Things I find in the garbage

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!

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

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.

Another box from the shelf

October 4, 2024October 5, 2024 garbagefinds9 Comments

Well, I had the one nice week that I detailed in my last post. Then two weeks where I found basically nothing. And this week was trending the same way, before I spotted a pile in the distance that ended up making up for at least some of the dry spell. I’ll share those finds here soon enough.

I also held two lucrative clothing-focused sales this past weekend. Clothing is another one of those markets that I neglected in my earlier days, but now contributes a fair bit to my finances. Thankfully, my friend who runs the @garbagefindssells Instagram account knows a lot more about the clothing & fashion market than I do. It’s nice to take a bit of a backup role for these sales, basically helping with the moving of stuff and being a placeholder during bathroom breaks. I hope to do a couple more of these before the big cold comes.

Anyways, here is another box from my shelf of aging garbagefinds. I found this stuff in Outremont a couple years ago.

I thought this toy projector from the 30s or 40s might be worth something, but apparently not. Some nut is trying to sell theirs for 2000$ on Chairish, but on eBay you’re lucky to get 100$ – and that’s if you have all the accessories. I put mine up for 70$, but looking at the market (or lack thereof) I might just put it out for 30$ at my next sale. I do have some of the “movies,” but many are in rough shape.

The cute little cheese box they were stored in is probably just as valuable. It’s likely destined for Instagram.

I found some nice fountain pens here as well. Some are a bit beat up, but there’s a market for those as well. The most valuable is probably the chunky “Eclipse,” which is probably worth about 60-80$. Other notable pieces include a pair of Egyptian-themed silver cufflinks, a “Magic Mirror” from a Red Raven movie record setup, a bronze dog that looks to be broken from a larger sculpture, and those cute little embroideries.

And then there was this coin bank, which was filled with late 60s/early 70s sports collectibles.

Here’s what was inside. Below are the photos I took for eBay, not including a few of the “marbles” which I divided into a few different lots. The metal hockey players are from a table top game and were stored in a separate bag, as were those El Producto coaster-sized cards. I had a hard time pricing the Jello medallions, so I decided to auction them off. Bidding starts October 6th.

And that’s one less box on the shelf. These are the easier boxes though, most of the other ones are much more “dense” and will take longer to process.

In other news, I decided to take a hiatus from Instagram. On top of the fact that it’s designed to be addictive, and promotes consumerism and low-quality content (amongst many other negative things), I just feel like it’s a conduit of misinformation and propaganda at this point. It stresses me out and I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our societal discourse has taken a nosedive in the last decade or so. The @garbagefindssells account will continue, because that’s run by a friend and they’re free to make their own choices. But going forward all my content will be here, barring a change of heart (which feels unlikely at this point). I’ve got a few ideas for increasing my blog output, which I might detail in my next post.