Tag: garbage

The all-nighter

garbagefinds14 Comments

Things are picking up again. Tuesday nights have been really productive the past two weeks, and Wednesdays have provided some smaller but notable hauls as well. The other days have been hit and miss, though Thursday/Friday came through last night when I came across a massive pile of trash behind an apartment building and spent eight hours looking through it. I think that’s a record for me – I got there at 10:30 at night and left as the sun rose around 6:30 in the morning, with only a Timmie’s tea and muffin break in between to give me the strength to keep going. Someone dumped what looked like much of an apartment, and obviously didn’t put much care into the process. Anyways, I made a few notable scores (and still have a lot in the van to sort through), but that’ll have to wait for another post.

I finally got Covid a few weeks ago. It wasn’t too bad, but still slowed me down for nearly a week. I went on a few garbage runs during, later at night so I wouldn’t see anyone and with a mask on, so I was able to hit up my usual spots and make a few finds.

Otherwise, the university students (particularly the McGill kids) are back in town, so I plan on doing a couple yard sales this weekend hoping to sell them stuff for their new apartments. I should be out at 4100 Coloniale from 12-7 both days if anyone is interested!

Anyways, here’s some more of my Park Ex finds from earlier this year. One of my favourite finds was stored in a dingy ziplock bag, which maybe led to the tossers not noticing it.

It’s a cute 10k gold alarm clock pendant. This thing is smaller than a dime, but it’s fairly thick and hefty, and at nearly 5 grams it’s worth roughly 175$ CAD just for scrap.

These folks owned some cool leather stuff, and were definitely into guns. At one point they threw out a bunch of old bullets and shotgun shells, which seems like a dumb thing to do. There’s a few holsters here, and a couple of ammo holders. The holder on the bottom looks pretty old. I think the leather pieces on the left are used somehow in shaving, maybe someone can explain how they work in the comments.

Another batch of quality junk. That clock on the bottom left is kind of cool and unusual. The sterling comb is obviously busted, but at least the silver is worth 10$ or so. A lot of this stuff will probably end up on my Instagram selling page.

I liked this old clipboard, which was patented in 1893. I’m tempted to keep this, but I never actually use clipboards so I probably shouldn’t.

More quality junk. I love the embroidered “darning bag.” Below is a Mexican silver chain, and a silver cigarette holder that was made in Israel (with an end piece that doesn’t quite match).

This Aiwa Walkman feels like an outlier here. I’m pretty good at identifying the more collectible models at this point, and I was able to sell this for 135$ on eBay even though it doesn’t work. It’s a pretty compact model, which tend to be well-made and less common (and thus more valuable). Walkman values have climbed a lot in the last five years or so.

Finally, we have a couple big silverplate candlesticks, a couple little depression glass (I think) pieces, an a kitschy Charlton glass bottle with stopper. Stuff for Instagram or maybe the yard sale.

I had a couple of great weeks at this spot, but unfortunately I’d bet that I missed out on some great stuff before I found it. Oh well, so it goes. Anyways, hope to see you at a yard sale this weekend!

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 here, I get a small cut of the profit!  —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Donate to the blog. It costs close to 500$ a year to maintain (no ads, domain name, storage space, etc) which ain’t cheap. Otherwise, it’s nice to get a few bucks for coffee, food, or gas!

The deluge

garbagefinds16 Comments

In the past couple months I’ve seen a deluge of quality trash like I haven’t seen since 2020. Thank goodness, because the multi-year lull that was 2021/2022 was getting pretty tiresome. The only thing missing so far is a really nice gold or silver haul, though there have been a few pieces here and there.

I’m still overthinking when it comes to deciding what is worthy of sharing here, which is why this post is so late. People following my Instagram have been a bit luckier, because it’s relatively effortless for me to share “stories” of random junk without providing much context. Here, I feel there has to be a bit more narrative, but I overthink regarding what that narrative should be. Anyways, today I’m sharing another mix of recent and relatively recent finds that I think deserve a closer look.

I’ve had several sales since the one I mentioned in my last post, and this is the first weekend since early May that I didn’t even consider working. It’s nice to have a break, although sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not busy with trash-related endeavours. Regardless, my garage and storage spaces are looking a lot less clogged now, and that makes my work life a bit easier.

One of my favourite recent destinations is a house where the previous owners do not appear to have ever thrown out anything before, but who also kept good care of their things and had interesting tastes. That’s like the Holy Trinity when it comes to garbage. My finds include every Time magazine since 1970s (maybe an exaggeration), lots of old catalogues and sales sheets, other interesting paper ephemera (especially related to travel), lots of toolsy stuff and some vintage toy cars in their original packaging (one of which I listed on eBay).

But my favourite find thus far is probably this great Sanyo boombox, which is in near pristine condition. Based on my early research, I’m thinking it’s probably worth around 300$.

The gold tossers from the last post haven’t been throwing things out consistently lately. I think I’ve only seen trash on the curb on two of five garbage days since my last post. Here’s hoping they get back in the spirit of tossing, because I’m a fan of their brand. Anyways, I thought these glass candle holders/vases were interesting. They’re clearly a pair, but they have slightly different shapes and faults which makes me wonder if they’re quite old. What do you think?

Another interesting find came when I went to one borough’s heavy garbage day. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s not a clock, because there a) appears to be no clock mechanism b) it doesn’t appear to have ever had hands c) too many indices. I asked Instagram, and the best guess I heard was that it somehow connected to a weather vane in a way that lit up the correct wind direction. You can see a bit more of the mechanism below, keeping in mind that the wire attached to what I’m thinking are lights were cut at some point (and we don’t know what they would have connected to). It’s signed by someone named Giroux and dated 1936, and at the very least it’s a very cool folk art type thing. If you’ve seen anything like it, or have theories about what it did, let us know in the comments!

Here’s another find I thought was very pretty. It’s a wall tapestry that needs a little cleaning around the edges, which I don’t think would be too hard to do. I’m guessing it was woven in Mexico, but tapestries aren’t my specialty so I’d appreciate any input you might have! Some of the designs have a mid-century feel, so if I got it cleaned up I think it’d sell for a decent amount.

I was pretty lucky during the move-out season this year. As usual, most of it was the same old crap, though I did pick up some free food and other useful household items. One pile, however provided a find that made all the scavenging worthwhile. Not the 1$ bill (a McGill move-out staple), or the loonies (same), or the Links of London bracelet (very fake), but a necklace in that tangle of mostly junk jewelry at the top right.

It turned out to be a Roberto Coin 18k necklace/pendant, which retails for about 1800$ at Birks. I tested the gold as well as the diamonds, and it checks out. It also just feels like a quality piece. Anyways, this was my best McGill-related find since that MacBook Pro I found way back in 2016.

McGill is pretty picked over these days, and recent waste reduction initiatives have done well to keep quality items from going to the curb (which is good for the world, but not so much for the pickers). My strategy now is to not take it too seriously, but to try to explore places less frequented by other move-out day pickers… and it seems to have paid off this year.

Lastly (for now), here’s a thing that’s been kicking around my garage since the fall. I happened upon a spot where people were clearing out their basement (I knew their neighbours, so I know this as a fact) at the request of their landlords. There were a lot of what seemed to be never used wedding gifts, in their original boxes (think, silver plated dishes and other kitchen stuff), but there was also a lot of ephemera and 70s/80s kids stuff. A few things ended up on Instagram, but most went to the yard sale bin. My most notable find though was this small photo album filled with cool shots of Grand Prix Wrestling stars, including Andre the Giant.

Some of the photos are signed, so whoever assembled this album probably had some connections to help them get backstage. I don’t know much about wrestling, besides the fact that people seems to love it, so I only recognize Andre the Giant. If you could help me identify the other wrestlers, that would be very useful! It would also be cool if someone could tell me where these photos might have been taken, and around what time (although I do know that they’re most likely from the early 70s).

Click the thumbnails below for a better look. To zoom in even more, click the little “i” with a circle around it, then scroll down and click “view full size.”

Now that my storage spaces aren’t so cluttered, maybe it’ll be easier to wrap my head around blogging. Ideally I’d like to at least post every two weeks or so, instead of every month and a bit. Let’s hope!

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 here, I get a small cut of the profit!  —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Donate to the blog. It costs close to 500$ a year to maintain (no ads, domain name, storage space, etc) which ain’t cheap. Otherwise, it’s nice to get a few bucks for coffee, food, or gas!

It’s a good time for a yard sale

garbagefinds21 Comments

The finds have been plentiful lately, which is great though it lays bare the fact that no one human can possibly deal with this much stuff. My garage looks like a hoarder’s den right now, which means that it’s a good time to have a yard sale! I plan to be out from roughly 12-6pm (and probably a bit later) at 920 St Gregoire on Saturday. There will be a lot more books than usual, but also plenty of other quality junk. I hope to see you there!

I also hope to have a sale on Sunday too, but details on that are still tbd. My current theory is that May is the best month for yard sales, because a) people are happy to be outside after a long winter and b) people rarely schedule trips or vacations this early in the year, so locals are more likely to be in town. I’ve had plenty of randomly bad yard sales on otherwise beautiful days in the summer months, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad sale in May. Anyways, the next few weeks will probably be pretty busy for me between picking and selling.

These days I find it hard to choose which items to showcase for the blog, especially when there’s a lot to choose from (“can’t see the forest for the trees” is an expression that comes to mind). I also don’t have the time to take the big elaborate group shots like I used to. So, today I’m just going to share a few of my favourite or more interesting recent scores.

The tossers at this spot are the kind of people who don’t know how to recycle, or just don’t care. For them, the “recycling” bin is basically just a 2nd trash receptacle. Anyways, last week I opened up the recycling bin and saw this nice antique clock. I doubt it works, but maybe someone would want it as a project given that the wood and glass are in nice condition. I think it dates to the 1880s based on the patent info on the loose piece below.

It’s very pretty. The wood is a bit dinged where that green tape is but it would be an easy fix.

The week before that they tried to recycle a shoebox filled with Warhammer figurines. These definitely aren’t my expertise, but some individual vintage metal pieces seem to sell for 5-20$ each on eBay. I just listed my collection for 400$ with best offer, and we’ll see if anyone bites.

Elsewhere, someone is throwing out the wares of a once prodigious arrangement enthusiast. There have been bags filled with pinecones, twigs, grasses, dry flowers, and of course different types of vessels to put the arrangements in or on. Many were filled with that green or white foam stuff that you can stick flowers into. The foam was often glued into place, which unfortunately made some pieces not worth the effort of saving, but others were foam-free or had foam that was easily removed.

Here’s three nice examples that are still kicking around in my garage, which will probably end up on the Instagram selling page. Below are a couple of Naaman (Israel) pieces I gave to a friend to try to sell on Marketplace.

More lucratively, they’ve also tossed some old jewelry.

It’s been mostly bits and pieces, but a few of those bits and pieces have been gold. The single earrings and broken chains on the right earned me close to 300$ for scrap. The nicest intact pieces have been that silver prayer bracelet, the Omega watch buckle, and the pendant, which isn’t gold but looks antique. I hope they toss more of this stuff in the future, because it’s always fun to look through.

Here’s a painting I picked up not far from Vendome metro. It’s got a tear, but is in decent condition otherwise and is pretty well executed (at least according to my untrained eye). I’m also a sucker for the street scenes, so there’s that. It’s signed “H. Kimmelman 1940” (I think) but unfortunately I don’t see much under that name on Google. If anyone has any info about this painting, including where the subject of the painting might be, let us know in the comments!

One of my favourite recent spots was in Park Ex. Unfortunately, I think I discovered it kind of late and probably missed out on a lot of great finds. So it goes. Here are a couple things I did save. This chalkware rabbi is pretty cool, and thankfully survived his trip to the curb in good condition. It’s a bit over a foot tall according to the eyeball test.

This “mammy” cookie jar was made by McCoy in the late 30s or early 40s. It’s apparently pretty rare, appearing on this list at #14 with a value of 600-1000$. Based on my research, “cauliflower mammy” (or cabbage mammy, depending who you ask) probably isn’t worth quite that much, but it does appear to be relatively rare and should sell for a few hundred bucks.

I haven’t found anything new at the book spot for close to two months now, though you wouldn’t know it by looking in my garage (which is filled with books). Sorting through that will be a monumental task, and I’m not sure how exactly it will get done. For now I’m content to avoid them and deal with other things.

There are probably more notable books in that collection, but for this shot I just took some pictures of ones with pretty covers.

Finally, the “bedbug Jadeite” I mentioned in my last post got a thorough cleaning after about a month and a half in quarantine. As you can see it was quite the haul. The pieces are lightly used, and the colour is very bright. Unfortunately a few were broken in the act of curbing, but there’s still a good set here.

A friend helped me clean them and is now trying to sell them on Marketplace and Kijiji, though there haven’t been any takers yet. They’ll sell eventually, but it might take a little while given that we’re limited to the local market. I’d rather take less money than try to ship this anywhere.

Anyways, I’m going to go out and see if I can find any more trash. As if I need any more stuff for the yard sale pile, ha ha.

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 here, I get a small cut of the profit!  —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Donate to the blog. It costs close to 500$ a year to maintain (no ads, domain name, storage space, etc) which ain’t cheap. Otherwise, it’s nice to get a few bucks for coffee, food, or gas!