Tag: junk

Brand new junk

garbagefinds15 Comments

The weather hasn’t really been conducive to trash picking lately. On the night I happened across this stuff there was heavy, icy pellet like snow. Since then, there’s been two separate 30-some centimeter dumps, each of which made driving (and parking anywhere) in the city a major pain until they were cleared, and finally another 10cm or so just to top things off.

(Now, as I write this, it’s about -40c out with windchill).

When there’s that much snow, I only go out when I have some interesting spots to check, and I don’t really have any of those right now (other than the book tossers, who will probably be featured in my new post). So, I haven’t been doing much hunting recently, and when I have gone out, I haven’t found much of anything. Well, anything besides the aforementioned books and this haul, which was mostly Alibaba quality vape / marijuana paraphernalia (it’s legal here in Canada, for what it’s worth), which I’m guessing it was once someone’s side hustle.

There were several big boxes stuffed with disposable vapes on the curb. I took three boxes filled with product that was still sealed – the rest looked new, but on closer inspection they had been opened. I figured the unopened product was probably “too good to be true,” but I decided to give them a chance. Indeed, they were all garbage; old and leaky and low-quality from the day they were made (probably why the other ones had been opened, and then thrown out). Back to the curb they went, which is probably for the best because I’m not sure the legality of selling vapes with nicotine anyways.

(It’s hard to think of a product less environmentally friendly than a disposable vape).

I didn’t put a lot of effort into photographing this stuff, because a lot of it was pure crap.  Cheap, cheap, cheap… but there is a market for that clearly, such as first year University students with bad taste. Some was alright, like a bunch of light up weed trays with Rick and Morty on them (or whoever, in the white boxes in the third pic). The Nintendo emulator looked new, so that’s a nice find if it works. I also found lots of regular vapes and electronic lighters with dragon motifs and so on, all of which would need to be tested.

More decent stuff here, like a bunch of brand new corn cob pipes, a dozen or so run-of-the-mill glass pipes, and the “glass hookahs” in those little boxes. The pendant grinders are stupid novelty products, but someone will buy them.

One of my better finds was a huge load of grinders, a lot of which were still wrapped in their original plastic with price tags attached. Most came out of the black rolling trash bin.

I saved well over a hundred. Most were decent quality, just the plastic topped ones were notably cheap.

I also found eight unopened packs of rolling papers. These 50-packs appear to sell for around 60 USD new, so that’s a nice get.

Come yard sale season this haul should make me good money. It’s a lot of work organizing this, but thankfully I have someone who can help me with that (and selling as well). I’m happy to give them a good cut of the profits, because I don’t have the time or the interest to do it myself.

So, not my favourite haul obviously, but it’s something different and money is money. I prefer the historical finds though, and I’ll share some of those in my next post.

Links

1. My eBay listings, Sign up for eBay (Canada, US), Search for something you want / research something you have (Canada, US) – FYI these are Ebay Partner Network links, so I make a few bucks if you sign up for an account or buy something after getting to eBay using these links
2. Facebook page
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells (selling account, operated by someone else) on Instagram
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com – note that I can’t fulfill most requests for items, many are already gone by the time they are posted here.

A cornucopia of quality vintage junk pt.2

garbagefinds13 Comments

Let’s finish with the QVJ from that TMR apartment. I passed by there again last week and saw nothing on the curb, so I fully expect this to be a “one hit-wonder.”

Besides the silver-plated cutlery, I also saved a whole bunch of silver-plated tableware. This stuff is rarely of much value, but it does well enough at the auction house when you bring in a big lot of it.

I found about as many clocks as I did radios. None of these alarm clocks are super valuable, but they’re fun to have at yard sales. I could make an auction lot of them as well.

I’m sure someone will appreciate that horoscope wall clock on the right. Astrology has seen a bit of a resurgence in popularity of late, even if I personally still don’t know much about it. That clock is probably from the early-mid 80s, based on that beautiful faux wood finish.

That bottle of Labatt 50 is still full. It must be getting close to 50 years old itself, and wouldn’t be at all fun to drink. I’d guess that bottle of Crush is about the same age, but it was probably consumed decades ago. The electric kettle (perhaps a percolator, I forget right now) is pretty nice, and probably dates to the 1950s. I haven’t tested it yet, but most of those old electric things never die.

 

Here we have a vintage toaster, a Polaroid camera, an old aluminum kettle, and a copper & brass pot adorned with the Aztec calendar, which was likely a souvenir from Mexico.

I saved several nice vintage tins, one of which I traded to a friend for some homemade hand sanitizer (middle right).

I found three of those Schick “drying sticks,” all of which look to have never been used. The Hankscraft humidifier also looks unused. Maybe I can sell these via an auction lot of vintage products in their original boxes.

I found a whole bunch of matchbooks. Lots were stored in this Vapomaster jar (or canister of some kind). The rest, which filled up a shoebox, were loose in one of the bags. Matchbooks are always fun to look at, and are great yard sale fodder.

Coca-cola collectibles are a consistently hot market. This mirrored tray is a reproduction made in the 70s or 80s, but it’s still a nice piece that should sell for around 30$ at the auction house.

Let’s finish with some wall art. Here’s a W.E. Degarthe print that appears to be signed by the artist. It got a little water damage because it rained a bit the night I found it, but it looked better than I was expecting it would once it dried out. It’d probably be worth about 100$ in excellent condition, maybe 50$ in this condition.

Lastly, I saved a couple of vintage Formula 1 prints mounted on particle board. This one features the McLaren MP4/6, which was driven by Ayrton Senna during his highly successful 1991 campaign. The other showed a Williams car from the same era. Senna is a legend in the racing world, and these are in excellent condition so I’m hoping they’ll accept them at the auction house. If not, they’ll be easy to sell at a yard sale.

Otherwise, the quality finds keep on coming. My garage is pretty full right now because the auction house is closed and I can’t do yard sales. Thankfully a friend gave me some plastic shelving, which should at least help me get some stuff off the floor.

The “part x of a million” tosser recently rented a dumpster and filled it full of junk, both quality and not. I picked several bins worth of stuff just from that one container, and I’m still storing several other bins of their trash from months (some, almost a year) past that I haven’t yet had time to document. Due to the sheer volume I’m dealing with, I’m going to try using video to make it easier for me to share it all here. It takes longer to set up a photo, because you have to think about how it’ll all look from a certain perspective, while a video allows me to switch perspectives when necessary. Anyways, expect to see some videos in an upcoming post. No, I don’t plan on being in them in any meaningful way, ha ha. I still don’t have interest in becoming a Youtube star at this time.

 

A cornucopia of quality vintage junk pt.1

garbagefinds17 Comments

I was having a pretty average run a couple weeks back before happening upon a collection of around 20 trash bags in front of a fourplex in TMR. That’s a fair bit more garbage than you typically see coming from four households, so I checked it out and ended up saving quite the variety of quality vintage junk (QVJ). I pretty well filled up the car, taking maybe 1/3 of the total volume from the bags when all was said and done. While there were no “omg” finds, I found a few things for eBay, some auction worthy items, and a lot of great yard sale stuff.

That box of records came from another house, FYI. It was actually a pretty good collection, including a lot of classic rock that’s typically pretty easy to sell.

One of the first things I found was a large stash of silverware. I enjoy finding these collections, as there’s sometimes a bit of sterling mixed in with the plated stuff (and the plated stuff is still nice, good for the yard sales).

On the right is the cutlery I saved for a future yard sale, and on the left is the more common stuff I left on the curb for others to pick through.

I did find my bit of sterling, a small spoon made by Birks. It’s always a bit of a thrill to find solid silver, even if it’s only worth about 10$. You can see how dirty my finds got picking through all that tarnish!

I saved a whole bunch of nice vintage scissors here. These are always a hit at my yard sales.

(PS: my camera is working fine again after I bought a new battery for it. This is the only picture from this post I shot using the camera, as opposed to my iPhone).

This spot was noteworthy for providing notable quantities of certain vintage items, in this case rotary phones. Finding four in one night, let alone one spot, is likely my all-time record. These old rotaries tend to do well at the auction-house, so I’ll likely bring them there when they open again.

Here we have a collection of radios. I haven’t done much research yet. but I’d guess that Hitachi transistor in the middle is worth a bit of money. People like their transistor radios, and they tend to like them even more when they come in different colours. Also, it’s in very good cosmetic condition. The radio at back right, a portable RCA Victor from the 40s, is probably valuable as well.

Here’s another portable radio, as well as five different combination alarm clock / radios. For some reason these folks had two of the exact same, very boxy model of Detson flip clock. I like the boxy look (I once owned a Volvo 240), and I’m sure others will appreciate them as well.

Vintage lamps are always a good find. This one’s a pendant lamp, meant to be attached and hung maybe 1.5′ from the wall. Another easy sale, unless I decide to keep it for myself.

My most unusual find was probably this framed photo of a 1930 medical exhibition featuring a wide variety of prosthetic limbs, including the Carnes arm. The price tag indicates that the previous owner either bought it at a sale, or tried to sell it at a sale. A friend who fancies old medical stuff showed an interest in it, and I agreed to sell it to them for 20$.

Lastly, I found two large Expos 1984 team photo posters. The 80s were one of the best times to be an Expos fan – this team features three Hall of Famers (Tim Raines, Andre Dawson & Gary Carter) and Pete Rose, by then a washed up future Hall of Famer (it wasn’t til later that he was caught betting on games), not to mention lots of players worthy of the “Hall of Very Good”. The strike in ’94, terrible / cheap ownership, and constant firesales destroyed enthusiasm for the Expos, ultimately resulting in their relocation after the 2004 season, but there’s hope that they’ll return someday soon (though, for what it’s worth, I think the idea of splitting games between Montreal and Tampa Bay is ridiculous).

I sold one of these posters very quickly for 50$ on eBay. The other, which is in slightly worse condition (a bit of foxing on the right side), is listed at 43$.

There’s yet more stuff from this spot to share, but I’ll save it for my next post. I didn’t see anything but rolled up linoleum there last week, and I’m guessing this spot will end up being a “one-hit wonder.”

Links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings, Sign up for eBay, Search for something you want / research something you have (I’m a member of the eBay Partner Network so I make a bit of money if you buy things [even if they’re not mine] or sign up for an account via these links)
3. Help me pay off student loan debt / Contribute to the blog
4. Follow me on Instagram
5. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com – note that it might take me some time to reply, and that I am unlikely to be able to fulfill requests for items