I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.
It’s been one of the harshest winters in recent memory, but enough decent trash has been trickling out to make my picking expeditions worthwhile. I went for a walk around my old neighbourhood in early January, and came across these bags.
Inside was mostly kid’s toys and junk, but for some reason a couple of doctor’s tools were mixed in. Maybe a retired doctor gave their grandkids their old devices to play with, who knows. Regardless, they were in pretty good cosmetic condition, and weren’t all that old either. The otoscope (above) battery was shot, but it held power for long enough to test the lights on the components. These things retail for over 1k new, and I was able to sell this one pretty quickly for 200$.
I also found and listed this sphygmomanometer. It’s not worth as much, but should fetch 50-100$.
I found another little jewelry stash that probably belonged to someone’s teenage years. Mostly junk, but there was one nice 14k gold butterfly necklace that made my trip worthwhile.
I mentioned one particular spot being notable for one other thing in my last post. That one thing was a big collection of perfume. Pretty nice stuff, and mostly fairly recent and fresh. I gave first dibs to someone who helps me sell things on Facebook, 2nd to a regular perfume buyer, and sold one on eBay for a total profit of around 400$. But I’ve still got a bunch left – selling used perfume on eBay is a pain after recent policy changes. If anyone knows any alternative selling platforms for perfume, let me know! Apparently Marketplace isn’t all that great for perfumes either, with lots of companies using algorithms to flag anyone trying to sell their used product. (To be fair, if they didn’t MP would be filled with fake Chanel #5 and whatnot).
Otherwise, I’ve done well this winter re-organizing and decluttering my garage. That includes listing some items that had been sitting around for years, and also processing some new arrivals quickly. The Breitling watch box and knife sharpener were recent finds that sold quickly (80 & 100$ respectively). The same applies to the otoscope above, which quickly listed then sold. Of the things that had been collecting dust for at least a year, my relatively quick sales included optometry paraphernalia, a stamp collection featuring a lot of vintage big blocks from Iraq, Pokemon-themed “Mighty Beanz”, an emergency beacon thing for avalanche safety, and an old projector lens. The lens felt like the dustiest of the bunch, but sold within an hour or so of listing for 100$. I still have some work to do, but am more organized than I’ve been in a very long time.
There was a death in my family recently. It wasn’t a surprise really, but regardless it sucks when that time comes. My next post will be dedicated to him.
Well, it’s been a rough go since around the beginning of October. My anxiety issues have kicked up a notch, to the point where I had to give up my beloved coffee just to stay sane. Even with that, for a while I had to take beta blockers to help with the random heart rate spikes, and played videos games most of the time to give myself time to recover (and because I couldn’t get my brain into much else). Thankfully things have leveled out a bit from there, though I still struggle to get my head into anything.
Why the spike? Who knows. I had actually gotten into a nice exercise routine before this, but my first “bonus” panic attacks happened while working out. Otherwise, at age 37 I’m starting to feel the effects of aging, which produces some amount of dread. And let me tell you, the dating scene for people my age, in the year 2024 (when nearly everything is done via app), as a garbage picking introvert with mental disorders … let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend it. The state of the world doesn’t help much either.
So, what can you do really? I’m just trying to take it easy and wait it out. If anything my tendency has been towards workaholism over the course of my garbage career, so I don’t feel too guilty about being “lazy” now. I switched medications, because the other one wasn’t doing anything for anxiety before this happened anyways. Otherwise, I guess it’s a good opportunity to contemplate lifestyle changes that might promote a less stressful existence.
With all that, I haven’t gone out for trash as much recently. I’ve struggled with being far from “home” for about a decade now, and my range (ie: where I feel “safe” before the panic attacks come) was diminishing even before this spike. On top of that, my motivation has not been there. So I’ve been doing just one trash run per week, plus a bit of my own neighbourhood.
I picked up this very old looking wood cabinet thing while driving one night. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, so I figured I’d ask you folks what you think before I list it on Facebook.
With a unusual metal latch on the inside, and the skeleton key lock, I think it was probably made to hold valuables. It is decorative though, so it was also likely made to be displayed. I’m thinking it’s a china cabinet, made to hold the fancy dishes and silverware for when the Queen came to visit. What do you think?
Otherwise, this pile produced an interesting find, as well as some tools and a bunch of new bins for me to store my junk in.
When I first opened these smaller boxes, my first guess were that they contained individually wrapped, ancient cookies. However, I saw a couple of watches on straps elsewhere in the box, so I explored further.
In the end, each box held around 15 “new old stock” watches. In total, I have about 200 of these, all the exact same. The brand is Imexco, which isn’t a name anyone’s ever heard of, but they are Swiss and have a nice mid-century look to them. Most seem to work alright, though a few don’t run anymore, or otherwise feel wonky.
My plan is to sell them individually, at the price of 23.99 (which I completely made up). I think that’s fair for a nice looking, no name Swiss watch that has been sitting around for 60 or 70 years (and therefore might need maintenance sooner rather than later). So far I’ve sold 10 on eBay, and a few more at yard sales.
I should be able to make a couple to a few grand on these, although it’ll take years to clear them all out.
There was also a little box of old watch cases and parts, which sold for about 40$ at auction. All in all, a pretty good haul!
Otherwise, the Canada Post strike has been challenging. I’m still able to ship some packages, particularly to the US thanks to Chit Chats, but within Canada it’s often a little bit more expensive, if not impossible for some rural addresses. So I’ve just told a lot of people that their shipment will be delayed until the end of the strike. With Christmas coming, I can’t imagine it’ll take that much longer to figure this out. I have six packages waiting to go out, including 3 watches, 2 pens, and 1 medal.
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!
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefindssells on Instagram (this is managed by a friend, I’ve quit Instagram for the time being)
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Help support the blog, or just buy me a coffee! PayPal link below.
The finds have been plentiful lately, which is great though it lays bare the fact that no one human can possibly deal with this much stuff. My garage looks like a hoarder’s den right now, which means that it’s a good time to have a yard sale! I plan to be out from roughly 12-6pm (and probably a bit later) at 920 St Gregoire on Saturday. There will be a lot more books than usual, but also plenty of other quality junk. I hope to see you there!
I also hope to have a sale on Sunday too, but details on that are still tbd. My current theory is that May is the best month for yard sales, because a) people are happy to be outside after a long winter and b) people rarely schedule trips or vacations this early in the year, so locals are more likely to be in town. I’ve had plenty of randomly bad yard sales on otherwise beautiful days in the summer months, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad sale in May. Anyways, the next few weeks will probably be pretty busy for me between picking and selling.
These days I find it hard to choose which items to showcase for the blog, especially when there’s a lot to choose from (“can’t see the forest for the trees” is an expression that comes to mind). I also don’t have the time to take the big elaborate group shots like I used to. So, today I’m just going to share a few of my favourite or more interesting recent scores.
The tossers at this spot are the kind of people who don’t know how to recycle, or just don’t care. For them, the “recycling” bin is basically just a 2nd trash receptacle. Anyways, last week I opened up the recycling bin and saw this nice antique clock. I doubt it works, but maybe someone would want it as a project given that the wood and glass are in nice condition. I think it dates to the 1880s based on the patent info on the loose piece below.
It’s very pretty. The wood is a bit dinged where that green tape is but it would be an easy fix.
The week before that they tried to recycle a shoebox filled with Warhammer figurines. These definitely aren’t my expertise, but some individual vintage metal pieces seem to sell for 5-20$ each on eBay. I just listed my collection for 400$ with best offer, and we’ll see if anyone bites.
Elsewhere, someone is throwing out the wares of a once prodigious arrangement enthusiast. There have been bags filled with pinecones, twigs, grasses, dry flowers, and of course different types of vessels to put the arrangements in or on. Many were filled with that green or white foam stuff that you can stick flowers into. The foam was often glued into place, which unfortunately made some pieces not worth the effort of saving, but others were foam-free or had foam that was easily removed.
Here’s three nice examples that are still kicking around in my garage, which will probably end up on the Instagram selling page. Below are a couple of Naaman (Israel) pieces I gave to a friend to try to sell on Marketplace.
More lucratively, they’ve also tossed some old jewelry.
It’s been mostly bits and pieces, but a few of those bits and pieces have been gold. The single earrings and broken chains on the right earned me close to 300$ for scrap. The nicest intact pieces have been that silver prayer bracelet, the Omega watch buckle, and the pendant, which isn’t gold but looks antique. I hope they toss more of this stuff in the future, because it’s always fun to look through.
Here’s a painting I picked up not far from Vendome metro. It’s got a tear, but is in decent condition otherwise and is pretty well executed (at least according to my untrained eye). I’m also a sucker for the street scenes, so there’s that. It’s signed “H. Kimmelman 1940” (I think) but unfortunately I don’t see much under that name on Google. If anyone has any info about this painting, including where the subject of the painting might be, let us know in the comments!
One of my favourite recent spots was in Park Ex. Unfortunately, I think I discovered it kind of late and probably missed out on a lot of great finds. So it goes. Here are a couple things I did save. This chalkware rabbi is pretty cool, and thankfully survived his trip to the curb in good condition. It’s a bit over a foot tall according to the eyeball test.
This “mammy” cookie jar was made by McCoy in the late 30s or early 40s. It’s apparently pretty rare, appearing on this list at #14 with a value of 600-1000$. Based on my research, “cauliflower mammy” (or cabbage mammy, depending who you ask) probably isn’t worth quite that much, but it does appear to be relatively rare and should sell for a few hundred bucks.
I haven’t found anything new at the book spot for close to two months now, though you wouldn’t know it by looking in my garage (which is filled with books). Sorting through that will be a monumental task, and I’m not sure how exactly it will get done. For now I’m content to avoid them and deal with other things.
There are probably more notable books in that collection, but for this shot I just took some pictures of ones with pretty covers.
Finally, the “bedbug Jadeite” I mentioned in my last post got a thorough cleaning after about a month and a half in quarantine. As you can see it was quite the haul. The pieces are lightly used, and the colour is very bright. Unfortunately a few were broken in the act of curbing, but there’s still a good set here.
A friend helped me clean them and is now trying to sell them on Marketplace and Kijiji, though there haven’t been any takers yet. They’ll sell eventually, but it might take a little while given that we’re limited to the local market. I’d rather take less money than try to ship this anywhere.
Anyways, I’m going to go out and see if I can find any more trash. As if I need any more stuff for the yard sale pile, ha ha.
Links
1. My eBay listings. Sign up for eBay (Canada, US). Search for something you want / research something you have (Canada, US). — These are Ebay Partner Network links. If you create an account or buy something after getting to eBay from here, I get a small cut of the profit! —
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefinds and @garbagefindssells. Note that someone else runs the latter.
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
5. Donate to the blog. It costs close to 500$ 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!
