Tag: flipping

The rusty blue dumpster pt.1

garbagefinds33 Comments

Dumpsters are usually filled with renovation debris, but occasionally people load them full of junk as well. It was easy to tell in this case, because I could see a couple old trunks poking out the top.

I ended up saving like five or six. I sold a few at yard sales, and a couple at the auction house.

This one was my favourite. I’d guess it was the oldest of the bunch, and the hardware / latch was particularly nice.

Luckily for me this dumpster was out there for about a week. I returned daily to see if there was anything new inside, and most often there wasn’t. However, it seemed like each time I jumped in I found something new and interesting that I hadn’t seen before. Keep in mind this was stuffed nearly to the top, and the bin was about 10 feet tall.

Near the top (not much digging required) were a few boxes of old dishes and glassware.

There was plenty of nice clear glass, the fanciest of which are probably those candle holders in the back. I think they’re Cambridge glass in the chantilly pattern (you can see that a bit more on their bases), and seem to be worth something like 50$ each. This is the second time I’ve found Cambridge glass this year, after that great haul of statuesque stemware I found a little while back.

Some of the ceramics broke after being tossed in the bin, but a number of pots, bowls, old transferware plates, and other bits and pieces survived intact.

Perhaps my best ceramic find was this box filled with vintage Fiestaware.

I’d never found Fiesta stuff before, but I actually like it a lot! Maybe one day when I have my own place I’ll keep some for myself, it’s all very colourful and charming.

After doing a bit of research, I decided to bring this lot to the auction. It definitely has some value, but the pieces are quite heavy so shipping would be expensive and annoying. We’ll see how they do, but I set a reserve of 100$ because I wouldn’t want to sell them for less than that. If you’re interested, the lot is going live tomorrow night and will end next Thursday.

Soon I’ll share the rest of my dumpster finds, including tools and other junk. I’ve been pretty busy lately, trying to clear out the storages before the snow comes. Also, I’ve been finding almost an overwhelming amount of quality junk lately and it’s been hard to keep up!

In other news, I found my first ever Maga hat in the trash this week. We don’t see these too often here in Montreal, and the timing was kind of funny with the election coming up next week. Maybe it’s an omen. Anyways, I can’t wait until that’s finally all over, I’ll probably get a lot more work done if I’m not checking the news all the time. I’m not sure anyone cares, but if I had a vote I’d being going with Biden for a variety of reasons. I’m not sure that Trump guy has a single redeeming character trait. I try to avoid talking politics on this blog, but that’s just my two cents!

Jack of all trades pt.1

garbagefinds7 Comments

This spot first caught my eye in early May. After a couple of months of regular production and intriguing finds, there was a period of maybe five weeks where nothing was put on the curb. That led me to take a break from that route, but when I returned maybe six weeks later I found that the trash flow had returned.

I call this post “jack of all trades” because it’s been hard to tell what these folks did for a living. I’ve found such a wide range of things here, many of which could indicate a profession, but nothing that conclusively says, for example “ah, this person was a doctor.”

For instance, one day I found around half a recycling bin full of old Montreal bus/metro transfer tickets.

This seems like the kind of thing that only someone working for the STM (or past versions of it) would own. However, I’ve found nothing else which would indicate that. The collection was pretty well organized, and tickets were often bound together with elastics or paper sleeves indicating a route and date. I brought about 20lbs of these to the auction house, and they sold for 55$. I have no idea what the purchaser plans to do with them.

One thing’s for sure, someone who lived here was a tinkerer. The bins never contain bags, which is unusual, but instead are stuffed, often to the brim with loose junk. So far, most of it has been stuff you’d find in a basement or garage. My guess is that the tossers wheel the bin inside the house and then just go around dumping things inside. I always make sure to dig all the way to the bottom so I don’t miss a thing. The only item of any value in this pic is that brass vase, but there was lots of hardware bric-a-brac underneath.

I’ve picked lots of metal out of those bins, including bits and section of scrap copper, brass fittings, copper wire, motors, aluminum, and so on. My run on this day wasn’t too exciting, but the scrap helped make it a little bit profitable.

I’ve saved some cool toolsy things, like this old hanging brass scale made by Fairbanks Morse…

… and this cast iron doohickey made by the Victory Tool & Machine Company right here in Montreal. Looking it up now, it appears to be a can sealer missing the bits that would attach to that screw end near the centre-right. Either way, it’s gone to the auction and hopefully a collector will appreciate it.

I also saved this neat cubby hole / printer tray thing. People love these, and this one was particularly old & nice. It sold for 120$ at auction, which was more than I expected.

There’s lots more cool stuff from this spot to come, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I’ve been pretty distracted lately, there’s so much going on in the world and I have a hard time not reading about it! Also, since business has been going well I’ve had a bit of money to invest in stocks for the first time and I’m reading and learning a lot about that. Anyways, for today I’m happy I managed to focus on writing for a few hours, which is long enough to get a blog post out there.

 

A cornucopia of quality vintage junk pt.1

garbagefinds17 Comments

I was having a pretty average run a couple weeks back before happening upon a collection of around 20 trash bags in front of a fourplex in TMR. That’s a fair bit more garbage than you typically see coming from four households, so I checked it out and ended up saving quite the variety of quality vintage junk (QVJ). I pretty well filled up the car, taking maybe 1/3 of the total volume from the bags when all was said and done. While there were no “omg” finds, I found a few things for eBay, some auction worthy items, and a lot of great yard sale stuff.

That box of records came from another house, FYI. It was actually a pretty good collection, including a lot of classic rock that’s typically pretty easy to sell.

One of the first things I found was a large stash of silverware. I enjoy finding these collections, as there’s sometimes a bit of sterling mixed in with the plated stuff (and the plated stuff is still nice, good for the yard sales).

On the right is the cutlery I saved for a future yard sale, and on the left is the more common stuff I left on the curb for others to pick through.

I did find my bit of sterling, a small spoon made by Birks. It’s always a bit of a thrill to find solid silver, even if it’s only worth about 10$. You can see how dirty my finds got picking through all that tarnish!

I saved a whole bunch of nice vintage scissors here. These are always a hit at my yard sales.

(PS: my camera is working fine again after I bought a new battery for it. This is the only picture from this post I shot using the camera, as opposed to my iPhone).

This spot was noteworthy for providing notable quantities of certain vintage items, in this case rotary phones. Finding four in one night, let alone one spot, is likely my all-time record. These old rotaries tend to do well at the auction-house, so I’ll likely bring them there when they open again.

Here we have a collection of radios. I haven’t done much research yet. but I’d guess that Hitachi transistor in the middle is worth a bit of money. People like their transistor radios, and they tend to like them even more when they come in different colours. Also, it’s in very good cosmetic condition. The radio at back right, a portable RCA Victor from the 40s, is probably valuable as well.

Here’s another portable radio, as well as five different combination alarm clock / radios. For some reason these folks had two of the exact same, very boxy model of Detson flip clock. I like the boxy look (I once owned a Volvo 240), and I’m sure others will appreciate them as well.

Vintage lamps are always a good find. This one’s a pendant lamp, meant to be attached and hung maybe 1.5′ from the wall. Another easy sale, unless I decide to keep it for myself.

My most unusual find was probably this framed photo of a 1930 medical exhibition featuring a wide variety of prosthetic limbs, including the Carnes arm. The price tag indicates that the previous owner either bought it at a sale, or tried to sell it at a sale. A friend who fancies old medical stuff showed an interest in it, and I agreed to sell it to them for 20$.

Lastly, I found two large Expos 1984 team photo posters. The 80s were one of the best times to be an Expos fan – this team features three Hall of Famers (Tim Raines, Andre Dawson & Gary Carter) and Pete Rose, by then a washed up future Hall of Famer (it wasn’t til later that he was caught betting on games), not to mention lots of players worthy of the “Hall of Very Good”. The strike in ’94, terrible / cheap ownership, and constant firesales destroyed enthusiasm for the Expos, ultimately resulting in their relocation after the 2004 season, but there’s hope that they’ll return someday soon (though, for what it’s worth, I think the idea of splitting games between Montreal and Tampa Bay is ridiculous).

I sold one of these posters very quickly for 50$ on eBay. The other, which is in slightly worse condition (a bit of foxing on the right side), is listed at 43$.

There’s yet more stuff from this spot to share, but I’ll save it for my next post. I didn’t see anything but rolled up linoleum there last week, and I’m guessing this spot will end up being a “one-hit wonder.”

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