garbage day – Page 2 – Things I find in the garbage

Recent sales (July 18 – August 14)

August 15, 2016 garbagefinds10 Comments

It was pretty slow going for a while there. In fact, there was a period of two weeks (between July 23 and August 7) where I didn’t sell a thing. Thankfully sales picked up a bit and I ended up having a decent if unspectacular month.

1. Yard sales: 330$. I had a sale a couple weeks ago that I didn’t advertise whatsoever. I made around 100$, which is below average, but while everything was out on the curb I was able to weed out the clutter that wasn’t going to sell anytime soon, if ever. That set me up nicely for yesterday’s sale. I wasn’t able to put out as much as I usually do, but still had success because the things I brought were of better quality. I ended up making 230$, despite it being super cloudy and near rain for much of the day. I think I would have been cleared out if it had been sunny all day.

By the way, those framed images I mentioned in my last post didn’t last too long. The first to sell was the only non-religious one. The second was actually kitschy Jesus, who I figured would be the hardest to sell. The last supper sold last. I priced them all at 5$, which was maybe too low but I was happy to move them quickly. Looking back, this stuff might actually be in style, at least in the artsy / hipster Plateau.

2. IBM Selectric Typewriter: On Kijiji for 50$. The Selectric was very popular in the 1960s. It was very bulky and quite heavy. Found this May in Rosemont.

3. Perfumes: To a reader for 40$. I found a nice, nearly full bottle of Miss Dior near Snowdon metro last week that went for 30$. It was vintage, probably from the 70s. The other two were smaller, half full perfumes by Annick Goutal that I found in Outremont. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures.

4. Macbook Pro, for repair: On eBay for 250$. I bought a new battery for it, so my actual profit was around 200$. This is the one I found back in February. It seemed to work at first (at least after I took out the old battery which was bulging and impacting the trackpad), but after a while it became really slow and painful to use. It was a 2009 model, so chances are the original hard drive was cooked. It’s probably an easy fix for whoever bought it. Found in TMR.

5. Vintage Tiffany jewelry box: On eBay for 50$. I’d guess this box was made in the 20s or 30s. Anything Tiffany related is worth a bit of money. Found January 2016 in NDG.

6. Rodenstock Rocco eyeglass frames: On eBay for 44$. I listed these a long time ago. I have a faint recollection of finding in the Plateau a couple years back, but I can’t be certain.

7. 1964 Lindsay Place (Pointe-Claire) High School yearbook: On eBay for 40$. I’ve heard of people having success selling old yearbooks, but only recently did I try doing it myself. This yearbook, one of several I listed sold within a day. I was pretty happy about that. I’m sure the rest will be long tail items, but eBay’s fees for listing books are lower for just that reason. Found in TMR.

8. Rosen remote control: On eBay for 27$. I don’t think there’s anything less exciting than selling remote controls. I don’t even know what this remote was for. Still, selling them is pretty easy and they make me a bit of extra cash. I only recently realized that this was market I could capitalize on.

9. Vintage Alan Stuart designer toothbrush: On eBay for 30$. It was in its original box. Saved from a cheesy bag in June of 2015.

10. Silver turtle bracelet: On Etsy for 30$. My first Etsy sale since May.

11. Vintage Lancome Magie Noire perfumed dusting powder: On eBay for 80$. This stuff seems to be pretty collectible! Found last month in Outremont.

12. 1977 Grey Cup pennant: On eBay for 100$. I found this over two years ago. I kept it myself for awhile, using it as a decoration. I like collecting Montreal related stuff, and especially enjoyed the image of the Big O. However, I didn’t end up putting it up at my last place, and when I didn’t display it at my new place either I figured I might as well sell it. I got a very good price so I’m pretty happy. Found May 2014 in TMR.

Total: 1071$, 15051$ since the new year.

The Sourdough Gang

October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 garbagefinds11 Comments

I got up at 730 this morning and checked out the trash in Park Ex and Villeray. I went back to the place where I found the good stuff on Tuesday in the hopes that there would be more. Alas, no luck today. Still, I did some sorting of the treasures I did find and took some pictures to show you guys. This post will focus mostly on ephemera, or old paper collectibles.

I’ll start though with this cross. I thought the material of the cross looked special and decided to do the hot water bakelite test. It passed that test, giving off that specific formaldehyde smell. Unfortunately though I forgot it for a bit and left it in the water too long, which sort of damaged the submerged area (the bottom). It still looks good but not as perfect and shiny as before, though apparently there are things you can do to polish or buff bakelite. These, in good condition sell for around 30-50$.

These beads, which were stored in this old Q-Tips container, also passed the hot water test for bakelite. They also come with some string for making necklaces. Most of them are different sizes of round but there’s a few odd long ones as well. Maybe I can make some necklaces!

I found this bottle of Legrain “Royale Ambree” Eau de Cologne. It looks fairly old and the brand seems to be kind of collectible, there’s one similar (but not quite as old looking) up on Ebay for 50$.

Here’s some of the ephemera. I thought these old business cards were all quite beautiful. The top three look to be from the early 1900s (the second from the top is marked 1911) while the bottom one is probably later, perhaps the 1950s. I have a little collection of old business cards I’ll likely add these to.

A notepad from a 1930s Toronto-based garage and a promotional notepad for Dy-dee Wash, the “original diaper service” in Chicago. It was made in 1943.

Another one of “Mumsie’s” religious books. I couldn’t find a date but it’s probably from the late 1800s. Inside are lots of little bookmarks, many of which are these great old lithographs.

Old knitting magazines from the 1940s and 1950s. The older ones talk a lot of knitting in wartime.

A nice 1940s unused notepad from an insurance company and another old lithograph (Merry Christmas!).

These playing cards are in excellent shape. I’m not sure exactly how old they are, but the “rules” section has the date 1935 printed on it. That might have just been when the rules were determined, however.

I’ll finish of with a few of my favourite old photos. On the back is written “Rosie Carroll, Mum’s 1st cousin who sent us boxes and boxes of clothes from New York till we were grown up. Thank you Rosie.” The picture, which measures around a foot and a half by a foot, was produced by a Gibson’s Studio in New York.

This one’s captioned “The Captain, George Scott.” It’s a nice, if vaguely blurry colorized image. Judging by the old cars in the background it was probably taken in the 1910s or 1920s.

This tin-type came out of an envelope that was otherwise full of funeral notices. I hadn’t noticed it before and was pretty happy to come across it! I love old tin types. These women seem to be dressed completely in fur. There’s some writing on the back but I can’t make it out. I might be able to read it if I take a photo and do some editing, however.

The last photo is this group shot of the “Seattle Sourdough Club” taken in 1943. I did a little research and couldn’t find any information as to what this Sourdough Club would have done. If anyone has any information let us know! My photo of the photo doesn’t really do its clarity justice, it’s really quite a cool piece.

All that’s really left to sort through now is the massive haul of old, vintage clothes. I’ll show you some pictures at some point!

That’s all for this week, though. I’m taking tonight off, I’ve biked a lot of heavy loads this week and feel I deserve a bit of extra rest.

The electronic tower

October 9, 2013October 9, 2013 garbagefinds9 Comments

Back in early September I found a large collection of electronics in Outremont and brought them to my friend’s shed for storage. This week has been mostly slow so far, partly because I took Monday and Tuesday morning off, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to show you what I saved.

First off is this beautiful old radio. I figure it’s a vacuum tube system which was pretty common in the 1930s-1950s. I can’t remember the brand name and I have a hard time making it out from the photo due to the odd writing style. Regardless, it actually works fairly well. I thought it didn’t work at first but it seems that the radio just takes half a minute or so to get “warm.” It doesn’t get as many stations as a modern machine but an antenna could help with that.

I have to figure out what brand it is before I can tell what it’s worth, but I imagine I should be able to sell this for at least 50$. It’s a pretty classic, collectible design.

I found four different reel-to-reel audio players / recorders. Two of them, the Wollensak 3m below and the Grundig TK-23 above seem to work fine. If so they are worth around 40-50$ each. The others seem to only partially work (as in they’ll fast forward but not play). It’s possible though that I just don’t know how to use them.

Fortunately I have a tonne of audio reels to play around with! I’m lucky my friend with a car (and storage) helped me as otherwise I wouldn’t have had the space or ability to take all this stuff, especially these boxes full of old reels and cassettes.

Some of the reels are marked as being classical music but most don’t give any hints as to what’s inside. There are lots of blank, unopened cassettes and also some pre-recorded music by Greek musicians.

Last but not least is this tower of electronics. Not all of it works, with the bottom Beta player and the top 8-track player having obvious issues. The rest, a bunch of receivers and a cassette player, passed the basic tests by turning on and looking good doing so. It’s hard to test them further without some speakers to connect them to. The best pieces of this bunch are the Clairtone receiver (2nd from bottom) and the Nikko cassette player (3rd from top) which could be worth maybe 80 buck and 100 bucks respectively, assuming they work of course, based on what I see on Ebay.

In the near future I’ll test this stuff further in preparation to sell it. Whatever doesn’t work I’ll put on the Craigslist “free” section.

I have this evening off (though, if any Montrealers know of a Wednesday evening trash pickup let me know!) but I hope to make some more good finds tomorrow morning in either Outremont or Rosemont. As usual I’ll let you know where it goes.