you don’t usually think of silver picture frames, so I expect these are missed relatively often at thrift stores. If this one was in better condition I could probably sell it as is for a bit of a premium, but I think these people had kids and it took a few tumbles over the years.
Hi Marty, Great post as usual Can’t wait to see the gold finds! I’ve found Empty Hermes boxes like Tiffany have a big value at Christmas. I had my first score from reading your blog and following your close examinations of the things you find. Out for a walk, I found a garbage pile that was kind gross with wet furniture, mattresses and food waste. I bent over to pick up a very grubby dime and there was a small plastic blue toy chest next to it. I opened the tiny box to find 7 Nintendo switch cartridges which sold for $121.50! Fortunately the blue box was on the ground and the plastic chest kept the contents dry. Nearby plastic bins were filled with rainwater and the contests were soggy. This motivated me and I also found a Seiko vintage watch in really good condition. It was water proof.
Nice, sounds like maybe a family with kids. Dealing with all that junk can be overwhelming, so sometimes this kind of stuff just goes to the curb. I’ve made good money off Nintendo products over the years.
Who knew that one could buy silver picture frames?! That’s fancy living… Your blog posts are always a revelation. Thank you for all that you do!
Apparently Tiffany made some solid gold picture frames back in the day… that would be extra fun to find.
Glad to hear the trash is still yielding treasures. It looks like I’ll be getting back into the reselling game soon. The etsy algorithm cancelled my account a couple of years ago, for no reason i could discern, with no way to appeal (though i read a very few were able to contact them through twitter, which i might try). And now i hear ebay has also stepped up its algorithm use. They seem to be leveraging “Promoted listings” to extort more money from sellers. It’s a brave new world as they say (though a different dystopian novel would be more appropriate at this point)…I’m not going to pay for promoted listings, so we shall see…I’ve seen differences of opinion amongst sellers, so it could be another case of sellers attempting to peer into the algorithmic abyss and divine occult secrets – or attempt offerings to appease the algorithmic corporate god…I hear there are other places to sell now, but i imagine ebay is still king. Anyway, i wasn’t planning to write any of that, but i guess it just came out. I was just going to say, i haven’t heard much from you on the mental health front lately, so I’m hoping no news is good news.
– Cheers
I never promote listings. Maybe it’s good for markets where there’s lots of competition (like newer electronics, etc) where being seen first might help to complete more sales, but I doubt it matters much for the random crap I sell. I haven’t used Etsy in years now, from what I’ve heard it’s gone downhill anyways.
Always enjoy reading your posts! I think photo heavy posts would be great. No explanations/commentary. If anybody has a question on the pics they can ask in the comments and you can reply when you have a moment. Continued good luck on your finds!!
LOL @ “full privilege” – I can’t fathom it for myself but it’s all around me. Good on you for saving those phones and keeping e-waste out of landfill. Looking forward to anything you can find the time to post. Happy spring picking!