thrifting – Page 3 – Things I find in the garbage

The all-nighter pt. 2

March 30, 2024 garbagefinds16 Comments

Sorry for another long delayed post. I spent a lot of January and February distracted by a video game I got for Christmas. I’ve worked pretty hard over the last decade or so, with no real vacation, and this was about as close to one as I’m going to get as long as I’m dealing with this.

I’m now 37 (as of today, happy birthday to me!). I think I’m at the point where I’m willing to punt those months on a regular basis. Hunting for interesting piles isn’t as fun when it’s super cold out, and it’s not usually as productive either. And it’s not like I have a shortage of junk!

More recently, there has been another deluge of trash that has kept me very busy. When I load my van almost to the brim with junk, it’s a good days work just to sort it all out, let alone do anything with it. Honestly, I don’t really know how I managed to devote time to taking nice group photos like I used to. Maybe there was just less trash then, maybe I’m just a better picker now, or maybe I’m just less willing or able to work myself to ruination than I used to be. Most likely, a combination of two and three.

The reality is that the old ways don’t really work anymore. I need to change my operations somehow. I may need a bigger space, maybe even a part time employee. There is just too much stuff for one person to effectively deal with, let alone give these items the attention they deserve (ie: my nice photos from the past).

Anyways, for now we’re going to time warp back to last August, when I pulled my first ever all-nighter digging through trash. This is how things looked when I quit at around 6:33am.

This was a memorable pile for a variety of reasons. For one, my first all-nighter due to sheer size (and also difficulty – a lot of stuff was in the dumpsters, so I had to actually do some diving for a change). This was something close to an entire apartment on the curb. I spent about 8 hours just scrounging, and honestly those hours are very taxing. Even a couple hours of intensive picking can be exhausting, so I had to dig deep to make it through eight.

For two, at one point someone else comes out of the building and starts picking, and as it turns out they were familiar with my blog, although not a regular follower. We talked a fair bit. He was obsessed with finding stashes of cash, and was laser focused on looking through the many envelopes in hopes of finding some bills. I found this very specific fixation kind of hilarious. I find cash sometimes, most notably in 2018 when I found four separate cash stashes (plus a bunch of unused gift cards) in what was an outlier year, but otherwise cash finds are pretty rare and I never really think about them. They happen when they happen, and you don’t make them happen by thinking about them more.

We agreed to split any cash hauls. But he left as the clock approached 2am, like a somewhat normal person, and I stayed picking until the sun came up like an insane (let’s go with “devoted”) person.

Then at around 5:03am, after around 7 hours of digging, I was looking through some linens when this wad popped out from inside some sheets. The top bill was a hundred, which got me really excited.

(That was exact time within a minute or so by the way. I always try to take a time-stamped picture of my good finds in situ, for blog purposes but also as evidence in case someone wants to claim that I’m actually a cat burglar and not a trash picker).

It was the only 100$ unfortunately, but who’s complaining? The bills were all dated from the mid 1970s, and the grand total was 534$, which made it my best cash haul of my trash picking career (beating out the 307 USD haul from a few years back by over 100$ once converted). Many are crisp and barely used, so they are likely worth above face value to a collector.

Then at 5:39am, I opened up a document box and spotted a watch. It was a Rolex, and I think it’s real.

The next day, I had a thought. The garbage was likely picked up, but maybe not the recycling – that’s a different day in this neighbourhood. The recycling bins were full of junk too, and I hadn’t had time to look through them. So I went back the next day, and the recycling was indeed still there – as well as the same guy who was picking the day before. I told him about the cash, which I probably shouldn’t have because it made him more excited about picking (and motivating other people to try harder doesn’t help me make money).

Anyways, at one point we were talking, and he casually pulls this old blazer out of a recycling bin without paying much attention. I noticed something go flying out of one of the pockets, and picked it up quietly. It’s another Rolex.

Later that night, I was digging deep into these recycling bins and found a random 50$ bill and a Tag Heuer at the bottom of one of them. If I recall correctly, the pocket watch was in the same box as the Rolex.

Unfortunately, neither Rolex works, but if they’re real they are still worth decent money regardless. Probably several hundred to low 1000s. I don’t have the tool required to take the back off, which would definitely help confirm, but the details look pretty good under the jewelers loop. If you know much about watches, let me know what you think! Either way, even if they’re fake, I still have the 584$, and the roughly two van loads of stuff (some of which is very cool and valuable) that I saved here.

I couldn’t finish even the recycling bins that 2nd night, so I went back a third night and found even more stuff. All in all, I put in around 16 hours picking there. A lot of it went to the yard sales, or Instagram, or eBay, but over half a year later, and I still have a box or two of this stuff at my garage. Things that I want to research more, or things I’d want to take pictures of, if I ever had the time. Alas, even the wad of cash and the Rolexes have been collecting dust since then.

One of my mottos is “there’s always more garbage.” It’s a statement of fact, and an explanation for why one specific find rarely keeps my attention for any length of time. It’s why it’s hard if not impossible to buy things from me, because by the time I post a picture of something here or on Instagram, I’ve already kind of moved on. I do this out of necessity. Not even a week after my all-nighter, and the subsequent part-nighters in the recycling bins, I filled my car with another load of junk, from a totally different neighbourhood, including this awesome dog lamp that somehow survived 60-some years and a trip to the curb. And the cycle continued.

Too much garbage is a good problem to have, at least from the point of view of my self-interest. But I do need to figure out a new way to do things, because the old ways are simply no longer sustainable with this kind of inflow.

Anyways, let’s hope it’s not another three months or so before I get the itch to post again!

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! –Widget still unavailable–

The deluge

June 17, 2023June 17, 2023 garbagefinds16 Comments

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!

It’s a good time for a yard sale

May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 garbagefinds21 Comments

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.