craigslist – Page 7 – Things I find in the garbage

A computer monitor and garbage gold pt. 2

February 13, 2013 garbagefinds4 Comments

I biked around last night and saw this trash in front of the “Marketing Waste” building. This time there were more old files in boxes and a big computer monitor laying on top.

It’s a big 24″ flat screen monitor by Dell. It doesn’t turn on, but I’m going to look into trying to fix it. My sister knows a bit about these things so maybe she can help me out. I opened it up and saw a couple of capacitors that look suspect, so replacing those could be the solution.

I found the same model of monitor, which also didn’t turn on, on Ebay and it sold for close to 40$. In working condition it sold for up to 200$. This could be a good opportunity for me to learn some basic repair techniques, which would serve me well in this business I’m in.

Now for more jewelry!

This necklace is marked 750, which means 18k gold.

This necklace is marked as 10k and “M1.” It has two little knots in it that are proving hard to untangle!

These earrings are marked as 10k.

A “Cardinal” brand watch. It’s probably the kind of thing you’d buy at Sears in the 80s.

I little pin emblazoned with the Quebec flag. It was made in Quebec by “Ballou Reg’d”.

This gold-plate chain was made by Monet, a company that’s fairly well-known.

A cool vintage “Sarah Coventry” (marked Sarah Cov) ring. It’s gold plate.

Finally, a little angel pin made by Olit USA. This one’s definitely a bit more modern.

Now I have to figure out what I’ll do with this stuff!

Garbage gold

February 12, 2013 garbagefinds11 Comments

I decided yesterday to bike up to Rosemont to sell some scrap gold I found in the trash (including this ring (on the top), a small necklace from this post, and an earring I apparently never put on the blog). They had been in the change pocket of my wallet for a quite a while, so it was about time I got around to doing this. All together I made 45$.

Garbage day in Rosemont is Monday and Thursday mornings. It was around 2 in the afternoon and I figured that the garbage would be long gone. However, I quite accidentally came across a few streets that still hadn’t been collected. I decided to check them out.

Good thing too. In the middle bin of the three furthest from the sidewalk, I found a bunch of jewelry, some of which was gold. There’s at least twice as much (in weight) as I had just sold.

This flashy ring is marked as being 10k. There’s another mark that I can’t quite make out.

These cool earrings are also marked as 10k.

This cross is marked 10k and “TI,” which probably means Titanium.

This is a watch pendant in the shape of a key by Pierre Nicol. It’s covered in pink jewels and looks sort of fancy. It’s a bit odd as I can’t find any other watches like this online.

A vintage Avon cross. I saw someone online trying to sell it for close to 20$, so I’ll likely put it up for 15 or so on Etsy.

I’m not sure if these pieces are gold. They’re not marked, but not all gold is marked. I bit into them and it left a little mark, which is a good sign. There’s also no wear of the gold hue, also a good sign.

More jewelry. None of this is “precious,” but there’s still some decent stuff in here, including a good selection of beads.

There’s more jewelry, but I’ll save that for another post!

I also saved this soup toureen from one of the bins. There’s nothing wrong with it, not even a chip. It was made in Portugal.

On the way home I came across these bins. It’s the same place where I found some cool old stuff (including some jewelry) in this (somewhat disjointed) post from last April. There was a lot of scrap metal – old electronics and a disassembled satellite dish. As I was leaving someone who drives around collecting scrap metal came and picked it up. I’m glad to see it didn’t go to waste.

In this pile I saw this piece from an exhaust. It has “Hebo Racing” marked on it. Some young guy walked by and told me it was for a scooter, which was later confirmed by Google. I didn’t really catch the rest, but I think he said that it was worth 50$ at least.

I can’t be sure about that, but it does seem to be in decent shape. There’s a couple of dents and some (very) mild surface rust, but it looks good otherwise. I may just put it on Ebay “as is.”

Hopefully I’ll find some more stuff tonight. Either way, expect to see the rest of the jewelry tomorrow!

That’s all for now!

Miscellanea

February 10, 2013 garbagefinds6 Comments

I took a walk on Friday and found this pile of stuff in an alley. I think it had been there a while. There were lots of old records but they were all frozen together – unless they were put outside when wet they must have been sitting there since the last thaw.

The garbage truck doesn’t come down this alley, so unless someone brought it to the curb it’s probably still sitting there.

I found a few things of interest:

This piece of art (titled “Riyadh” and coated in a small amount of snow) is by someone named Paul Rose. I liked it and stashed it along a fence a bit further in the alley to make sure it didn’t go to waste. I may go back and see if it’s still around!

I also like the old door in behind.

The tag on the back of the art. Translation: the artist wants the power to put this piece on display in the future.

A wire candle holder featuring an elephant and two bells. Pretty cute right? I enjoyed the sound of the bells dinging for the rest of my walk.

A ship’s wheel. It’s missing a spoke but it still looks cool as a decoration. It looks fairly old.

Finally, some old electronic stuff. I don’t know specifically what these would do. Let me know if you do! I figure that even if they’re not practically useful they could still be good for an art project.