It’s been a fairly busy summer, although not busy enough to excuse such a long wait between posts. Things were slow but steady for a while, then a couple weeks of regularly filled cars, and now something in between. I didn’t have much luck on the precious metals front for a little while, but in recent weeks that’s picked up again as well. I did have a very busy Labour Day weekend, doing ~12 hour days between yard sales and picking.
Also, now that my mom is in town and living nearby, I’ve gotten her into the “family business”. She’s listing some stuff for me, and I’ve also given her a couple more complicated projects that I didn’t have time to focus on. I might talk a bit more about all that in my next post.
Early in the summer, someone threw out a big collection of CDs and DVDs over a couple of weeks. I had pretty much given up on the spot, figuring they were done decluttering or whatever, but then found a bit more stuff there including a Canon camera, nice stones, and a coin collection ft. silver. They seem to be done now, but I’ll keep an eye on the situation. There were probably 3x the number of CDs than there are in that picture, but I sold a bunch to a local store and some to friends. I brought the rest to a local auction place along with all the DVDs last week, and they are currently up for bidding. All the DVDs are in this one lot, minus a few box sets I gave to other sellers.
Here’s a few random finds. I just picked up that chair this week, it seems to be someone’s unfinished project piece. It has enough little flaws that maybe they gave up on finishing it, but it’s very throne-like and might be fun at a yard sale. If you remember the ones from the spring, I’ve had pretty good luck finding SLR/DSLR cameras this year. I give those to a friend to sell, she knows a lot more about them than I do.
And we’ll finish off with a couple treasures. Above are a few things I saved from a bin earlier in the summer. The picture turned out badly, but the compact is gold plated 800 silver featuring a nice enamel portrait. The single earring was 18k and pretty hefty, so worth several hundred dollars just for scrap. On the right is an Honest Ed 80th Birthday watch, maybe I’ll ad a better picture of that later. It’s not gold unfortunately, but a fun bit of Canadian/Torontonian history regardless.
Below is a bit of jewelry I picked up on a rainy day last week. Most of the necklaces were really tangled, perhaps to the point where they tossed them due to a mix of frustration and apathy. Most were Swarovski, and one was a fine 14k gold piece with lots of colourful stones (the top piece inside the box).
There’s a lot more to share, and hopefully I’ll get it done relatively soon!
Fantastic finds and a great post as always! Love that washstand. And the coins and jewelry are fab. Looking forward as always to your next post, and I’m glad your mom has joined forces with you!
Hurrah for your mother moving nearby and being willing to join forces! How could someone throw out a camera and lens like that?! And yet… they did. Thank you for saving it from the trash stream. No pressure to write blog posts more often — just write as often as feels comfortable and sustainable and (maybe even) fun. I am one of MANY readers who loves what you do. Thank you!
I love that your mom is helping out, I bet she’s having fun too. That chair is incredible with its detailing. Maybe an auction? I think someone would snap that up. And that’s a truly amazing camera to find. Thanks for the update.
Some of that jewellery (third necklace from left hanging over mirror, and then 14k one you highlighted in bottom tray) in the last pic may be replicas of Van Clef and Arpel’s Alhambra collection – or even the real thing, in which case it’s worth a pretty penny.
It’s definitely fun to be involved now. 🙂
Hi M. Great finds!! I agree looks the necklaces look like Van Cleef or a take off. I particularly like the one in the box. I found an enameled 3 piece set at the Goodwill with Korean markings on the tray bottom with a 99 underneath. Google said the The # represents the silver content!