thrift – Things I find in the garbage

This & that

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023 garbagefinds8 Comments

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!

Pear Core

May 29, 2022May 29, 2022 garbagefinds16 Comments

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

The attack of the big babies

March 20, 2022 garbagefinds21 Comments

(FYI, I wrote the first half of this post in early February)

The last month of picking has been challenging. It seems like for every two intriguing piles of trash, there’s one person shooing me away from it. This one guy was particularly deranged. He came out to the street to greet me, and kept going on about how I was “stealing” garbage, how he felt like fighting me and trashing my car, how if we were in the States he’d have a shotgun (to do what, exactly I’m not sure), etc etc.

I spent about 15 minutes talking to this dude. Thankfully it never came to blows or shotguns, though he continually felt the need to close talk at me during a pandemic, and went on and on about the “stealing” and how, when I defended the act and legality of picking, I was only “rationalizing” bad behavior. He also spent a fair bit of time trying to convince me how great a guy he was for purportedly giving stuff away on Facebook Marketplace, went on a few diatribes about he wasn’t so well-to-do (despite appearances, and having a lot of expensive & apparently disposable toys), and at one point lied about getting a nice official Habs hoodie (which he was wearing) at Winners for 5$ (I don’t think Winners carries official Habs stuff, and if they did it wouldn’t be 5$). Anyways, I left after spending too long talking to this guy, but not before telling him to seek out a therapist.

I had found some quality stuff here in the weeks prior. One day I found two iPods, one of which I quickly sold for 100$, and another day I found two relatively new Amazon Fire tablets (still have those, need to buy some chargers). I also picked up several packs of unopened printer paper, a bunch of decent books (some of which went to my new Instagram selling account, @garbagefindssells), unopened packages of soap, tea, and toothpaste, as well as barely used cleaning products.

The best stuff though got tossed on the day of our lovely interaction. Fortunately I had 10-15 minutes to pick before he emerged from his castle to yell at me. I probably salvaged most of the good stuff by then, but who knows what I missed. I didn’t go back in later weeks – I guess I could have gone at like 5am but I didn’t feel like dealing with him anymore. Besides, I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy bashed all his future garbage with a baseball bat out of spite.

Buddy seemed to like buying tools & gadgets and not using them. Here we have a (maybe never used) chisel set, some kind of tack device, a whole bunch of new watch batteries that weren’t close to expiry (I used one for a watch already, which saved me about 5$), and a mini computer that looks to be worth a couple hundred if it works.

That long cardboard box in the intro picture contained mostly long items, including about 10 umbrellas. All were in nice condition, and three were pretty fancy. Two were made by Burberry, and another by Aquascutum. The brand-name umbrellas are worth north of 100$ each given their near pristine condition.

Here’s the last bit of stuff, including the most valuable item – a thermal imaging camera that looked to be brand new in its original case.

I was able to sell the Hti Xintai HT-18 quickly for 300$. This is how it saw my space heater.

Title: “A man and his beloved garbage”

He took a picture of me, so I took a picture of him. Or so I remember… it’s also possible I took it as proof that his trash was on the curb, so it wasn’t “trespassing.” Either way, the photo turned out great so I can’t help but share it here. Made some edits to buddy’s face to ensure his privacy.

A few weeks later I met another pleasant chap (above) on the curb. Unfortunately, I had only a couple minutes alone with the trash before buddy emerged from his garage. He was on his phone, giving neighbourhood security a description of me and my car. We talked briefly, I don’t remember much about his spiel, other than he was more sarcastic & pretentious than aggressive. In those two minutes I pulled out a little box with a few pieces of jewelry inside, including one silver chain.

I went back maybe an hour later because I really wanted to take that one bag with the jewelry for later sorting. My timing wasn’t great though, I passed by neighbourhood security just as I was nearing my destination. The security person pulled me over and gave me a talking to. I tried to debate legalities (I’m not a lawyer, but I often cite this Canadian Supreme Court decision that allows police to look through trash without a warrant, saying the owner essentially abandons their property once they put it out on the curb for collection, and can therefore have no reasonable expectation of privacy given that their trash is accessible to any passing member of the public) but he just gave me the usual talking points. Anyways, there’s not much they can do except tell you to buzz off, but they’ll call in the big guns if you cause any issues, and being a marginal member of society with no money set aside for lawyerly things all I could really do is follow my marching orders. I’d bet that I missed out on some nice stuff by not getting that bag.

I could have tried going back at 5am, but I was feeling discouraged and just wanted to be done with it.

Just a few days later I met a lady while picking outside an apartment building. She was relatively pleasant, noting that I was on her property (ie: 5′ from the sidewalk hanging out with the trash bags) and therefore I had to go. She said this very matter-of-factly, and all I could do is sigh and move on. I think I made close to 100$ from stuff I found there before she came, including a box with several model train cars inside, a red telephone (people seem to like red telephones at the auction house), and some other quality junk.

Anyways, the first two experiences in particular gave me some thoughts about why people are like this. According to popular lore (and confirmed by my mom), a baby will sometimes cry when you take away a toy, even if they weren’t playing with it. They don’t want it, but they don’t want you to have it either. It’s a selfish behavior that has to be worked through. Similarly, adults put their “old toys” in the trash, and then they’ll throw a fit if someone takes interest in it. The adult knows they’re taking the lazy way out of dealing with their possessions, and often know that they’re missing out on money (ie: the 300$ from their nearly new thermal imaging camera) by not dealing with it more effectively, but they’re more mad about my taking & potentially profiting from their old toys and laziness than they are about their own wasteful and selfish behavior. So basically, I’m dealing with a bunch of big babies. The rationalizations might be a little more complex, but in the end the root of the behavior is mostly the same.

Anyways, let me know your thoughts on all this. Pickings have been slim, but I’m excited to see that spring is finally here. At the very least, the warm weather makes picking a lot more fun and feel a lot more casual.