Tag: dumpster diving

Summer pt.1

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Hello all. It’s been a busy month. My mom moved to the city in early July, and the family has been helping her settle in. I’ve also spent some more time in that hole, maybe I’ll post a few more finds from that next time. Moving day wasn’t all that exciting, but at least I got some exercise from biking and walking around the neighbourhood. I did find a few change dumps, and a mixer thingy I have to find a cable for.

 

In the spring, precious metals were near all-time high prices and seemed to be popping up pretty much everywhere. Now that the prices are lower, I’m not finding as much, which I think goes to show that there’s not much logic to what ends up in the trash. I still found a bit though, including a Tiffany baby rattle and a flimsy 10k gold bracelet at one spot, a tiny Tiffany heart and a couple other bits at another, and then a little bag filled with someone’s scrap silver elsewhere.

My favourite spot might have been this dumpster. It’s always a bit of a struggle to dig around in these things, but this one wasn’t too bad. I picked up a bunch of dishes, old jars, and miscellaneous junk.

I enjoyed saving this, which I think is a variety of a “God in a bottle.” Apparently these were popular in the Irish community, and this person did indeed appear to have Irish roots. Apparently it was made in Montreal in December 1938, and the images are covered in celluloid. It might have been made to hold holy water, but there isn’t any evidence anyone ever put water inside. I’d be afraid to now, since the celluloid appears to be peeling up in places (also, the cap doesn’t seem to open). Regardless, it’s a neat artifact, one I might keep for my own collection.

I also scrounged up some smaller treasures. There is a bit of silver and a tiny amount of gold in the middle box on the right. I was hoping that mesh bag was sterling, but it was not. Inside the plastic rosary case was an old Blarney pin.

Otherwise I have a few spots I’m currently keeping an eye on – I’ll save finds from those for another post. A friend was able to quickly flip a brand new Amazon quality espresso machine for 100$, and three of those Amisco stools for 200$. I was excited about the spot that produced those near-mint Christian Dior sunglasses, but I haven’t seen anything there since. The pottery is from that dumpster, just a bit of what I saved but the only pieces I had time to photograph.

The 5 million dollar house

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One of my most recent spots was a big house in a nice neighbourhood. It had been put on the market, and I guessed it was going for 5 million. I checked online and it turns out I was just about right, although I would have lost by Price is Right rules – 4.995m. It was a nice, if bland house with a sweet swimming pool. When I’m picking the trash of people this well off, I’m hoping they go “full privilege.” In my financial position, I can spend 1-10$ and not really regret it at all. I assume that some of the people that make 100x what I do, probably feel the same way about 100-1000$ transactions.

These guys never went full privilege, to their credit. No gold, not much jewelry. A lot of empty Hermes boxes, but only a couple of Hermes products (perfumes). I saved a bunch of clothes, but most were really boring so I donated them. Same with the household and kitchen stuff.

Of course I did save a few notable things, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting about it. One day a bunch of picture frames got tossed; I took some yard sale quality ones and left some junkier ones. This one looks pretty plain, but was easily the most valuable of that bunch. It’s a solid silver Tiffany frame, and given that it weighs over 100 grams, it’s worth about 400$ for scrap. Given the dents, scratches, and other defects, I think that’s all it is, but obviously a find like that makes my trash run worthwhile.

I also made a decent amount of money from these iPhones. It’s very rare that I find an iPhone that isn’t locked to iCloud (and therefore essentially a brick), but I usually give them a charge just in case. It turned out that two of the three were reset prior to being tossed. They both had a couple issues, one with the camera and one with a cracked back screen, but they were relatively modern (iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max), and I was able to easily sell them to a local business for 150$ and 195$ respectively. In the past I would have sold them on eBay, but this way saved me a lot of hassle and I think the price was very fair. The 3rd one is doomed to the e-waste pile unfortunately.

Other decent if unexciting finds include a couple small pieces of silver, a nice pewter wine funnel, and some new-in-box Wifi doohickies I was able to sell pretty easily on eBay for 80$ a pop. These folks have since moved, but this spot was nice while it lasted.

I decided to quit Instagram the other day. I just don’t like what the app has become. I first joined in 2015 when it was a fun, casual space. Now it’s all about reels, AI slop, and promoting addictive (and often fake) information. Funny enough though, after I quit I started having the temptation to post again. However, I think I can just post the same type of content here, where there are no ads and no BS. So, maybe I’ll do a new type of post soon, once I get enough random pictures to make it worthwhile.

I’ve been fairly lucky recently. Last week I had a couple nice gold hauls, from spots that were easy to pick. This week, I’ve come across two hoarder type piles, which were a lot of work to sort through and provided no easy money. However, there’s no way to know what you’re going to find, and who knows, maybe the easy money is coming next week. Also, the hoarder piles tend to produce more interesting yard sale quality junk.

Stuff and things

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It’s been one of the harshest winters in recent memory, but enough decent trash has been trickling out to make my picking expeditions worthwhile. I went for a walk around my old neighbourhood in early January, and came across these bags.

Inside was mostly kid’s toys and junk, but for some reason a couple of doctor’s tools were mixed in. Maybe a retired doctor gave their grandkids their old devices to play with, who knows. Regardless, they were in pretty good cosmetic condition, and weren’t all that old either. The otoscope (above) battery was shot, but it held power for long enough to test the lights on the components. These things retail for over 1k new, and I was able to sell this one pretty quickly for 200$.

I also found and listed this sphygmomanometer. It’s not worth as much, but should fetch 50-100$.

I found another little jewelry stash that probably belonged to someone’s teenage years. Mostly junk, but there was one nice 14k gold butterfly necklace that made my trip worthwhile.

I mentioned one particular spot being notable for one other thing in my last post. That one thing was a big collection of perfume. Pretty nice stuff, and mostly fairly recent and fresh. I gave first dibs to someone who helps me sell things on Facebook, 2nd to a regular perfume buyer, and sold one on eBay for a total profit of around 400$. But I’ve still got a bunch left – selling used perfume on eBay is a pain after recent policy changes. If anyone knows any alternative selling platforms for perfume, let me know! Apparently Marketplace isn’t all that great for perfumes either, with lots of companies using algorithms to flag anyone trying to sell their used product. (To be fair, if they didn’t MP would be filled with fake Chanel #5 and whatnot).

Otherwise, I’ve done well this winter re-organizing and decluttering my garage. That includes listing some items that had been sitting around for years, and also processing some new arrivals quickly. The Breitling watch box and knife sharpener were recent finds that sold quickly (80 & 100$ respectively). The same applies to the otoscope above, which quickly listed then sold. Of the things that had been collecting dust for at least a year, my relatively quick sales included optometry paraphernalia, a stamp collection featuring a lot of vintage big blocks from Iraq, Pokemon-themed “Mighty Beanz”, an emergency beacon thing for avalanche safety, and an old projector lens. The lens felt like the dustiest of the bunch, but sold within an hour or so of listing for 100$. I still have some work to do, but am more organized than I’ve been in a very long time.

There was a death in my family recently. It wasn’t a surprise really, but regardless it sucks when that time comes. My next post will be dedicated to him.