Tag: vintage

8203 Tanika

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Today I’m sharing finds from two different houses on my Monday evening run. Neither of these spots developed as I hoped they would, but I found some cool blog-worthy stuff regardless.

This house (which also gave me the turtle magnifier and kitchen stuff from this post) produced great stuff for around a month before the source dried up, leading me to wonder if I was a little late for the party. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I’m still bound to miss out on most of the great trash that gets tossed in this city! The cool vintage kitchenwares I found here should do well at future yard sales, assuming of course that nice weather ever actually arrives. The picture above also features a collection of skeleton keys and a single Birks sterling silver napkin holder, which I think was good for about 15$ in scrap.

There was a bit of nice pottery here. They’re signed on the bottom, and I should probably do some research before selling them.

I haven’t found any particularly noteworthy teacups since that huge collection I saved years ago. However, this Royal Stafford cup & saucer is pretty cute, and in good condition outside of some fading to the green on the near the middle of the saucer. I found more nice saucers but no cups… I wonder if those went out on previous trash days.

I also found some cool paper ephemera here, including this Sears catalogue from 1966. I’ll likely add it to my small catalogue collection that includes a 1983 Sears catalogue I found back in the fall.

I just did a bit of research and found that the vintage Christmas / “wish book” catalogues sell really well on eBay. I hope I find some soon! This particular catalogue seems to sell for around 35$ plus shipping.

I love vintage road maps, and this spot provided a whole bunch of them. Most were from the 60s and 70s, and should be easy to sell at a yard sale.

I’m not sure why the map of Warsaw has a topless lady on the cover, but there you go.

These map were stored in that little Texaco plastic folder. These folks did a lot of travelling!

I think these pressed flowers were stored with the maps, and were likely picked during one of their many roads trips.

I also saved a neat old newspaper from the time of the Warren Report. It’s not worth a lot, but it’s still pretty cool.

Finally, I picked these old leather “Gorilla shoes”. I doubt they’re worth much, but they’re in good condition I’m sure someone will appreciate their slightly distressed look.

Unfortunately that’s about all I got. I wonder what I missed out on?

Elsewhere, the house where I found that Robert Larin collar necklace was reasonably productive afterwards. “Reasonable” though isn’t what I was hoping for – I was dreaming of an MVP-like performance à la the generous (or perhaps the opposite of that) folks of the Very Rich People series. Alas, true GOAT contenders don’t come around very often.

If I were to guess I’d say that this trash was the result of an older person downsizing before a move to a smaller home. One day I opened the recycling bin and found a small collection of great ephemera. This is the cream of that crop – zoom in for a closer look! I really like the leather bankbook holder at the top of the screen. The bankbook contains entries from the 1910s, so I’d assume the holder dates from around that time as well. There’s also a McGill student card from 1949, a YMHA and YMHA library card from the mid-40s, two old photos of a guy working shoe repair in front of a hospital, and some other stuff.

This little pineapple looking thing was a fun find. It’s made of bakelite and measures about an inch tall. I’d guess that it’s a pendant, but there’s only one hole drilled into it so I’m not sure how you’d hook it onto a necklace. Regardless, due to its unique shape it should have some value on eBay.

That stockinette doll in the middle is kind of interesting. It was made in the Soviet Union, and most eBay sellers seem to think it dates back to the 1930s. I have no idea if that’s true, but it does look pretty old. I think that well worn bouquet of flower on the right goes with it. The pendant with the four red spots was made by de Passille-Sylvestre, a Quebec couple who did quality enamelwork in the 60s and 70s.

Lastly, I found that nice purse thing on the left. Inside was a pair of lacy black gloves and a very pretty scarf. The latter looks barely used and has a tag saying “handblocked print – 100% pure wool – Made in Switzerland.” I don’t know if it’s worth a lot, but it’s definitely a good find.

Barring an unexpected revival that’s all she wrote from these places. Fortunately, lots of other great spots have emerged to take their place.

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. Staying on top of emails is not my best quality, so please be patient (but feel free to nag).

Recent sales: February

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I sold a lot of things in February but didn’t make much money overall. Still, it was enough to pay the bills and I was glad to get some stuff out of the house.

1. Artur Rubinstein signature, framed: On eBay for 200$. Not bad eh?

2. Small box of Expo 67 slides: On eBay for 25$. I usually sell Expo 67 slides for between 1.25$ and 1.60$ each, depending on the quality.

3. Sheaffer Imperial I fountain pen: On eBay for 30$.

4. Givenchy Gentleman after-shave: On eBay for 45$. Only one left now. Found in the Plateau.

5. WWII-era Colgate’s kit bag: On eBay for 25$. Found in the Mile End.

6. Sherman brooch: On eBay for 70$. Sherman really did make some nice stuff. Found in the Plateau.

7. Cidopey slides: On eBay for 20$ (auction). I’m not sure why this old Richard Corben comic was in slide form, but it seems that someone on eBay appreciated it. The slides are now in England. Found in Outremont.

8. Vintage beer labels: On eBay for 61$ (auction). I’m pretty happy with how this auction turned out. These beer labels were pretty cool, dating back to the late 40s or 50s, and were lucky to survive their trip to the trash bag undamaged. Found in St-Michel.

9. Butterscotch bakelite beads: On eBay for 20.50$ (auction). It seems that the red bakelite beads are more valuable than the butterscotch. The more you know! Found years ago in Park Ex.

10. Vintage ring box: On eBay for 20$. Found in Cote-des-Neiges.

11. Skiing devil printer’s block: On eBay for 30$. Those printing blocks I found a while back were cool but not particularly valuable. Still, this one eventually sold for a decent price. Found in Montreal West.

12. Leslie Block dangle earrings: On eBay for 100$. These sold quickly for a lot more than I originally expected. Found in Snowdon.

13. Esterbrook flo-master: On eBay for 20$. Found in TMR.

14. Christian Dior Dune: On eBay for 40$. Part of that excellent perfume collection I found a while back in TMR.

15. Rachel Zoe bracelet: On eBay for 30$. One of last year’s McGill move-out day finds.

16. Silver clothes brush: On eBay for 30$.

17. Frontier Town cuff bracelet: On eBay for 20$. Found in St-Michel.

18. Tom & Jerry “Carmen get it” film reel: On eBay for 30$. Found in Outremont.

19. Walter Boss mouse figurine: On eBay for 40$. Found in Westmount.

20. Wabasso 10k gold 35 year service pin: On eBay for 50$. I sent this via lettermail and apparently it hasn’t arrived yet. If it doesn’t show up soon, I’ll have to issue a refund. Sometimes lettermail travels very slowly (I once had an envelope arrive around three months late), but it’s substantially cheaper than any other service offered by Canada Post. Found in Rosemont.

21. Unicef watch: On eBay for 12$.

22. WWII carbine rifle carrying case: On eBay for 25$. Found in Rosemont near Olympic Stadium.

23. 1950s Valle’s Steakhouse restaurant menu: On eBay for 25$. I love old restaurant menus. Found in Verdun.

24. Robert Larin cast pewter brutalist necklace, for repair: On eBay for 40$. As mentioned in a recent post.

25. Western Digital 1TB DVR Expander: On eBay for 80$. This is one of those things that’s impossible to test without the right equipment. It’s a bit of risky selling electronics without fully testing them, but I really wanted that 80$. The machine turned on, came from a general electronics purge (including iPods) in a wealthy neighbourhood (indicating that the devices were probably “obsolete” and not broken), and was in good cosmetic condition, so I deemed the risk to be low. So far, so good. Found in Westmount.

26. Single Georg Jensen cufflink: On eBay for 35$. Found in TMR.

27. McIntosh speaker product sheet: On eBay for 20$.

28. WWII needle sterilizer: On eBay for 30$. Found in Outremont.

29. Vintage Seiko automatic watch, for repair: On eBay for 25$. The automatic mechanism seemed to work fine, but it wouldn’t wind using the crown. Still, it was a neat old watch. Found in Rosemont.

30. Vintage 10cc BD syringe: On eBay for 40$. Found in Hampstead.

31. WWII soldier’s sewing kit: On eBay for 25$.

32. Mid Century Orrefors art glass vase: On eBay for 80$. Soon to appear in another post!

33. Prescription Ray-Bans: On eBay for 25$. Found in St-Michel.

34. Seiko chronograph watch, for repair: On eBay for 40$. I couldn’t get this thing to work but it still sold for a good price. It was in pretty good cosmetic condition. Found in Westmount.

35. Empty Montblanc pen box: On eBay for 30$.

36. Raquette Lake girls camp yearbook: On eBay for 35$. A fun nostalgia piece!

Total: 1461$, 4085.50$ so far in 2018.

Weird work / garbology pt.4

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I recently did an interview with the folks at Weird Work. I usually hate the sound of my own voice but I was pretty happy with how it turned out! I had a good time talking with interviewer Sam Balter, and I think the episode does a great job detailing my work in a succinct and light-hearted way. Listen to it here, or find it on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. It’s about 23 minutes long.

I hired a friend the other day using some of the money donated by you readers (thank you again!). She helped me take some of the photos for this post (including the glamour shot above) as well as the photos of the vintage dresses from another recent post. I’ll probably hire her again next week as my garage has officially become a complete disaster zone – there’s lots of pictures to be taken, and lots of stuff that needs to be organized.

I haven’t found anything at this spot over the past few weeks, but I’m optimistic that maybe it’ll produce more quality junk sometime soon. I can see some black garbage bags sitting just inside the front window, so someone just needs to bring them out to the curb.

Vintage lovers should love this post – it features all kinds of awesome old junk. Those cat salt and pepper shakers are made of the same type of thin plastic as the Aunt Jemima shaker from a few posts back. That plastic is pretty fragile, so the cats were lucky to survive their trip to the black garbage bag. The angry pickle shaker is destined for a friend of mine who matches it perfectly.

I always enjoy finding button collections. Here’s the contents of that bag in the first picture spread across three of those tin toy platters. Zoom in to see if there’s any you like! You’ll have to come to my yard sale to buy any though.

As usual there was a bit of miscellanea mixed in with the buttons. Here we have a cool pair of cufflinks, an amusement token of some kind, a squished 1938 penny, three WWII era buttons, and a Catholic charm.

I found some nice Fire King stuff including that sugar dish above (I also have the lid). Below you’ll see a couple of the matching cups. Those goggles at the bottom right are unusual, have you seen anything like them before?

A friend made a candle inside that Truro Nova Scotia cup, which was made in 1960 to celebrate the city’s bicentennial. Those old Corneli pizza mugs are great restaurant ware – on the bottom of each is marked “Maddock Ultra Vitrified, Made in England.” Corneli’s opened in 1960, so perhaps these mugs are from the early days of the restaurant. The restaurant is still around today – impressive longevity considering the industry.

There’s another old transistor radio battery on the right. It’ll end up on eBay at some point, after I accumulate a larger collection. At top left is a liquor permit issued in Amherst Nova Scotia in 1950.

Here we have a cute framed panda (which seems to be painted on foam), a collection of swizzle sticks, a deck of nudie cards, a Labatt 50 table lighter, more Red Rose figurines, and lots of other stuff. Zoom in for a closer look!

Here’s a few more Red Rose tea card albums, a postcard from Morrissey Rock NB, and an old beaded purse.

Lots of salt and peppers shakers here! There’s also a couple Queen Elizabeth trading cards, an Avon perfume bottle made to look like a Coleman lamp, a skeleton key, a pin from the Cuban Pavillion of Expo 67, a rosary, and a 1955 magazine titled “Annales de Notre-Dame de L’Assomption.”

Lots of fun junk in here! This person must have liked kickboxing, as the program at top right is the second I found at this spot. This one is from a fight in Paquetville NB, and also doubled as an hommage to hometown hero Jean Yves Theriault.

I don’t think anything in this post is particularly valuable, but I think a lot of it will sell for between 50 cents and 5$ at a yard sale. That can add up pretty fast!

I’ll write at least one more post in this series. Hopefully more, if those bags appear on the curb sometime in the near future and contain some goodies!

Otherwise, my luck has been only okay recently. NDG has been my most productive neighbourhood of late. I found myself in Ville St Laurent on Thursday – I saved a bag of buttons and other crafting stuff, a vintage “à louer” sign from the era of the 7 digit phone number, and a Last Supper print with a super kitsch 60s frame. I also saved some cool stuff in Ahunstic, and met some homeowners who were more than happy to give me some of their old junk. Maybe I’ll share that story in more detail on a future post.

Here’s hoping there’s a warm weekend coming up in March. I’d like to get a little yard sale in, even if it’s not the “big one” at my garage. I need the cash, and would love to unload some of my treasures. I’ll consider pulling the trigger if the weather is calling for full sun, no wind, and a high of at least 6 degrees.

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.