gold – Things I find in the garbage

Part one in a million pt.13

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026 garbagefinds8 Comments

Hope you all had a happy holiday season! This time of the year is usually not too exciting for trash, as most people are focused on other priorities. After my last post, I went a few weeks without finding much of anything. This week and last, I made up for some otherwise slim pickings with a couple of small silver & gold hauls, both from recently sold houses. This week I salvaged about 10 mismatched napkin rings, and four of them look to be solid silver. I think they are from France, as they each have a Minerva hallmark. In the same bag I found a lone gold band, a 14k gold clasp, and a Trifari brooch. I’ll be returning to that spot next week for sure.

Otherwise I’ve been pretty productive at creating order in my garage “office.” I don’t think I’ve ever been this organized. I’ll share some pictures of that once I have the chance. I’ve also been reading more, and writing (for a potential book) a bit, although I haven’t done much of that in the last few weeks. I find my inspiration is stronger when I’m actually finding fresh junk, but I don’t think there is a big rush regardless.

Anyways, I want to keep clearing out the last of my “old stock.” Here’s some cool old (mostly) Montreal postcards, and a few blanks dating as far back as 1897.

I found an envelope addressed to someone in the old Corn Exchange Building, containing some larger photos of what I assume is very old Montreal. It’d be cool to know where these were shot. The first word looks like Clarke, which is a road in Westmount (checks out), but I’m not sure what that second word is. It looks like Roy, but those roads don’t come close to intersecting (unless they did about 130 years ago, but I doubt it). Regardless, the fact that these fences were down was apparently very relevant in 1896.

On the topic of photos, these five were pretty cool. The first three were taken on Mount Royal during Easter of 1902, according to some writing on the back. The 4th was taken in Val Morin, and the 5th is unmarked. I think getting the three Mount Royal ones frames together would be pretty neat.

There’s not too much left from this spot. Mostly photos if I recall correctly, but harder formats to document than the ones I’ve shown here recently.

Precious metals

February 13, 2025 garbagefinds11 Comments

Well, we finally got a big snowstorm here in Montreal. It’s looking like the final tally will be around 40cm in just one day. So, I’ll be snowed in until the streets are cleared, which hopefully will be largely done by early next week.

Fortunately, I made sure to get out for some trash runs before the inundation. 2/3 were pretty uneventful, but the other one provided my first exceptional finds of the year. I hope to share them here soon enough.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of small one-off finds from last year which I discovered again recently while organizing my garage. One place on Van Horne put out a bunch of junk in the summer, including a bunch of old clock parts. I found a few fun pieces in a little wooden drawer, including a solid silver pocket watch case, a sterling silver chain, and a gold St Christopher medal.

The scrap value is probably around 150$, but all three pieces could probably sell at a bit of a premium.

Another stop in NDG produced a bundle of jewelry, which if I remember right was mixed in with some food waste. Gross, but worth it. I ended up stashing the most noteworthy pieces away until I had time to take photos, which I guess is now. Everything is a precious metal, except the airplane which I just thought was cool. Of course that small, 14k gold pocket watch is the most valuable piece there. I forget how much it weighs at the moment, but at current prices I’d guess it’s worth about 400$ in scrap, give or take. The blue enamel is very striking as well. Unfortunately, it’s missing pieces and doesn’t work, so its destiny is likely the scrap pile.

With gold approaching 3000 USD per ounce, it’s getting more difficult to get any premium for gold beyond scrap value, except for more extraordinary pieces. Unfortunately, I rarely find those in the garbage. I deleted most of my gold jewelry from eBay, because the prices I set (which people were already not paying) were surpassed by the weight value, and it makes no sense to sell any gold piece below that. Gold prices tend to do well in times of uncertainty, so I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Just a quick one today! I’ll get to this week’s big find soon enough, but first I might post more “garage finds.” I need to give closure to more of yesterday’s finds, which have been kicking around my storage … sometimes for years.

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.

Radium

December 21, 2024December 21, 2024 garbagefinds4 Comments

So, it turns out that my watches are radioactive! An eBay buyer told me that his watch was giving off 28usv/h (whatever that means) on his Geiger counter. He said he loved the watch, but that I should probably make sure to store them safely.

The radiation comes from radium paint on the dials which was commonly used for luminescence pre-1960. From what I’ve read, it’s pretty harmless to wear radium watches, but some caution is warranted. It seems like most of the danger comes from opening them up and inhaling paint dust. Another concern is that they can give off radon gas, which is probably the main potential danger here, given that I have about 200 and they are all concentrated in one little box.

Fortunately I’ve kept most of them in a bin in my basement, but I’m thinking that maybe I should store them in a bin outside. Radon is a natural gas (most of it comes from uranium in soil from what I’ve read), and apparently ventilation will take care of most of that issue. It’s just not something you want a lot of in your house.

The more you know!

Otherwise, here’s a few quick finds from the past couple of weeks. This jewelry is the nicest stuff from a batch that was probably tossed by some rich kid. The 2nd chain from the bottom, and the two smaller pieces to the right are all gold. The heart most likely has little diamonds too, though I haven’t tested them. The rest is silver (the gold-toned stuff is gold-plated silver) – that necklace with marcasite is a standout piece.

I’m guessing someone older in the house tossed that Sheaffer Targa fountain pen. It’s marked “AT&T International” and has a nice 14k nib. They seem to sell for around 100$, though the engraving might reduce the value somewhat.

Those folks also tossed a jar full of coins. I was looking to cash them in, but my local Coinstar doesn’t seem to be working. Oh well, no big rush on that front.

Otherwise, here’s a bit more jewelry from a spot not far from home. I was hoping the turtle or the chain would be gold, but those were gold plated silver as well. Silver is good, but gold is more valuable. Regardless, a few nice (Egyptian-inspired) pieces here, and a pile of broken chains and etc for the scrap guy.

And finally, I reached a milestone today. 1000 feedback on eBay! That means a different coloured star, but mostly it’s just a big round number that symbolizes how long (and how successful) I’ve been doing this. I don’t get feedback every time, so I’ve actually sold probably somewhere between 2000-2500 items, most of them in the last decade. That’s a lot of (mostly) garbage!