silver – Page 2 – Things I find in the garbage

February silver score

March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 garbagefinds17 Comments

I think I’m going to try a new (old) style of blogging. Back when I started this in 2012, I just posted whatever it was I found that day or week. I was an amateur trash picker back then, and I was just having a fun time posting my finds. I didn’t know much about anything, my pictures weren’t great and neither was my writing, but no one was reading my blog so what did it matter? Anyways, as I got better and better at trash picking (and it became an actual job), I found more and more stuff, and documenting it in the same way became impossible. I burnt myself out repeatedly trying to keep up. So I think I’m going to focus more on sharing the best stuff in a timely manner. I’m hoping to get back to up 2-3 blog posts a week, but we’ll see what happens.

For now I’ll share the highlights from my exceptional haul a few weeks ago. I stopped at a lightly intriguing trash pile, and was greeted with a bunch of interesting metal junk when I opened the bin. I dug all the way to the bottom, finding all sorts of fun treasures along the way.

I saved 18 of these skewers (6 each, of three slightly different styles). They looked to be hallmarked, but it was hard to read them in the dark. I was able to take a closer look when I got home, and found that they were .800 (80%) Egyptian silver.

At current silver prices, the scrap value of 740 grams of 80% silver is just shy of 900$!

But I wasn’t done yet. I also found this piece of a hookah/water pipe. I thought it looked nicer than your average silver plate, but I left it in the car overnight with some other miscellaneous junk. When I looked the next day, I found a .900 Egyptian silver hallmark on a couple of the components.

I acid tested the other parts, and it seems to be solid silver. I don’t think it’s weighted either. If so, at 770 grams, this hunk of silver is worth a bit over 1000$ for the weight.

Oh, and I also saved these cute little dishes. Egyptian silver again, 90% fineness. At 110 grams, that brings the total silver value to a little over 2000$.

This was one of my best silver hauls in years. Rarely are people this clueless about their precious metals. I found some other fun stuff that I’ll save for a part two, but unfortunately this is looking like a “one-hit wonder” spot for now. However, I’ve been pretty lucky lately. Someone else decided to toss some exceptional stuff, and I hope to share those finds soon enough.

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!
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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.

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!