Tag: gold

The bags in the distance

garbagefinds9 Comments

I haven’t been all that lucky lately. I’ve been craving a really big haul, or just a spot that provides quality junk regularly for months (not uncommon from bigger suburban homes). Besides that dumpster that I mentioned a few posts back, I think I might have had one other good spot all summer. When I don’t get new things to think about, organize, etc., I start getting a little bored. Maybe even stir crazy.

Thankfully, these “bags in the distance” provided a respite from the drudgery that is touring around and finding nothing.

Sometimes I’ll peer down a road instead of driving down it, to save time and effort. On that night, I spotted this pile of bags maybe 70-80 meters away. Something about it sparked my interest, and I drove down to take a closer look.

(As an aside, sometimes people have wondered why I insist on beginning many of my blog posts with a boring picture of garbage. I do it because I want to reinforce the fact that sometimes the best finds some from the most banal looking trash!)

I opened the bag on the back left and saw a bunch of jewelry. My favourite kind of bag! I didn’t do any on the spot sorting, I just threw the whole thing in the car and went home. I was just about done the route anyways.

I sorted it all that night. My cat insisted on “helping.”

I took all the good stuff and sorted it into a small Tupperware bin (the one from the dumpster, actually). I didn’t notice when I first picked it up, but that bag also contained a lot of coins, most of which were sorted into labelled ziplocks.

The majority of the coins weren’t all that special. Most dated from between the 50s and the 80s. There was about 7-8$ in American coins that I can spend, and a bunch of old bills that aren’t worth much.

However, there was a little treasure in a bag marked “monnaie diverse” (various coins).

It’s a 1926 gold sovereign that was made in South Africa. It looks right, weighs the right amount, and is the correct diameter, so I have no doubts that it’s real. Apparently these were made at a few different mints, and the South African one is the most common, so this coin isn’t worth much more than its weight in gold. That said, with the price of gold where it’s at right now (near all-time highs), this little 7.99 gram, 22k gold coin is worth nearly 850$.

So that’s fun! I found a gold coin in a necklace before, but never a gold coin by itself. Here’s hoping there’s more to come!

The other two coins are the only silver ones from the ziplocks. They are 1970 25 & 50 piastre coins from Egypt which feature the head of Nasser. Those ones are worth closer to 10$ each. I’m happy anytime I save precious metals from the dump.

Some of the jewellery was nice too. I’ll share that in my next post. I’m still craving a big haul of junk, but this will tide me over in the meantime.

Otherwise, I have a feeling it’s not going to go well because it’s the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend, but I’m planning on doing a sale tomorrow at the 4100 Coloniale spot. I don’t really have anything to do anyways, and nice weather is hard to come by this time of year. I won’t lie, if you went to my last sale, there probably won’t be much more new stuff to look at this time. I’m mostly looking to clear out stock, and maybe gather together some things (especially paper ephemera) for a bulk sale. It could be the last normal yard sale of the year, as we are at the mercy of the weather at this point. Next weekend is looking pretty nice (knock on wood), but I’m planning on doing a clothing sale with my Instagram seller then.

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.


The finds I crave

garbagefinds6 Comments

This haul was from the summer of 2020 (my “bumper crop” year), so these pictures have been collecting virtual dust for some time now. Better to post them late than never though, right?

I’d really love to happen upon a pile like this right about now. I’m still picking up loads and loads of books, but there haven’t been many finds of note in the precious metals / jewelry department for some time now.

I remember finding a bunch of coins the first time I stopped here. That was a good omen. In the box were more coins, including some already rolled pennies. Literal easy money.

Otherwise, I picked up some of the usual quality junk …

… and some bits of paper ephemera. My favourite piece here is the letter written to Eaton’s in 1960 complaining about a defective dishwasher. That bridge joke is… let’s go with “dated.”

What made this place notable though was the jewelry and the precious metals. I don’t remember all these pieces after two plus years, but that mechanical pencil was silver for sure.

There were a few bits of silver and gold in here too, most of which also appear in the next pic.

That watch was gold for sure, though it was busted up and not good for much but scrap. That religious pendant next to it was also gold, as were the two earrings to its upper right. There are several silver pieces here, including a little enameled Order Of The Holy Sepulchre medal which might still be kicking around in one of my drawers.

These were my best finds though. The rings boxes alone are decent. The one on the left was sterling, and the Birks one was quite beautiful as well, all done up in deep blue leather with gold accents. I forget what they sold for, but I’d guess they went for around 75-100$ each. The stainless steel one was probably worth around 40$ as well.

The rings inside weren’t much good, but that doesn’t matter when they’re gold. The two in the middle were 14k and made by Birks, but the stones had been forcibly removed making the rings worth nothing outside of their weight in gold. Fortunately, that was still a few hundred dollars. The one in the box on the left was sterling I think (and missing a stone). The earrings, which were stored in that little yellow pouch along with a note, were my best individual find. They were solid 18k gold, and I recently (finally) sold them for a bit above their scrap value (650$).

Looking at this reminds me how great 2020 was for finds. 2021 and 2022 weren’t much good, but here’s hoping 2023 is better, and that I happen upon another nice gold haul soon! There’s nothing quite like finding gold.

I do feel like the trash has been a bit better recently. The books are still flowing, but I also have a few other spots I’m keeping an eye on now. Spring is definitely in the air, though I don’t feel like people are doing much cleaning yet. It’s still a bit chilly, and a fair amount of snow remains.

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!

Just up the street

garbagefinds16 Comments

This was one of my more exciting spots last fall. They started tossing right around when someone living just up the street stopped.

On one of my best days here I found a bunch of loose jewelry in a bin. There was a bit more inside some black trash bags.

Overall I saved about 3.25 pounds of jewelry. A small portion of that was silver and gold.

I thought that ring in the gold pile might be white gold, but it turns out that stainless steels holds up well against the testing acid. Regardless, I can’t complain about this haul. The bottom right piece was designer costume jewelry, I forget by who.

Don’t worry, that’s just an air gun. It sold for good money at auction though. Otherwise, I found a couple camcorders, cell phones, a Blackberry tablet, two iPods, and a bit more silver & gold jewelry (I wish I took a close-up photo of that bunch). On the right is a David Yurman sterling silver money clip that I sold on eBay for just north of 200$.

The suitcases in the first picture emerged on one of the last productive trash days. A couple of them produced quality finds.

That little wooden box held a set of old weights, as well as two golden nuggets.

They’re heavy, and test as high purity gold, so I think that’s what they are! It seemed that there was at least a couple generations of dentists in this family, so I’m assuming these would have been used in dental fillings. With a combined weight of about 18 grams, and assuming they’re 20k or above, these little pebbles are worth about a grand in scrap.

Other notables include a marcasite and silver bracelet, a silver “US Air Force Strategic Air Command” ring, and a Jaeger le Coultre travel alarm watch. It didn’t work at all, but being a nice brand I was still able to sell it for a bit over 200$. All in all this was certainly one of my best spots of the year.

I had some luck Tuesday in NDG last week, but car troubles set me back Wednesday thru Friday. Hopefully this week I’ll end my cold spell, which has been going for around three months now. Fortunately, preceding that was a roughly six month long hot streak, so the lull isn’t bothering me too much (besides being boring).