Uncategorized – Page 13 – Things I find in the garbage

The spike

December 7, 2024December 7, 2024 garbagefinds16 Comments

Well, it’s been a rough go since around the beginning of October. My anxiety issues have kicked up a notch, to the point where I had to give up my beloved coffee just to stay sane. Even with that, for a while I had to take beta blockers to help with the random heart rate spikes, and played videos games most of the time to give myself time to recover (and because I couldn’t get my brain into much else). Thankfully things have leveled out a bit from there, though I still struggle to get my head into anything.

Why the spike? Who knows. I had actually gotten into a nice exercise routine before this, but my first “bonus” panic attacks happened while working out. Otherwise, at age 37 I’m starting to feel the effects of aging, which produces some amount of dread. And let me tell you, the dating scene for people my age, in the year 2024 (when nearly everything is done via app), as a garbage picking introvert with mental disorders … let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend it. The state of the world doesn’t help much either.

So, what can you do really? I’m just trying to take it easy and wait it out. If anything my tendency has been towards workaholism over the course of my garbage career, so I don’t feel too guilty about being “lazy” now. I switched medications, because the other one wasn’t doing anything for anxiety before this happened anyways. Otherwise, I guess it’s a good opportunity to contemplate lifestyle changes that might promote a less stressful existence.

With all that, I haven’t gone out for trash as much recently. I’ve struggled with being far from “home” for about a decade now, and my range (ie: where I feel “safe” before the panic attacks come) was diminishing even before this spike. On top of that, my motivation has not been there. So I’ve been doing just one trash run per week, plus a bit of my own neighbourhood.

I picked up this very old looking wood cabinet thing while driving one night. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, so I figured I’d ask you folks what you think before I list it on Facebook.

With a unusual metal latch on the inside, and the skeleton key lock, I think it was probably made to hold valuables. It is decorative though, so it was also likely made to be displayed. I’m thinking it’s a china cabinet, made to hold the fancy dishes and silverware for when the Queen came to visit. What do you think?

Otherwise, this pile produced an interesting find, as well as some tools and a bunch of new bins for me to store my junk in.

When I first opened these smaller boxes, my first guess were that they contained individually wrapped, ancient cookies. However, I saw a couple of watches on straps elsewhere in the box, so I explored further.

In the end, each box held around 15 “new old stock” watches. In total, I have about 200 of these, all the exact same. The brand is Imexco, which isn’t a name anyone’s ever heard of, but they are Swiss and have a nice mid-century look to them. Most seem to work alright, though a few don’t run anymore, or otherwise feel wonky.

My plan is to sell them individually, at the price of 23.99 (which I completely made up). I think that’s fair for a nice looking, no name Swiss watch that has been sitting around for 60 or 70 years (and therefore might need maintenance sooner rather than later). So far I’ve sold 10 on eBay, and a few more at yard sales.

I should be able to make a couple to a few grand on these, although it’ll take years to clear them all out.

There was also a little box of old watch cases and parts, which sold for about 40$ at auction. All in all, a pretty good haul!

Otherwise, the Canada Post strike has been challenging. I’m still able to ship some packages, particularly to the US thanks to Chit Chats, but within Canada it’s often a little bit more expensive, if not impossible for some rural addresses. So I’ve just told a lot of people that their shipment will be delayed until the end of the strike. With Christmas coming, I can’t imagine it’ll take that much longer to figure this out. I have six packages waiting to go out, including 3 watches, 2 pens, and 1 medal.

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.

The bags in the distance pt.2

October 27, 2024October 27, 2024 garbagefinds6 Comments

I’m didn’t do a sale this weekend, for the first time in about two months. I did 13 in that period, and I’m feeling a bit burnt out as you might expect.

Unfortunately I never kept a yard sale journal until this year, so I’m not sure what my normal schedule is. I feel like this year was particularly backloaded, with few productive sales at the beginning (largely due to construction ruining one of my spots – again) forcing me to hustle more in the late summer and fall to unload as much junk as possible, and all at the one spot because of the construction.

I would still like to do one last sale, but at this point in the year weather is a bit sketchy to say the least. It’s supposed to be 20 degrees on Wednesday, so that’s tempting. But a Wednesday sale? It’s unorthodox for sure, but I doubt anyone would mind.

Anyways, here’s the jewelry I found in the bag with the gold coin.

There wasn’t much crap (ie: the cheap stuff you get at the dollar store or wherever, where the plating wears off or the “rhinestones” fall out after wearing it for like a week). Here’s a few standout costume pieces. A lot was signed – D’Orlan, Monet, and etc. The watches, a Butex and a Mortima, aren’t super fancy, but are probably still eBay worthy.

The translucent green bead necklace on the left is made of Bakelite. I’ve never seen that colour before, it’s quite striking. That might make it more valuable that the more common tones, but I haven’t done much research yet. I’m not sure what those other beads are made of. I’m guessing milk glass.

And here’s the precious metals. The pendant with the Arabic script (I think it says something about Allah) is 14k gold, and the lone earring is also gold. Together, they’re worth around 250$ for scrap. The rest is silver, besides that doohickey on the top right. I’m not sure what that is, so I’ll give it to my jeweler to test.

So, that one bag ended up containing over one grand of easily liquidatable junk. Not bad!

I had some luck here and there since, and maybe I’ll post some of those things soon. Still craving a big haul … a van load of junk would be nice!

The bags in the distance

October 11, 2024 garbagefinds9 Comments

I haven’t been all that lucky lately. I’ve been craving a really big haul, or just a spot that provides quality junk regularly for months (not uncommon from bigger suburban homes). Besides that dumpster that I mentioned a few posts back, I think I might have had one other good spot all summer. When I don’t get new things to think about, organize, etc., I start getting a little bored. Maybe even stir crazy.

Thankfully, these “bags in the distance” provided a respite from the drudgery that is touring around and finding nothing.

Sometimes I’ll peer down a road instead of driving down it, to save time and effort. On that night, I spotted this pile of bags maybe 70-80 meters away. Something about it sparked my interest, and I drove down to take a closer look.

(As an aside, sometimes people have wondered why I insist on beginning many of my blog posts with a boring picture of garbage. I do it because I want to reinforce the fact that sometimes the best finds some from the most banal looking trash!)

I opened the bag on the back left and saw a bunch of jewelry. My favourite kind of bag! I didn’t do any on the spot sorting, I just threw the whole thing in the car and went home. I was just about done the route anyways.

I sorted it all that night. My cat insisted on “helping.”

I took all the good stuff and sorted it into a small Tupperware bin (the one from the dumpster, actually). I didn’t notice when I first picked it up, but that bag also contained a lot of coins, most of which were sorted into labelled ziplocks.

The majority of the coins weren’t all that special. Most dated from between the 50s and the 80s. There was about 7-8$ in American coins that I can spend, and a bunch of old bills that aren’t worth much.

However, there was a little treasure in a bag marked “monnaie diverse” (various coins).

It’s a 1926 gold sovereign that was made in South Africa. It looks right, weighs the right amount, and is the correct diameter, so I have no doubts that it’s real. Apparently these were made at a few different mints, and the South African one is the most common, so this coin isn’t worth much more than its weight in gold. That said, with the price of gold where it’s at right now (near all-time highs), this little 7.99 gram, 22k gold coin is worth nearly 850$.

So that’s fun! I found a gold coin in a necklace before, but never a gold coin by itself. Here’s hoping there’s more to come!

The other two coins are the only silver ones from the ziplocks. They are 1970 25 & 50 piastre coins from Egypt which feature the head of Nasser. Those ones are worth closer to 10$ each. I’m happy anytime I save precious metals from the dump.

Some of the jewellery was nice too. I’ll share that in my next post. I’m still craving a big haul of junk, but this will tide me over in the meantime.

Otherwise, I have a feeling it’s not going to go well because it’s the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend, but I’m planning on doing a sale tomorrow at the 4100 Coloniale spot. I don’t really have anything to do anyways, and nice weather is hard to come by this time of year. I won’t lie, if you went to my last sale, there probably won’t be much more new stuff to look at this time. I’m mostly looking to clear out stock, and maybe gather together some things (especially paper ephemera) for a bulk sale. It could be the last normal yard sale of the year, as we are at the mercy of the weather at this point. Next weekend is looking pretty nice (knock on wood), but I’m planning on doing a clothing sale with my Instagram seller then.