Tag: history

Out with the old pt.3

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I was talking about only sharing my most interesting or “special” finds going forward, and then almost forgot to share some of the more interesting finds from this spot. I found some papers here that seem to document someone’s attempt to be recognized as a “mischling” in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia during WWII. A mischling was basically a person with some Jewish lineage, but who wasn’t considered fully Jewish. A first degree mischling (as was the case with this person in the end) had two Jewish grandparents, and fulfilled a bunch of other criteria, while a second degree mischling had just one Jewish grandparent. For obvious reasons it was in someone’s self-interest to prove themselves a mischling, versus the alternative.

Below is a Google translation of this document, and below that are a few related documents, including what looks like a request from the secret police to bring documents that would prove their mischling status as per the Nuremberg Laws.

Otherwise, I reduced another box of old stock (originally found in St Michel a few years ago) to just two photos of the most notable finds. My favourite piece above is that 1934 Montreal bootblack (shoe polisher) license, issued for the Aldred Building in Place d’Armes Square (which would have been just 4 years old at the time). I haven’t been able to find any others like it online, so I guess not many survived the last 90-some years. I saved a lot of neat stuff from the 30s and 40s here, but a lot of it ended up in the yard sale pile as per my new focus. These folks were travel agents I think, and I saved a bunch of old tourist stuff. Below are some fun Quebec-area maps and booklets that I found here. I recently gave them to my Instagram seller to unload.

Speaking of Instagram, I got a tip from a follower about a big pile of trash in the McGill area. It was pretty picked over, but I saved some decent yard sale stuff, and some interesting 8 x 10 photos. This one was my favourite. I figured it was from around Expo 67 given the sign in the backgroud, but I’ve since found out (via other photos I found) that those signs were up into the mid-80s, I guess for the post Expo “Man and his World” exhibit. Regardless, I think this photo is probably from the late 60s or early 70s, and either way the subject is kind of funny. I think this one might be frame-worthy.

Speaking of frame-worthy, I got that (silkscreen?) print from a few blog posts ago framed by a friend and am very happy with the results! This is the first time I’ve ever had a find professionally framed. This print was unsigned, but I love the colours and it matches my style. Plus, I like having things that I saved from the trash on display. The only question now is where to put it.

As for trash, finds have been slow during the dog days of summer. However, I was lucky last week. I heard a jingle coming from a small trash bag filled with mostly kitchen waste, and out came a few pieces of jewelry. The most prominent pieces were obviously junk besides one simple silver bracelet, so I didn’t think much of it at the time. So it wasn’t until the next day that I took a closer look and noticed that the necklace I had dismissed as probably junk turned out to be solid 18k gold. So about 11.4 grams of 18k gold … you can do the math. Pays the rent and then a bit! I also noticed that one of the other pieces was a rice pearl and black bead necklace with a 14k gold clasp, so clearly the junk jewelry (cheap plastic beaded stuff) fried my quality junk radar that night.

Anyways, it’s Labour Day Weekend which was a good one for yard sales last year. So, I plan on doing two sales, one on Sunday and one on Monday, both at the 4096 Coloniale spot. The Sunday sale will have the usual array of quality junk, while the Monday sale will feature clothes. That section will be run by the person who runs the @garbagefindsells Instagram, because fashion is really not my thing. Hopefully I can clear out a whole bunch of junk, winter is sadly not too far off!

Rien n’est beau que le vrai

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I’ll finish the organizational post another time. This post I’d like to dedicate to Nick Huston, a friend who passed away recently after a fire. We were closest between 5-10 years ago, but I hadn’t seen him in a while, largely because I’m bad at staying in touch (for a variety of reasons). On November 23rd he messaged me about wanting to look through my trash hoard. We chatted a bit, but didn’t make plans, and on December 15th he was gone. He was an unpretentious, goofy, generous guy, and was taken from the world far too soon. He wanted to see my garbage, so here it is bud. This junk’s for you.

This was one of a few intriguing spots I had on rue St-Denis this year. These guys rarely threw out much at once, but there was enough to keep me checking back week after week. My best day was when I opened a bag that was mostly full of food (both wet and dry, so kind of gross), but also contained a box of little treasures.

I like to take pictures of things as I found them. In this case, the box of treasures came with a bunch of sliced almonds. The many joys of trash!

Thankfully, this kind of stuff cleans up pretty easily, and nothing was ruined.

The most unusual object was the “sexographe.” I can’t find any others online, but a few articles discuss it. Apparently it was a tool used to sex chicks, though some people writing about it were very dubious of its functioning, describing Capron as a “charlatan.” It sources an article that sounds like it would have been a lot more in depth, but unfortunately appears to have disappeared from the internet. Based on the font, I’m guessing it was made in the 1900s or 1910s.

The medals were pretty neat. The colourful enameled badge was purportedly made for the 50th anniversary of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, though the only source for that claim is an eBay listing trying to sell it for 299.99 USD. I decided to list mine for 200$ CAD, which I think is probably too high still, but I can always lower the price later.

The 2nd Congress for the French Language in Canada (1937) bronze medal is also impressive. Very art deco. It was designed by Marius Plamondon, who was more well-known for his work in stained glass.  They seem fairly uncommon, but I found another one on a coin/exonumia site listed for 150$, so I listed mine at that price as well.

That little pendant is a wax seal. Sterling I think, though I can’t read the hallmarks and haven’t tested it. I don’t know what that emblem is. The boat reminded me of the New Brunswick flag, but then there’s also some fleur-de-lys, a sun, and a castle.

I still have to research the long, flat thing, though it appears to honour those who fought against the government in the 1837-1838 rebellions.

Photos of the relevant reverse sides are below, plus a closer pic of this funny alpaca card holder (?) made using a 1907 silver coin from Peru. If you have any info about this junk that might be of interest, please share your insights in the comments!

One of my final finds at this spot was a reverse glass painting of the Montreal Historical Society emblem. It was pretty dusty, but it cleaned up nicely and I’m leaning towards keeping it myself. It kind of reminds me of something you’d see in a church basement that hasn’t been renovated since 1960 or so.

Anyways, whoever owned this stuff was clearly into local history. It’s a shame it was tossed, but thankfully I was there to save it!

Otherwise, I haven’t figured out what’s wrong with that Paypal donate widget yet. I think they might have changed their system or something. I’ll try to figure it out before my next post, but in the meantime you can send donations via e-transfer or Paypal directly to my normal email – martin.gregory@gmail.com.

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! –Widget currently unavailable–

The summer lull

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The trash was flowing pretty consistently for a while, with lots of interesting and valuable finds, though not much in the way of gold and silver. The past few weeks have been relatively slow, with old spots drying up and no one stepping up to replace them. I’ve noticed a reduced flow around this time of year before; I figure it’s because it’s the time of year when people are most likely to go on vacation.

Fortunately, I could probably find nothing for a year and still have enough to get by. I spent a full workweek just in my garage not long ago, just organizing and researching, and after all that work it barely looked like I had done anything at all. I keep picking though obviously, because it’s fun and because it’s good to go out in hopes of finding that major score.

This spot in NDG was a regular stop for a little while. My best haul came this day, when the tossers unloaded a large collection of vintage sports memorabilia.

I saved a big haul of 1950s/1960s Sports Illustrated magazines. These are now listed on Facebook Marketplace, which I’m using a bit more these days. The “is this still available” people are annoying, but my strategy is not to chase them. Usually they’re not serious buyers anyways, so I wait for people who express a real interest in the item, and then I’ll make more of an effort.

FB Marketplace is now the best way to locally sell stuff like furniture, and also other items with mainstream demand. eBay is still my go-to for more niche items, especially when they’re easy to ship.

I found a few of the early Montreal Expos yearbooks, including the one from their first season in 1969. I sold one on eBay previously, I think for 40$. My plan this time is to sell the three as a lot. There doesn’t seem to be huge interest in Montreal Manic stuff, but I’m sure someone at a yard sale will like it.

These two Canadiens magazines have signatures on them. The signature on the left looks kind of like Jean Beliveau’s, though not one he put a lot of effort into. If true it would bump of the value of the magazine a bit that’s for sure. The one on the right looks to be signed as well, though all those scratches look like gibberish to me. There’s more on the back, which I forgot to get a photo of. If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments! Click on the picture to zoom in for a better look.

These old schedules can be worth money sometimes. It seems like anything made in the 80s or later is yard sale material, but before that they can have some real value, especially stuff from the 60s or earlier. None of these ones are particularly valuable, though the 1970s Expos and NHL schedules are worth around 10-20$ each.

Tickets can be worth good money as well. Older ones, and ones from notable games command a premium. It can be worth the effort to Google the date of the game to see if anything special happened. One of my Canadiens tickets (not pictured), for example, turned out to be from a game that was Guy LaFleur’s last at the Forum (as a Nordique).  So that one is listed for 100$ on eBay, and has garnered some interest though I’ll likely have to come down on the price a bit. These other tickets don’t seem to be too special, I may group them by team and sell them via auction on eBay at some point once it starts getting colder.

That’s all for now, but here’s hoping I don’t take so long to get to the new post… for real this time!

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!