The deluge

In the past couple months I’ve seen a deluge of quality trash like I haven’t seen since 2020. Thank goodness, because the multi-year lull that was 2021/2022 was getting pretty tiresome. The only thing missing so far is a really nice gold or silver haul, though there have been a few pieces here and there.

I’m still overthinking when it comes to deciding what is worthy of sharing here, which is why this post is so late. People following my Instagram have been a bit luckier, because it’s relatively effortless for me to share “stories” of random junk without providing much context. Here, I feel there has to be a bit more narrative, but I overthink regarding what that narrative should be. Anyways, today I’m sharing another mix of recent and relatively recent finds that I think deserve a closer look.

I’ve had several sales since the one I mentioned in my last post, and this is the first weekend since early May that I didn’t even consider working. It’s nice to have a break, although sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not busy with trash-related endeavours. Regardless, my garage and storage spaces are looking a lot less clogged now, and that makes my work life a bit easier.

One of my favourite recent destinations is a house where the previous owners do not appear to have ever thrown out anything before, but who also kept good care of their things and had interesting tastes. That’s like the Holy Trinity when it comes to garbage. My finds include every Time magazine since 1970s (maybe an exaggeration), lots of old catalogues and sales sheets, other interesting paper ephemera (especially related to travel), lots of toolsy stuff and some vintage toy cars in their original packaging (one of which I listed on eBay).

But my favourite find thus far is probably this great Sanyo boombox, which is in near pristine condition. Based on my early research, I’m thinking it’s probably worth around 300$.

The gold tossers from the last post haven’t been throwing things out consistently lately. I think I’ve only seen trash on the curb on two of five garbage days since my last post. Here’s hoping they get back in the spirit of tossing, because I’m a fan of their brand. Anyways, I thought these glass candle holders/vases were interesting. They’re clearly a pair, but they have slightly different shapes and faults which makes me wonder if they’re quite old. What do you think?

Another interesting find came when I went to one borough’s heavy garbage day. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s not a clock, because there a) appears to be no clock mechanism b) it doesn’t appear to have ever had hands c) too many indices. I asked Instagram, and the best guess I heard was that it somehow connected to a weather vane in a way that lit up the correct wind direction. You can see a bit more of the mechanism below, keeping in mind that the wire attached to what I’m thinking are lights were cut at some point (and we don’t know what they would have connected to). It’s signed by someone named Giroux and dated 1936, and at the very least it’s a very cool folk art type thing. If you’ve seen anything like it, or have theories about what it did, let us know in the comments!

Here’s another find I thought was very pretty. It’s a wall tapestry that needs a little cleaning around the edges, which I don’t think would be too hard to do. I’m guessing it was woven in Mexico, but tapestries aren’t my specialty so I’d appreciate any input you might have! Some of the designs have a mid-century feel, so if I got it cleaned up I think it’d sell for a decent amount.

I was pretty lucky during the move-out season this year. As usual, most of it was the same old crap, though I did pick up some free food and other useful household items. One pile, however provided a find that made all the scavenging worthwhile. Not the 1$ bill (a McGill move-out staple), or the loonies (same), or the Links of London bracelet (very fake), but a necklace in that tangle of mostly junk jewelry at the top right.

It turned out to be a Roberto Coin 18k necklace/pendant, which retails for about 1800$ at Birks. I tested the gold as well as the diamonds, and it checks out. It also just feels like a quality piece. Anyways, this was my best McGill-related find since that MacBook Pro I found way back in 2016.

McGill is pretty picked over these days, and recent waste reduction initiatives have done well to keep quality items from going to the curb (which is good for the world, but not so much for the pickers). My strategy now is to not take it too seriously, but to try to explore places less frequented by other move-out day pickers… and it seems to have paid off this year.

Lastly (for now), here’s a thing that’s been kicking around my garage since the fall. I happened upon a spot where people were clearing out their basement (I knew their neighbours, so I know this as a fact) at the request of their landlords. There were a lot of what seemed to be never used wedding gifts, in their original boxes (think, silver plated dishes and other kitchen stuff), but there was also a lot of ephemera and 70s/80s kids stuff. A few things ended up on Instagram, but most went to the yard sale bin. My most notable find though was this small photo album filled with cool shots of Grand Prix Wrestling stars, including Andre the Giant.

Some of the photos are signed, so whoever assembled this album probably had some connections to help them get backstage. I don’t know much about wrestling, besides the fact that people seems to love it, so I only recognize Andre the Giant. If you could help me identify the other wrestlers, that would be very useful! It would also be cool if someone could tell me where these photos might have been taken, and around what time (although I do know that they’re most likely from the early 70s).

Click the thumbnails below for a better look. To zoom in even more, click the little “i” with a circle around it, then scroll down and click “view full size.”

Now that my storage spaces aren’t so cluttered, maybe it’ll be easier to wrap my head around blogging. Ideally I’d like to at least post every two weeks or so, instead of every month and a bit. Let’s hope!

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!

Recent sales: August & September

eBay

August: 15 sales, 824$ before fees.
September: 12 sales, 685$ before fees.
Total: 1509$.

eBay sales were slow, as they usually are (at least for me) in the late summer. Fortunately, I sold a whole bunch of stuff at auction to help even things out.

Notable sales:

Carl Poul Petersen sterling silver tie clip: 64$. I probably would have scrapped this if not for the input of reader who recognized the signature below as that of Poul Petersen, a noted Canadian silversmith and apprentice of Georg Jensen. Monograms generally reduce the value of an item, but M.D. has obvious appeal to those with medical degrees. Part of a great haul from early 2016 – it took a long time to sell because I didn’t know where to price it.

1959-1960 Toronto Maple Leafs pocket schedule: 100$. I seem to have a knack for finding these old schedules. I couldn’t find any others like it online, much like the 1940s Canadiens schedule I saved last year. The Pepsi vending machine catalogue from the same pile also sold for a great price (75$).

Gio de Armani Eau de Parfum (50ml): 95$. There’s a solid market for this scent, which was discontinued however many years ago. This was part of a nice perfume haul I found in Hampstead earlier this year.

1921 Pope Benedict XV blessing: 240$. Pope Benedict XV stuff is relatively hard to find, so this was worth a bit of money even though it was likely signed by one of his assistants. I found it last year in the Plateau.

Montblanc “Hommage to Mozart” small-size ballpoint pen: 200$. This was a relatively recent find, tossed by some especially dumb rich people. It was in its original box (along with a complementary Mozart CD) and looked to have barely been used. Some other finds from this spot will make the blog soon.

Local Auction

August: 1309.25$ after fees
September: 1722.25 after fees
Total: 3031.50$

It was around this time that I dedicated myself to downsizing my unintentional collection of junk. As a result, the auction folk and I both made a bunch of money.

Notable sales:

Wine pump: 230$ (before fees). This ended up selling for a lot more than I expected! I guess it helped that the auction happened to end right around wine-making season. Found in Ville St Laurent.

Anti-explosion lights + misc junk: 85$. Found in the east Plateau.

Architectural element: 32$. I’m sure this piece will get turned into something nice! Found in Westmount.

Dried puffer fish & pike head: 32$. These were among my most unusual finds of the summer. Both will probably be turned into lamps. Found in Ville St Laurent.

Vintage Ford V8 hubcap: 32$. Found on the outer edge of Cote-des-Neiges.

Miniature perfume lot: 80$. Included in this collection was a lot that went unsold for some time on eBay and several others I found while digging through my junk (which I apparently forgot about). I’m happy with this total – miniatures aren’t really worth enough to list individually (at least for me), and it’s also hard to get people to pay reasonable money for them at yard sales.

Jo Malone sample lot: 55$. I spotted a huge number of these samples at the bottom of one of a bags. At first I thought they’d be more of a hassle than they were worth, but then I figured that I’d probably be able to get 20$ for them at auction. It turned out they sold for more than that!

Jo Malone is a quality brand and these samples were still fresh. My guess is that the previous owner worked somewhere in the retail industry. Regardless, this is a great example of how the auction house allows me to make easy money on things that would have previously been a hassle.

Antique domed glass frames + photos: 60$. I pulled these out of a dumpster in St Michel. Amazingly they didn’t break, though I did have to clean some garbage juice off one of them.

Yard sales

1220$ over four sales. To be honest I kind of lost track of my yard sale income, but I think this is a pretty good guess. This year I’ve often hired friends to help me with the sales, which cuts into my bottom line but really helps reduce my workload.

Total

5760.50$, 20265.75$ so far in 2018. A pretty good couple of months! It’s unlikely that I’ll get to 30k this year but I’ll probably get pretty close.

Loonies & Toonies

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Bag-o-vision

I went for a walk last weekend, not to find garbage but to get out of the house. Junk has a habit of finding me, however, so while I left home with no bags I ended carrying home five.

I kicked this bag and heard the jingle of coins, but unfortunately they were only pennies. More importantly they had been sullied by food waste, and I didn’t feel like getting my hands dirty for maybe 25c. To the dump they likely went, to join the millions of pennies already there.

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I had better luck later on my walk. Yup, those are toonies. When you throw those out, maybe it means you have too much money.

All in all I found three toonies, six loonies, at least three Euros, and lots of other coins. I also found a £10 British pound bank note, and a fiver in one of the many purses that you’ll see later on. This all adds up to something close to 40$, making it my best cash haul in quite some time! British pounds, American dollars, and Euros are the best foreign currencies to find as they’re easily exchanged.

I found no gold here, but I did some pieces from a sterling vanity set (at right). I’ve never seen a hook like that before, so I’d appreciate it if someone could enlighten me! The animal charm bracelet looks vintage and cute, while the necklace is a quality Monet piece.

I usually don’t peddle in stuffed animals, but this time there was a whole garbage bag full and they all looked to be in pretty good condition. Plus, I’m more likely to take a chance on stuff when it comes from a household that throws out toonies.

These toys should find a new home at my next yard sale. This Fisher Price dog is especially fun, if you click on the picture it should show you a short video of it walking.

I also enjoyed this squirrel puppet (there’s a video of this one too). Perhaps my cat will appreciate it.

This spot was perhaps most notable for its large collection of barely used bags. The Herschel duffel at the top right was a nice find, they retail for around 100$ new. The Lole bag still has tags and seems to retail for around 140$. There’s a couple of vegan bags, one by Urban Expressions and one by Rachel F, a local designer. The WESC backpack also a lot of life left in it.

The little green purse is signed Christian Louboutin, and if it’s not fake it could be worth good money. I tried to do some research online, but most of the info out there is about fake shoes, not fake bags. It does look well-made.

I found lots of shoes as well. The two at top right are Repetto ballet / dancing shoes, which seem to sell for good money online. The black ones look barely used. The APC heels are also nice.

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Here we have some Star Wars toys, an unopened box of Q-tips, and some plastic ties.

I also found some teas (I drank some already, they’re great) and an unopened jar of maple butter. As you may know, I love maple and am always excited to find it in the trash. I expect it was at least 8$ new.

There was another big pile here last night, but it was mostly unexciting garage / under the sink kinda stuff. I saved some useful cleaning products, but nothing too exciting. I’ll keep an eye on the situation, but at least I did very well here this one day.

Otherwise, I found a cool “Man and his world” (post Expo 67) vanity plate at that spot in Villeray I blogged about recently. I’m trying to figure out whether I should sell it or put it on my car.

I found a collection of slides in Outremont, all of which contain pages from two old comics.

One was À quand notre tour?, an anti-communist comic book first published in 1947. For this shot I used a little plastic slide viewer I found a while back, it did a pretty good job!

It definitely provides an interesting look at Cold War era politics.

The other was Cidopey, a trippy looking comic by well-known illustrator Richard Corben. Cidopey first appeared in an underground comic in 1971, but since these are in French they’re likely from the first issue of Métal hurlant, which is the French version of Heavy Metal magazine. I’m not sure why these comics would be in slide form – if you have any ideas, let me know. Regardless, these might be of interest to a collector.

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Next to the slides was an old society sash. It was made to be reversible, with green fabric and red / gold illuminations on one side, and red fabric with green / gold illuminations on the other. I’m not sure what society this comes from, and I’d appreciate any input you might have!

I happened upon a bag in Villeray that contained a bunch of old stocking, and also a little ring box. Underneath the little ring holder part were two 10k gold Catholic pendants with chains. Maybe the previous owner didn’t notice them, but it was pretty obvious that something was inside the box.

There were many other bags around, but all of them were filled with actually gross garbage. This jewelry made getting my hands dirty worthwhile, however, as the scrap value of 8.5 grams of 10k gold is about 185 CAD$. If anyone wants these, I would sell them for a bit above scrap.

I found a ruined Victrola cabinet in St Michel. It wasn’t worth saving, but I did remove the top (which I thought could be repurposed) as well as this old badge. It’s worth around 15-20$, but I might just keep it myself.

My friend and I happened upon some great stuff from an eviction in Westmount the other day. It’ll take a while to process all that, but I’m excited to get it figured out. In the meantime, I have other recent finds I can share with you.

The weather is looking good for this weekend, so expect my real last yard sale to happen on Saturday or Sunday. I’m considering doing both as well, with Sunday being a kind of “pay what you can” kind of thing. I really don’t want to store a bunch of stuff over the winter, and I hope that by the end of it I’ll only be storing a bunch of empty suitcases. I’ll keep you posted and let you know by mid-week.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to garbagefinds.com
6. Follow me on Instagram

Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.