garbage picking – Page 9 – Things I find in the garbage

Just down the road

February 2, 2025February 2, 2025 garbagefinds26 Comments

It’s been a classic Montreal January thus far – fairly cold, and a moderate amount of snow. I haven’t felt too motivated to get out there. Fortunately, it’ll be over by the time you read this post. February is always a little better, and by the time March comes around, you’ll start to see glimmers of spring.

My attention span has been shot lately, but I have put a bit of effort into cleaning up my random junk in the basement. It feels like a good task for January. I’m not sure when I’ll end up moving from my current spot, but it’s inevitable that I’ll move at some point … and when that time comes, it’ll be nice not to have so many loose ends down there.

Half of it is my own personal stuff. I finally tossed my high school yearbook, which was ruined in a flood several years back. Some things are just garbage! The rest are former finds – some things I wanted to keep for my personal collection, some things I had trouble researching, and other things I just didn’t have time to deal with. I’ve listed some of these items on eBay, put others in the yard sale pile, and kept some favourites for myself.

What do I collect for myself? Well, that’s a topic for another day. As is the potential impact of the orange guy’s tariffs on my garbage business.

This haul came to me around mid-December, not too far from home.

This old leather envelope held a bunch of old photographs, including four tintypes.

Apparently the heyday for the tintype was the 1860s-1870s, but some were produced up until the 1930s. Probably the only way to identify the exact time period would be to look at the fashions of the subjects. Zoom in for a closer look, and if you have any insights let us know in the comments!

The rest were carte de visite style photos, most of which were taken in Quebec City and Montreal.

There were more photos elsewhere. I picked out a few favorites to share here. That photo of the plane looks pretty old. Anyone know anything about that?

And then there was a bit of quality junk (as I like to call it). I saved a nice sterling silver rosary, a small silver funnel, a little hand clip that may also be silver, an old Zippo, some doodads for the yard sale bin…

… a couple fish-shaped pens, a Louis Marx budget bank, an old bottle of Eau Sauvage;

… and three bronze medals, one of which I sold for 50$.

They aren’t as old as they say, but they’re still nice re-strikes that probably date to the early 1900s.

Otherwise, one of these people worked for different local media stations. I found a few mementos, including two signed images of “Les trois Menestrels” and another of a different band I’m not familiar with.

Most interesting was a press pass from Expo 67. I’ve found a couple of these now – the other is still in quarantine (since late 2023, a little excessive most likely, but better safe than sorry) because it came from an apartment with bedbugs. These seem to be fairly uncommon, so they are likely worth something to a passionate Expo 67 collector.

That’s all for now. I’ll share some more finds soon enough!

Links

1. My eBay listings. Sign up for eBay (Canada, US). Search for something you want / research something you have (Canada, US). — These are Ebay Partner Network links. If you create an account or buy something after getting to eBay from these links, I get a small cut of the profit!
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefindssells on Instagram (this is managed by a friend, I’ve quit Instagram for the time being)
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Help support the blog, or just buy me a coffee! PayPal link below.

Feminist & Proud

January 11, 2025January 11, 2025 garbagefinds7 Comments

Here’s a quick look at some fun things I found last month. If you’re a political person, you might appreciate these 1980s (mostly) feminist pins. Some are pretty critical of men (“the more I see men, the more I like my dog”), but it’s all in good fun I’m sure. And to be honest, it’s a fair point for some of us. Political/activist pins do pretty well on eBay, so there’s some money to be made here.

I also saved a bunch of photos (including a few of a protest), a bag of foreign coins (one of which was silver), an enameled “female” symbol (if that’s what you call that), a cute vintage compact, and a tiny ceramic dog.

I also found a bunch of postcards, including this cool set of feminist postcards from the same era as the pins. These might do well on eBay as well.

Postcards were a good seller for me last year. People are happy to pay 1$ a pop (or less on a bundle deal), and they’re easy to store.

Otherwise, I’ve come down with a cold. Nothing too serious, but it’s a little annoying. It’s been pretty chilly; I’ve gone on a few garbage runs but haven’t come up with anything spectacular. Thankfully I have a bunch of stuff in the garage that’s been sitting around for literally years waiting for me to document it, so there is no shortage of things to talk about.

Kananaskis pt.1

January 3, 2025January 3, 2025 garbagefinds16 Comments

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season! I took it pretty easy, and spent some quality time with friends and family. I didn’t do much trash picking, but I think I’ll get back into it next week.

Today I’m showing you some old finds from the “archives” at my garage. This folder came from an interesting spot in Cote St-Luc, probably around 3 years ago.

This household had German roots, and apparently knew a German (or multiple?) who was detained during WWII and spent time at various Canadian POW camps. The folder contained various sketches from the period, most of which related to the war and their time at the Kananaskis internment camp.

Apparently the role of the camp changed over time. Before Canada even joined the war, they “began arresting and detaining known and suspected enemy sympathizers” to be interned at the camp. Given the history of WWII-era Japanese internment camps in Canada and the US, it’s fair to wonder if some of these people were actually threats. Later on, the camp began housing combatants and those with strong “pro-Nazi” sympathies. See the link above for a more thorough history.

All that to say, it’s very possible that these early prisoners were not hardened Nazis. One of them appears to have immigrated to Canada after the war, which indicates to me that he was probably just a German civilian who got caught up in that mess.

Anyways, this is a drawing of the Kananaskis hospital, dated 1939-1940 by Paul Schinz.

Here are some unsigned drawings. The ones below look to be wartime drawings, which is interesting.

Finally, I found several of these cartoons. They’re by a guy named Otto Ellmaurer, who if the birthdate is correct, would have been a teenager while detained at this camp. Some of them are kind of funny, zoom in for a closer look!

It looks like the Canada War Museum has a copy of all these, plus a few extra that I don’t have.

Interesting stuff. I haven’t really looked into their value yet, but I assume I can make a few bucks from these. The cartoons seem to be pretty rare, and the drawings are obviously one of a kind.

I have a bit more stuff from this spot to share. Maybe I’ll try to get those photos done tomorrow, and close the book on this years-old spot.

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? My main one is to finally start writing that garbage picking book that I’ve been talking about for years. There isn’t much reason to put it off any longer, and it’s not like I don’t have the time. If you have any topics you’d like to see covered in a book, please share in the comments!