This & that

Having a bigger car is proving to be very convenient. It definitely uses a lot more gas (I’m guessing about 50% more than the Hyundai hatchback), but the extra space and side doors are quite handy, and it’s also a lot more comfortable.

This table and chair set would have been two or three trips in the Hyundai, but with the Rondo I was able to get it all in one go, even with yet another load of books taking up space as well.

Yesterday I sold the chairs on Facebook Marketplace for 200$. They were in nice condition overall, one was a bit wobbly and the upholstery was “meh.” They were likely antique, or close to it.

I was told (by someone who has probably forgot more about furniture than I might ever know) that the table I picked up is a “d-end” style piece that dates to the mid-1800s. I don’t have any good pictures of it right now, but maybe I’ll share some in my next post.

I’ve been using Marketplace a little more often these days, especially for larger pieces. Dealing with people can be annoying but it’s not so bad if you don’t take it too seriously. I still prefer eBay for most of my fancier items – I like the anonymity, and also a lot of things are too niche to sell at a high price locally – but Marketplace is definitely turning into a good tool for my business.

I continue to load up on books on a weekly basis, all thanks to this one spot. I’m a bit overwhelmed by them right now, they just keep coming and coming and making a big mess in my garage. I think my plan now is to sort out the obvious “yard sale quality” books and the “back to the curb quality” books, leaving the books I need to research for later. I might need help for that big job.

For now I’ll share just one book from this haul, this 1818 leather-bound bible published by J. Holbrook. It was printed long ago, but not far away in Brattleborough (now Brattleboro), Vermont. Antique bibles are pretty common, but this is a nice one. I listed it for 300$.

This was basically my only find on one of my recent runs. I picked it up because it looked sturdy and vintage, but I was mildly grumpy about that outing until I noticed the mark on the bottom. As it turns out, it was a Danish “J77” chair made by Folke Palsson, and it sold pretty quickly to someone on Instagram for 225$.

Otherwise, some recent picks have been a little gross. Thanks to a tip from a follower, I went to check out a massive pile that was basically an entire apartment out on the curb. Unfortunately, the stuff was loaded with bedbugs and cockroaches. I knew that within 30 seconds of looking, but thankfully the tossers also put a couple of signs up (they don’t always).

Some guy was grumpy about people picking there. It was a bit of a mess (not my fault, honestly) but I’m pretty sure this pile, which took up about three parking spaces, was always a mess. In my unbiased opinion, the city was more to blame for any mess by letting this mound of infested trash sit on the curb for at least three days (it was definitely out in the rain the day before I got there, and was still there the night after).

Either way, it wasn’t a disaster. I’ve seen pickers do much worse. The bugs scared away most of the competition.

I’ll look through these huge bedbuggy piles, because sometimes people will abandon any common sense and just toss everything. The key is just to be careful and only take things that can be easily cleaned. My main score was a large collection of jadeite dishes by Fire King, and a few pieces of uranium glass. I double bagged those, and put them in “quarantine” until it gets a little nicer out. Then, I’ll clean them all in hot water in a way that no bug could survive (bedbugs in particular can’t take the heat). I didn’t take any pictures as I was in the “heat of the moment” while digging through this massive pile (and was also really hungry), but maybe I’ll share some once they’re all cleaned up.

I also took a bunch of small electronics, like transistor radios and such. I’ll probably leave those double bagged for a full year, because they’re harder to clean and I’m not in a rush. Thankfully, a good winter freeze will kill any bugs.

There’s another gross spot not far from my home, but so far it’s mostly been grungy kitchen stuff with maybe some minor cockroach activity. This week I pulled out a very dirty Le Creuset that looked to have a years old dinner still inside (the “before” picture is actually cleaner than it was when I found it, I scraped out the ancient food with a random piece of plastic before bringing it home).

This actually wasn’t too hard to clean, most of the work was done by soaking it in water. It had a few chips, but nothing too bad and I was able to turn around and sell it quickly for 50$. I enjoy rescuing any cast iron, the Le Creuset branding just makes it easier to flip.

This place has provided plenty of similarly grungy dishes and ceramics. I (finally) figured out recently that the dishwasher is actually very effective in cleaning off the old grime. Who’d have thunk it? Some of the nicer pieces will soon be listed on my @garbagefindssells Instagram account, while others are going to the yard sale.

Anyways, that’s all for now. Things seem to be picking up, though I’m still craving a nice precious metals haul.

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 book tossers pt.1

If not for this spot I’d barely have any finds in 2023. Thankfully (for me at least), these guys just keep curbing recycling bins full of books on a near weekly basis. This has been a near constant phenomenon for about six months now, though it happened occasionally even before that – I first stopped here for a big pile of trash way back in 2021.

It’s funny, because from the street there’s no indication whatsoever that this blue bin would be filled with anything but the usual tin cans and whatnot. I myself wouldn’t ever have stopped for it, if not for the fact that I found cool stuff here previously.

Sometimes, trash picking can feel kind of magical.

This is a decent sized recycling bin so the books are piling up in my garage. These are just the ones I want to research more, or feel the need to sequester for now. Others go straight to the yard sale bin, or occasionally back to the curb.

A lot of the books in this picture are from sets, so I have to figure out if I have a complete set, keeping in mind that another load of books comes nearly ever week and thus a currently incomplete set might become complete with time. I just recently completed a thirty book set of Encyclopedia Britannicas from the early 1900s for instance – I found the first 27 months ago, and then another two and the final book more recently.

That might actually be a nice score. I know the market got flooded with encyclopedias and a lot of them are pretty much worthless, but the old Britannica sets do quite well.

Anyways, I figured that today I’d show you a few of my favourite individual books from this haul, all of which I found relatively recently.

I’ve found several old books about Montreal, which are always fun and easy to sell due to local interest. This one was written by a guy named N. M. Hinshelwood and was published in 1903. It seems to be hard to find original copies – most of the ones I see in my research are reprints or those “print on demand” books that are becoming more common. The only original from that list of 36 I linked to above is priced at about 50 USD, and there’s one other on eBay for about 75$, though there’s no sold prices that indicate whether or not those are realistic prices. You can see some pages that relate to our current season below.

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. I figured this “Complete Book of Fortune” was a good find right away, and indeed it seems to sell for 100-200$. It was published around 1935 (no date, but includes a “birthday calendar” for 1936) by Associated Newspapers Ltd. At 640 pages, it is certainly very complete and discusses topics ranging from palmistry to the “science” of phrenology. There’s a few extra pics below, and some more in that link.

Published in 1999, this is one of the newer books from this collection. The cover was unassuming, but it looked nicely made so I did some research and discovered it was a gem. It’s one (signed) copy of 175 from the regular edition of Inishbream by Theresa Kishkan. The key factor is probably that it was published by Barbarian Press, a “fine press publisher” based in Mission, BC, and features fancy paper (my simplified version of what’s described on the second picture, lol) and woodblock prints. It sold pretty quickly on eBay for 700$. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for books by this publisher going forward.

Finally, you all seemed to like my late 1700s almanacs, so I assume you’ll like this liturgical book from 1675.

It’s written in Latin (I think), so you can kind of make out some words. The content seems to relate to the Roman Ritual, but I don’t know much about that. I’m hoping you guys can help me out with this one. I don’t know much about value yet, besides finding that other liturgical works from this time have sold for between a few hundred and several hundred dollars.

This is one of the oldest books I’ve found. Just a bit older was this one from 1610, though it was in worse condition. This one is in pretty good shape considering it’s nearly 350 years old!

These book tossers are truly absurd. I hope for my sake (both from an entertainment, as well as financial perspective) that they continue tossing out great, easily flipped, and often antique books for a while yet. Either way, I definitely have more blog-worthy stuff from this spot to share here in the future.

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.

Pear Core

Hello there, just posting a quick update because it’s been a while. The finds have been pretty decent for the last little while, though there haven’t been any “omg” finds. On the other hand, my standard for “omg” is a lot higher than it used to be. I have the attention span of a goldfish these days, which I like to blame on all these modern gadgets that distract us constantly (I think my brain has been basically been re-wired), and I haven’t been doing much reading, writing, or other mindful things. My motivation isn’t all that great either, though I definitely feel more motivated to get out and pick now that it’s nice out.

I’m getting a little sick of having so much stuff. The pandemic shortened the last two yard sale seasons significantly, so maybe I’m feeling a little more “backed up” than I might have otherwise. My garage / office space is currently out of control. Fortunately, a yard sale is a great way to unload some of this junk while also getting some organizing done. I’ll be doing one tomorrow at 922 St Gregoire (near Laurier Park), from around 11am-6pm. Come on out and help me make sense of the hoard of crap that I’ve acquired.

Anyways, here’s a few things I picked from that first pile. It was mostly kitchen stuff, plus a bag of nice purses and one of board games. Here’s the finds that most caught my eye.

Here we have a pretty milk glass candy bowl…

… a set of cute plates made in England by Royal Leighton;

… a footed crystal candy bowl;

… a Goldilocks themed silver plated baby mug;

… and a very nice Dansk pepper mill. I did a bit of research and found out it was designed by Jens Quistgaard.

They’re pretty collectible. Some nerds even made a whole website about them (I don’t see nerd as an insult, it just means that you’re super excited about this one topic. I’m a garbage nerd). Thanks to that website, I was able to identify mine as a Model 1611, which they call “Pear Core.”

According to the pepper mill nerds, “[The Pear Core] mill is a rare design, so we have not had the opportunity to see many of these items in the resale market.” That makes sense, because I did a lot of looking around and didn’t see any quite like mine. Because of that, my 1611 is pretty difficult to price. Based on my research, I do know that Quistgaard pepper mills sell for between 50-1000$, which is a pretty big range. If mine is indeed rare, I like to think that maybe its value is somewhere in the middle, or if I’m lucky in the higher end.

I’ll do a bit more research before I decide, but right now I’m leaning towards doing an eBay auction. The market for these looks pretty healthy, which means that an auction might work well (I try to avoid auctions for more niche items). But first, I have to get that salt stopper piece unstuck. I’ll bet it’s been in the same position for many years. My idea right now is to leave it in the sun, and maybe that’ll loosen it up eventually. I’m not in a huge rush.

Anyways, hopefully I see some of you at the yard sale tomorrow. And hopefully I can write another post sooner rather than later.

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 me on Instagram
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com – note that I really suck at email right now, and can’t fulfill most requests for items