Expo’s [sic]

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I looked through the rest of the photos / slides from last week and found a bunch from the 1976 Montreal Olympics. They’re pretty neat! Whoever took these went to the Olympics pretty often, as there are photos from several events including the opening ceremony and even some kind of public showing of the construction of Olympics stadium. Below is a small sample of what was included.

Surprisingly there don’t seem to be many amateur Olympics slides on eBay. I saw a listing of 31 Greg Louganis slides that sold for 32 USD, so maybe I can get around a dollar each for these as well. That would be nice, as I probably have around two hundred in all!

I also found one box of slides from a late 1970s Expos game. There’s some neat shots here of Gary Carter, Tony Perez, and Warren Cromartie, the latter of which now leads a group trying to bring baseball back to Montreal. I also can’t find any amateur slides of Expos games on eBay, but I expect these might worth around a dollar a piece.

It’s been a good few weeks for photos. I found a box on the curb earlier this week with some very cool photos inside, many of which date back to the turn of the century. I even saved a couple of tintypes – those don’t turn up in the trash very often. I’ll share some of the cooler photos in an upcoming post!

I focused a lot on the McGill area during move-out last week, but I’ll wait until my next post (or the one after that) to show you what I found there. Lots of good stuff, I’ll say that much.

It’s probably just a proximity bias, but Friday is the day that makes me realize what how little of my Montreal’s garbage I’m actually able to pick. A huge region near me (the Plateau east of St-Denis, Rosemont east of Iberville all the way to Pie-X, Centre-Sud to I’m not even sure how far, all of which are connected) has a Friday morning collection, as do other areas not too far away. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people on the same day – I could go picking from around 7am-3pm and I’d still be unable to see it all. Not that I have the energy to do that anyways, but most of my other routes are self-limiting – once you’re done, you’re done.

Anyways, I happened upon these boxes while cruising around the Centre-Sud area (near Sherbrooke & Fullum) last Friday.

Inside was some great stuff. One box held some mid century lighting, including this nice “eyeball” desk lamp; …

… and a cool ceiling fixture. Sorry for the crappy pic, it’s hard to capture this kind of thing well without a legit studio! Both pieces were in good condition and looked great after being cleaned and polished with a micro-fibre cloth. I expect they’ll sell for a nice price, I’m not sure about this piece but I saw a similar desk lamp that sold on eBay for 75$.

I also saved a vintage Christmas tree. The fact that it comes with the original box probably improves its value. I won’t bother listing it anywhere before November, but it should eventually earn me some $$.

Here’s what the tree looks like! It might not actually be the same tree on the box (I think that one is just green) but it’s close enough.

I’m always picking up vintage luggage, even if it’s not in particularly good condition. Oftentimes they’re at least attractive or sturdy enough to hold yard sale stuff. This one however is in very nice shape and it’d be a shame to use it as such. Maybe I’ll keep it myself for home storage, or try to sell it for a premium on Kijiji. It was made by Dominion Luggage in Toronto.

This Belkin FM radio transmitter is probably my most useful recent find. I found another one a while back that I hadn’t gotten around to testing, but this one is probably better anyways. Now I can listed to podcasts in the car!

I found two nice vintage JBL speakers in Rosemont. They look like they need some work, but JBL is a good brand and I expect they’re worth money even just for the cabs.

I also saved a pair of mid-century looking tables in the Plateau. I was on bike at the time, but went home so I could pick them up with the car (and also because I was carrying around 20 pounds of vintage files on my back and was getting tired).

I’ve been doing that Thursday evening Rosemont run pretty regularly, in large part because there’s no real competition for that time slot. It’s also been producing some interesting stuff, like this box of vintage sewing bric-a-brac, an old tin, and a neat vintage “souvenir of Canada” pocketknife. I can probably get around 20$ for the latter. Just FYI, these are two photos spliced together, so the pocketknife is not the same size as the tin. It might look a little confusing!

That same spot also gave me a couple of stuffed monkeys, one of which looks hand-made. I’m a sucker for anything hand-made. Both are in nice condition, and you can expect them to appear in my next yard sale.

That’s all for now! There’s lots more to show you, but it’ll have to wait until next time.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to Garbagefinds.com

Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.

Sugaring off

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Things were a bit slow last week, in part because someone decided to break into my friend’s car. They took only the registration and insurance papers that were in the glove compartment, which was a bit odd considering the car isn’t particularly valuable. Apparently criminal organizations sometimes do this to provide legitimate looking documentation for stolen vehicles that are set to leave the country via shipping containers.

Regardless of the motives, it was a minor hassle for all involved. We had to go get new papers, and it took a couple of days to get new glass installed. I missed out on a quality garbage run as a result. Oh well! Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again, as it cost around 300$ to get everything sorted out.

The weather also hasn’t been particularly picker-friendly. There’s been lots of rain (apparently a record amount for Montreal in April) which washed out a few of my preferred bike trips. Still, I made a few decent finds, and I have high hopes for this week as move-out day approaches.

The place in the Mile End where I found the jewelry and watches last week provided more neat stuff, mostly old bottles this time around. I love old bottles, but I will say that it feels kind of gross to look through bags full of medicines in the rain. Something about the wetness and the smell of weird old liquids makes me feel like I’m going to get a disease, even though the risk of anything bad happening is extremely low. Either way, I overcame that feeling and amassed a great collection of bottles, most of which date from between the 30s and the 80s.

My favourite bottles are the ones marked “poison,” like the synthetic wintergreen in the picture above. I think a lot of people feel the same way – poison bottles have good value in the market, especially the ones with the skull and crossbones logo like the bottle of iodine I found a few years back. I could probably sell that one for around 40$, but at least for now it’s part of my personal collection.

There’s another poison bottle in this bunch (this time iodine), as well as a tin of boracic acid. The bottle of Perry Davis Painkiller is hard to date, but I’d guess it’s from the 30s or 40s. Production started in the 1840s, and apparently it was mostly composed of alcohol and opiates.

Yeah, maybe it’s gross to take 40 year old Preparation H, but I just really like things in their original packaging!

The 1964 Montreal street guide is pretty neat, as is the small Lenormand tarot deck on the right. It’s probably worth around 20$.

I thought those Rawleigh’s tins were really old when I found them, but now I think they’re probably just from the 50s or 60s (pre-metrification). I’m pretty sure Rawleigh’s still makes tins like this today. The vintage safety glasses are kind of neat, as are the hairdressing scissors.

I haven’t noticed any trash at this place recently, so maybe the source has dried up. If so, too bad as I quite enjoyed its specific brand of junk.

The people who tossed the tarot cards from my last post threw out another deck last week! This one is called the New Tarot; it was self-published in the early 1970s by Jack Hurley and John Horler, both of whom were influenced greatly by Joseph Campbell. Apparently the deck was pretty revolutionary at the time – check out this blog post if you’re interested in knowing more about their history. There seems to be a healthy market for this deck, one pretty similar to mine (and in far from perfect condition) recently sold for 170$ on eBay.

The only thing I’m confused by is the number of cards that are supposed to be in the deck. I counted 79, but the deck is supposed to only have 78. Then again, the instructions say that the “fool card is zero” so perhaps it is not included in the final count. On the other hand, the listing I linked to above says it includes two “extra cards” without specifying what those cards would be. I don’t know much about tarot, so I find all that pretty confusing. If anyone can help clarify how many cards I should have let me know in the comments! I guess I could also compare every card to the ones mentioned in the instructions, but that would take a while.

I found a neat old chandelier in a bag in the lower Plateau. I’d guess that it was made in the 1910s or 1920s. “Com Fix 589” is stamped on the top but I can’t find any reference to that phrase online. Regardless, it’s a pretty nice piece! I put it on Kijiji for 100$, and we’ll see if anyone bites.

There weren’t that many noteworthy finds last week, so I’ll bulk up this post with a couple of finds from this week. I saved this chrome “eyeball” lamp from a bag in Villeray on Monday night. It was probably made in the early 70s. I think there’s a solid market for these right now, and I’ll find out for sure soon when I list it on Kijiji.

Maple syrup is one of my favourite things so I’m always pumped when I find some in the trash. It comes around semi-regularly, but not often enough that I never run out. Anyways, I found an unopened wooden box containing a bottle of syrup and jar of spread this morning. I ate some of both already, and it was great! Thanks are owed to whoever for satisfying my maple cravings for the next little while.

I also came across a bag full of old photos and slides. I haven’t had time to look at most of them yet, but one envelope contained a bunch of photos featuring former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. They were taken at a “sugaring off party” in April 1976. Current PM Justin (age 4) may be there too actually, it’s hard to tell – check out the photo at bottom left and let me know what you think. It’s a pretty neat find regardless! Here’s hoping more of those photos turn out to be interesting.

My yard sale the other day went very well. I’ll let you know exactly how well in the next sales summary post. I still have lots of stuff to sell so I’ll be doing another sale soon, maybe next weekend if the weather is nice. I’ll keep you posted!

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to Garbagefinds.com

Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.

Yard sale!

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Sunday’s weather is projected to be 15 and sunny. A little wind, but nothing too strong. Sounds like it’s finally time for a yard sale!

This sale is bound to be a bit chaotic. Basically, I have way too much stuff after a full winter of scavenging. It’s not quite as bad now after the organization session above (it’s a gif, and it should move if you click on it) but there’s still a lot to deal with. My first sale often tends to be an organization session in and of itself – I inevitably weed out a bunch of stuff that I should probably have left on the curb, or at least isn’t worth trying to sell.

Also, because my storage is more or less outside some of the things get a bit dusty thanks to the wind. I’ll have to wipe down some items with a cloth before I put them out. Fortunately I’ve enlisted a friend to help me with the setup which should make everything a little easier.

Anyways, the sale will be at 4096 Coloniale (near Duluth) starting at around noon. I’ll probably go until around 6pm, or when it gets too dark, cold, or quiet. If you have any questions post a comment or send me a Facebook message!

FYI, I have lots of stuff in the basement that won’t even make it to this sale. That means my next one will be pretty good as well, if not better. So if you can’t make this one, it’s not the end of the world.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to garbagefinds.com

Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.