garbagefinds

It’s a good time for a yard sale

May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 garbagefinds21 Comments

The finds have been plentiful lately, which is great though it lays bare the fact that no one human can possibly deal with this much stuff. My garage looks like a hoarder’s den right now, which means that it’s a good time to have a yard sale! I plan to be out from roughly 12-6pm (and probably a bit later) at 920 St Gregoire on Saturday. There will be a lot more books than usual, but also plenty of other quality junk. I hope to see you there!

I also hope to have a sale on Sunday too, but details on that are still tbd. My current theory is that May is the best month for yard sales, because a) people are happy to be outside after a long winter and b) people rarely schedule trips or vacations this early in the year, so locals are more likely to be in town. I’ve had plenty of randomly bad yard sales on otherwise beautiful days in the summer months, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad sale in May. Anyways, the next few weeks will probably be pretty busy for me between picking and selling.

These days I find it hard to choose which items to showcase for the blog, especially when there’s a lot to choose from (“can’t see the forest for the trees” is an expression that comes to mind). I also don’t have the time to take the big elaborate group shots like I used to. So, today I’m just going to share a few of my favourite or more interesting recent scores.

The tossers at this spot are the kind of people who don’t know how to recycle, or just don’t care. For them, the “recycling” bin is basically just a 2nd trash receptacle. Anyways, last week I opened up the recycling bin and saw this nice antique clock. I doubt it works, but maybe someone would want it as a project given that the wood and glass are in nice condition. I think it dates to the 1880s based on the patent info on the loose piece below.

It’s very pretty. The wood is a bit dinged where that green tape is but it would be an easy fix.

The week before that they tried to recycle a shoebox filled with Warhammer figurines. These definitely aren’t my expertise, but some individual vintage metal pieces seem to sell for 5-20$ each on eBay. I just listed my collection for 400$ with best offer, and we’ll see if anyone bites.

Elsewhere, someone is throwing out the wares of a once prodigious arrangement enthusiast. There have been bags filled with pinecones, twigs, grasses, dry flowers, and of course different types of vessels to put the arrangements in or on. Many were filled with that green or white foam stuff that you can stick flowers into. The foam was often glued into place, which unfortunately made some pieces not worth the effort of saving, but others were foam-free or had foam that was easily removed.

Here’s three nice examples that are still kicking around in my garage, which will probably end up on the Instagram selling page. Below are a couple of Naaman (Israel) pieces I gave to a friend to try to sell on Marketplace.

More lucratively, they’ve also tossed some old jewelry.

It’s been mostly bits and pieces, but a few of those bits and pieces have been gold. The single earrings and broken chains on the right earned me close to 300$ for scrap. The nicest intact pieces have been that silver prayer bracelet, the Omega watch buckle, and the pendant, which isn’t gold but looks antique. I hope they toss more of this stuff in the future, because it’s always fun to look through.

Here’s a painting I picked up not far from Vendome metro. It’s got a tear, but is in decent condition otherwise and is pretty well executed (at least according to my untrained eye). I’m also a sucker for the street scenes, so there’s that. It’s signed “H. Kimmelman 1940” (I think) but unfortunately I don’t see much under that name on Google. If anyone has any info about this painting, including where the subject of the painting might be, let us know in the comments!

One of my favourite recent spots was in Park Ex. Unfortunately, I think I discovered it kind of late and probably missed out on a lot of great finds. So it goes. Here are a couple things I did save. This chalkware rabbi is pretty cool, and thankfully survived his trip to the curb in good condition. It’s a bit over a foot tall according to the eyeball test.

This “mammy” cookie jar was made by McCoy in the late 30s or early 40s. It’s apparently pretty rare, appearing on this list at #14 with a value of 600-1000$. Based on my research, “cauliflower mammy” (or cabbage mammy, depending who you ask) probably isn’t worth quite that much, but it does appear to be relatively rare and should sell for a few hundred bucks.

I haven’t found anything new at the book spot for close to two months now, though you wouldn’t know it by looking in my garage (which is filled with books). Sorting through that will be a monumental task, and I’m not sure how exactly it will get done. For now I’m content to avoid them and deal with other things.

There are probably more notable books in that collection, but for this shot I just took some pictures of ones with pretty covers.

Finally, the “bedbug Jadeite” I mentioned in my last post got a thorough cleaning after about a month and a half in quarantine. As you can see it was quite the haul. The pieces are lightly used, and the colour is very bright. Unfortunately a few were broken in the act of curbing, but there’s still a good set here.

A friend helped me clean them and is now trying to sell them on Marketplace and Kijiji, though there haven’t been any takers yet. They’ll sell eventually, but it might take a little while given that we’re limited to the local market. I’d rather take less money than try to ship this anywhere.

Anyways, I’m going to go out and see if I can find any more trash. As if I need any more stuff for the yard sale pile, ha ha.

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 here, I get a small cut of the profit! —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Donate to the blog. It costs close to 500$ a year to maintain (no ads, domain name, storage space, etc) which ain’t cheap. Otherwise, it’s nice to get a few bucks for coffee, food, or gas!

This & that

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023 garbagefinds12 Comments

Having a bigger car is proving to be very convenient. It definitely uses a lot more gas (I’m guessing about 50% more than the Hyundai hatchback), but the extra space and side doors are quite handy, and it’s also a lot more comfortable.

This table and chair set would have been two or three trips in the Hyundai, but with the Rondo I was able to get it all in one go, even with yet another load of books taking up space as well.

Yesterday I sold the chairs on Facebook Marketplace for 200$. They were in nice condition overall, one was a bit wobbly and the upholstery was “meh.” They were likely antique, or close to it.

I was told (by someone who has probably forgot more about furniture than I might ever know) that the table I picked up is a “d-end” style piece that dates to the mid-1800s. I don’t have any good pictures of it right now, but maybe I’ll share some in my next post.

I’ve been using Marketplace a little more often these days, especially for larger pieces. Dealing with people can be annoying but it’s not so bad if you don’t take it too seriously. I still prefer eBay for most of my fancier items – I like the anonymity, and also a lot of things are too niche to sell at a high price locally – but Marketplace is definitely turning into a good tool for my business.

I continue to load up on books on a weekly basis, all thanks to this one spot. I’m a bit overwhelmed by them right now, they just keep coming and coming and making a big mess in my garage. I think my plan now is to sort out the obvious “yard sale quality” books and the “back to the curb quality” books, leaving the books I need to research for later. I might need help for that big job.

For now I’ll share just one book from this haul, this 1818 leather-bound bible published by J. Holbrook. It was printed long ago, but not far away in Brattleborough (now Brattleboro), Vermont. Antique bibles are pretty common, but this is a nice one. I listed it for 300$.

This was basically my only find on one of my recent runs. I picked it up because it looked sturdy and vintage, but I was mildly grumpy about that outing until I noticed the mark on the bottom. As it turns out, it was a Danish “J77” chair made by Folke Palsson, and it sold pretty quickly to someone on Instagram for 225$.

Otherwise, some recent picks have been a little gross. Thanks to a tip from a follower, I went to check out a massive pile that was basically an entire apartment out on the curb. Unfortunately, the stuff was loaded with bedbugs and cockroaches. I knew that within 30 seconds of looking, but thankfully the tossers also put a couple of signs up (they don’t always).

Some guy was grumpy about people picking there. It was a bit of a mess (not my fault, honestly) but I’m pretty sure this pile, which took up about three parking spaces, was always a mess. In my unbiased opinion, the city was more to blame for any mess by letting this mound of infested trash sit on the curb for at least three days (it was definitely out in the rain the day before I got there, and was still there the night after).

Either way, it wasn’t a disaster. I’ve seen pickers do much worse. The bugs scared away most of the competition.

I’ll look through these huge bedbuggy piles, because sometimes people will abandon any common sense and just toss everything. The key is just to be careful and only take things that can be easily cleaned. My main score was a large collection of jadeite dishes by Fire King, and a few pieces of uranium glass. I double bagged those, and put them in “quarantine” until it gets a little nicer out. Then, I’ll clean them all in hot water in a way that no bug could survive (bedbugs in particular can’t take the heat). I didn’t take any pictures as I was in the “heat of the moment” while digging through this massive pile (and was also really hungry), but maybe I’ll share some once they’re all cleaned up.

I also took a bunch of small electronics, like transistor radios and such. I’ll probably leave those double bagged for a full year, because they’re harder to clean and I’m not in a rush. Thankfully, a good winter freeze will kill any bugs.

There’s another gross spot not far from my home, but so far it’s mostly been grungy kitchen stuff with maybe some minor cockroach activity. This week I pulled out a very dirty Le Creuset that looked to have a years old dinner still inside (the “before” picture is actually cleaner than it was when I found it, I scraped out the ancient food with a random piece of plastic before bringing it home).

This actually wasn’t too hard to clean, most of the work was done by soaking it in water. It had a few chips, but nothing too bad and I was able to turn around and sell it quickly for 50$. I enjoy rescuing any cast iron, the Le Creuset branding just makes it easier to flip.

This place has provided plenty of similarly grungy dishes and ceramics. I (finally) figured out recently that the dishwasher is actually very effective in cleaning off the old grime. Who’d have thunk it? Some of the nicer pieces will soon be listed on my @garbagefindssells Instagram account, while others are going to the yard sale.

Anyways, that’s all for now. Things seem to be picking up, though I’m still craving a nice precious metals haul.

The finds I crave

March 11, 2023 garbagefinds6 Comments

This haul was from the summer of 2020 (my “bumper crop” year), so these pictures have been collecting virtual dust for some time now. Better to post them late than never though, right?

I’d really love to happen upon a pile like this right about now. I’m still picking up loads and loads of books, but there haven’t been many finds of note in the precious metals / jewelry department for some time now.

I remember finding a bunch of coins the first time I stopped here. That was a good omen. In the box were more coins, including some already rolled pennies. Literal easy money.

Otherwise, I picked up some of the usual quality junk …

… and some bits of paper ephemera. My favourite piece here is the letter written to Eaton’s in 1960 complaining about a defective dishwasher. That bridge joke is… let’s go with “dated.”

What made this place notable though was the jewelry and the precious metals. I don’t remember all these pieces after two plus years, but that mechanical pencil was silver for sure.

There were a few bits of silver and gold in here too, most of which also appear in the next pic.

That watch was gold for sure, though it was busted up and not good for much but scrap. That religious pendant next to it was also gold, as were the two earrings to its upper right. There are several silver pieces here, including a little enameled Order Of The Holy Sepulchre medal which might still be kicking around in one of my drawers.

These were my best finds though. The rings boxes alone are decent. The one on the left was sterling, and the Birks one was quite beautiful as well, all done up in deep blue leather with gold accents. I forget what they sold for, but I’d guess they went for around 75-100$ each. The stainless steel one was probably worth around 40$ as well.

The rings inside weren’t much good, but that doesn’t matter when they’re gold. The two in the middle were 14k and made by Birks, but the stones had been forcibly removed making the rings worth nothing outside of their weight in gold. Fortunately, that was still a few hundred dollars. The one in the box on the left was sterling I think (and missing a stone). The earrings, which were stored in that little yellow pouch along with a note, were my best individual find. They were solid 18k gold, and I recently (finally) sold them for a bit above their scrap value (650$).

Looking at this reminds me how great 2020 was for finds. 2021 and 2022 weren’t much good, but here’s hoping 2023 is better, and that I happen upon another nice gold haul soon! There’s nothing quite like finding gold.

I do feel like the trash has been a bit better recently. The books are still flowing, but I also have a few other spots I’m keeping an eye on now. Spring is definitely in the air, though I don’t feel like people are doing much cleaning yet. It’s still a bit chilly, and a fair amount of snow remains.