Tag: frugality

Week of the iPods pt.2

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Later that week I happened upon a small pile in Outremont which contained a bit of older tech stuff. I saved several PS2 controllers, an old Apple Airport Extreme, an Apple keyboard and four iPods.

The four iPods brought my total for the week to eight, which is definitely my all-time record. While I think the first ones were thrown out because of a move, I’m not really sure why these were tossed. Maybe Marie Kondo had something to do with it! As for value, these 4th & 5th generation iPod Classics still have some value despite being over a decade old. They all have 60gb of storage, a relatively high capacity, and should sell for between 40-60$ each.

That spot also provided a bunch of sports games for PS3 & XBox 360, a few of which were never even opened. Sports games depreciate a lot quicker than other games, but this collection still netted about 30$ after fees at the auction house. Easy money!

That week was also good for jewellery boxes. The first came from this pile in Nouveau Bordeaux.

It was a nice box in its own right, a Japanese import probably from the 60s. Inside was a music box and a magnetic ballerina that would rotate on the glass. It sold for 20-some dollars at auction.

The contents were clearly pillaged, but there were still a few bits left for me.

Most of my profit came from the three broken bits of 14k gold in the middle, which if I remember right earned me about 80$ (I recently did a scrap gold run). Otherwise, I saved a religious medallion, a miniature Cretan dagger that’s probably a hairpin, a pair of Japanese earrings, and a key fob from Thursday’s restaurant on Crescent.

Better yet was this busted box I found the next day in a richer part of town. The contents were much less picked through, and I salvaged a few great items.

There’s two gold pieces here, including a 10k gold and pearl ring by Birks and a 14k cameo brooch. To the left of that is a nice turquoise brooch – it looks like this one purportedly made by the Zuni of the southwestern United States. It’s probably unmarked silver, and I’d bet that the donkey pendant is unmarked silver as well. I think the pocket watch is 800 or 925 (sterling) silver, though I haven’t yet figured out its hallmarks.

Here’s some closeups of the finer pieces. Overall, they should earn me several hundred dollars. This was definitely one of my best jewelry hauls in some time, but hopefully there’s more coming in the near future!

Otherwise, I brought my first big collection of e-waste to the recycling box recently. I lost track of how much e-waste I salvaged last year, but this year I should be less busy and more able to keep a running tally. In this picture is 4.68kg of electronics, most of which were broken, missing pieces, or not worth selling. I also recycled about 1.1kg of batteries, with most of that weight coming a MacBook Pro battery.

I’m curious to see how much I can recycle over a full year! I can only do so much, so I prefer to focus on cell phones and other small electronics. Laptops too, when they turn up.

That one week was pretty good, but I haven’t had nearly as much luck recently. I did make a good sale though, which I’ll tell you about in an upcoming post.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much done with winter at this point. Here’s hoping the warmer weather is coming soon! Garbage picking is a lot more fun in the spring and summer.

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Recent sales: August & September

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eBay

August: 15 sales, 824$ before fees.
September: 12 sales, 685$ before fees.
Total: 1509$.

eBay sales were slow, as they usually are (at least for me) in the late summer. Fortunately, I sold a whole bunch of stuff at auction to help even things out.

Notable sales:

Carl Poul Petersen sterling silver tie clip: 64$. I probably would have scrapped this if not for the input of reader who recognized the signature below as that of Poul Petersen, a noted Canadian silversmith and apprentice of Georg Jensen. Monograms generally reduce the value of an item, but M.D. has obvious appeal to those with medical degrees. Part of a great haul from early 2016 – it took a long time to sell because I didn’t know where to price it.

1959-1960 Toronto Maple Leafs pocket schedule: 100$. I seem to have a knack for finding these old schedules. I couldn’t find any others like it online, much like the 1940s Canadiens schedule I saved last year. The Pepsi vending machine catalogue from the same pile also sold for a great price (75$).

Gio de Armani Eau de Parfum (50ml): 95$. There’s a solid market for this scent, which was discontinued however many years ago. This was part of a nice perfume haul I found in Hampstead earlier this year.

1921 Pope Benedict XV blessing: 240$. Pope Benedict XV stuff is relatively hard to find, so this was worth a bit of money even though it was likely signed by one of his assistants. I found it last year in the Plateau.

Montblanc “Hommage to Mozart” small-size ballpoint pen: 200$. This was a relatively recent find, tossed by some especially dumb rich people. It was in its original box (along with a complementary Mozart CD) and looked to have barely been used. Some other finds from this spot will make the blog soon.

Local Auction

August: 1309.25$ after fees
September: 1722.25 after fees
Total: 3031.50$

It was around this time that I dedicated myself to downsizing my unintentional collection of junk. As a result, the auction folk and I both made a bunch of money.

Notable sales:

Wine pump: 230$ (before fees). This ended up selling for a lot more than I expected! I guess it helped that the auction happened to end right around wine-making season. Found in Ville St Laurent.

Anti-explosion lights + misc junk: 85$. Found in the east Plateau.

Architectural element: 32$. I’m sure this piece will get turned into something nice! Found in Westmount.

Dried puffer fish & pike head: 32$. These were among my most unusual finds of the summer. Both will probably be turned into lamps. Found in Ville St Laurent.

Vintage Ford V8 hubcap: 32$. Found on the outer edge of Cote-des-Neiges.

Miniature perfume lot: 80$. Included in this collection was a lot that went unsold for some time on eBay and several others I found while digging through my junk (which I apparently forgot about). I’m happy with this total – miniatures aren’t really worth enough to list individually (at least for me), and it’s also hard to get people to pay reasonable money for them at yard sales.

Jo Malone sample lot: 55$. I spotted a huge number of these samples at the bottom of one of a bags. At first I thought they’d be more of a hassle than they were worth, but then I figured that I’d probably be able to get 20$ for them at auction. It turned out they sold for more than that!

Jo Malone is a quality brand and these samples were still fresh. My guess is that the previous owner worked somewhere in the retail industry. Regardless, this is a great example of how the auction house allows me to make easy money on things that would have previously been a hassle.

Antique domed glass frames + photos: 60$. I pulled these out of a dumpster in St Michel. Amazingly they didn’t break, though I did have to clean some garbage juice off one of them.

Yard sales

1220$ over four sales. To be honest I kind of lost track of my yard sale income, but I think this is a pretty good guess. This year I’ve often hired friends to help me with the sales, which cuts into my bottom line but really helps reduce my workload.

Total

5760.50$, 20265.75$ so far in 2018. A pretty good couple of months! It’s unlikely that I’ll get to 30k this year but I’ll probably get pretty close.

Recent sales: June

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June was the month I first started bringing my junk to the auction house. I had a lot to deal with at the time (including picking during move-out season, my move to a smaller garage, and that stressful yard sale) so I didn’t have time to take pictures of all my wares. Below is a rapid fire look at what sold at auction.

Auction results:

  • Mickey Mouse coin bank: 8$. Found in the Plateau.
  • 1976 Champion Gilles Villeneuve poster: 22$.
  • Small rug: 20$. Found in Outremont.
  • Victorian lamp stand: 18$. Found in Outremont.
  • Plaster plant stand: 10$. Found in St Michel.

  • Wooden trunk: 16$. Found in Ville St Laurent and brought to auction that same day.
  • Agatha silver ring: 12$. Found in Outremont.

  • Le Creuset casserole dish: 18$.

  • Parti Quebecois election sign: 95$. Found in Rosemont.
  • Handmade wooden vase: 10$. Found in Outremont.
  • Vintage cowhide doctor’s bag: 80$. Found in Westmount.
  • Spiderman deluxe box set: 16$. Found in Cartierville.
  • Large vintage speaker, as is: 9$. Found in the Mile End.
  • Vintage rocking chair: 32$. Found in TMR.

Total: 322$ – 80.50$ (25% fee) – 14$ (listing fees) =  227.50$

I’m satisfied with all of these results. A few, like the wooden trunk were slightly disappointing, but I was also quite happy to get these things out of my space. The disappointments were more than offset by the successes. The PQ sign went for about what I thought it should, but required much less effort to sell than if I was forced to go the Kijiji / eBay route. The doctor’s bag went for a lot more than I expected – I actually had it priced at 20$ during the pop-up market in April (I’m glad it didn’t sell then!). The Gilles Villeneuve poster went for a good sum as well.

Overall, I’ve very happy with the auction approach thus far, and especially the amount of work and storage space this avenue saves me. I expect that auction results will be a staple of these sales summaries going forward.

eBay sales

  • 2 SAP textbooks: 95$. I wasn’t sure about listing them at the time but enough have sold to make the effort worthwhile. Found in the lower Plateau.

  • 1950s / 1960s African missionary slides: 60$. These were part of that big photo haul I found thanks to a tip from a reader last year. Found in St Michel.

  • Vintage Triumph car badge: 50$. Found in TMR.
  • Simmons pocket knife: 30$. Found in the Mile End.

  • United Colors of Benetton silver cross pendant: 15$. I’m surprised this was such a hard sell, it took about three years to find a new home. Found in NDG.

  • Primrose plate cocktail shaker: 70$. I figured I’d get a good price for this! Found in NDG.

  • Vintage Quebec flag: 30$. Found in the Plateau.

  • Priest stole: 15$. I gave the buyer a 50% discount when I noticed that one of the tassels had been accidentally torn off. It wasn’t a hard fix, but I wanted to make sure the buyer was happy with what they ordered. Found in Outremont.

  • Miniature Expo 67 flag: 22.50$. Found in NDG.
  • House of Seagram printing plates: 18$. Found in Montreal Ouest.

  • Vintage car plates: 90$. Found in TMR.

  • Studebaker letterpress block: 27$. Found in Ahuntsic.

  • Stadium motorcycle goggles: 45$. These were probably made in the 30s or 40s. Found in NDG.

  • Vintage Bulova watch: 45$. Found just down the street.

  • Antique silver grouse foot pendant: 27$. Found in Westmount.

Total: 639.50$. A bit of a slow month, but that’s to be expected in the summer. If some of those numbers look funny it’s because I started a 10% off sale around this time, I don’t usually set prices with cents in them.

Yard sales

  • 800$. This was the one that got a bit out of hand. Still, the overall profits weren’t bad. I realized recently though that the lightbulbs to my photo equipment were also stolen, which will cost me around 50-75$. I may have had another minor sale in June, but I can’t remember for sure.

Gold / silver scrap

  • 800$. This batch was composed largely of silverware from the collection I found back in April. Some were good to sell on eBay, but others were worn past the point of being desirable (ie: some of the prongs of the forks had been grinded down somehow and were sharp / uneven). So, into the scrap pile they went, along with other unexceptional or damaged bits of jewelry.

Overall total: 2467$, 12066.50$ so far in 2018. I consider that a decent month – twelve of those brings me close to 30k gross for the year.