Picked some trash yesterday

My wife's hobby is to re-purpose old furniture. She makes a little bit of money, and enjoys the hobby.

Yesterday, while walking the dog, we came across an elderly couple and their family taking a bunch of old stuff to the curb as they are preparing to move to a smaller condo.

We stop and say hello, and ask if they minded if we looked through the stuff they were throwing away. They were very friendly, and said sure.

Came across a large silver tray. Asked if they were sure they didn't want it. Brought it home. it weighs 3 pounds, 5 ounces. Too bad it's only electro-plated copper. If it was sterling silver, it would have a scrap value in excess of $700.

Anyway, we picked some pieces of small furniture, the better half is happy. We also picked some cool old tools and glass wear. Based on the stuff we picked, she'll probably make a few hundred dollars once she cleans them up and paints them. And she'll have fun doing it.

Anyone else pick trash?

My wife's hobby is to re-purpose old furniture. She makes a little bit of money, and enjoys the hobby.

Yesterday, while walking the dog, we came across an elderly couple and their family taking a bunch of old stuff to the curb as they are preparing to move to a smaller condo.

We stop and say hello, and ask if they minded if we looked through the stuff they were throwing away. They were very friendly, and said sure.

Came across a large silver tray. Asked if they were sure they didn't want it. Brought it home. it weighs 3 pounds, 5 ounces. Too bad it's only electro-plated copper. If it was sterling silver, it would have a scrap value in excess of $700.

Anyway, we picked some pieces of small furniture, the better half is happy. We also picked some cool old tools and glass wear. Based on the stuff we picked, she'll probably make a few hundred dollars once she cleans them up and paints them. And she'll have fun doing it.

Anyone else pick trash?

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Once I was at the local Ford dealer and saw a couple guys carrying out all these books and tossing them into a pickup. I went to the owner of the dealership and asked what was up. He said we are throwing out all the old owners manuals and service and parts books. They were both Ford, American Motors and Jeep at the time. I asked if I could have them and he said yes. I loaded up my old 69 ford van and sold hundreds of dollars worth at swap meets and still have boxes full. I bet I have a hundred new owners manuals for several years of Ford pickups. Going to put some on eBay and see what happens.

No such thing as junk or trash just what can I make with it, lol.

David

Yeah, one mans trash is another mans treasure.

Btw not a good line to tell your children they're adopted.

The only trash pic'n I do is cars and trucks. I mostly use the money to fund my car craze. I started with 500.00 back in the day with the money I made off the sale of my Goldwing. Both cars I have today, were funded by finds I've discovered. my best deal was by far buying a 92 Miata for 200, driving it for a year gave it to my daughter for another year then selling it for 1800.00. the other was the Cougar for 1300 and selling it to a topless dancer for 4500.00 and all I did was rebuild the carb and 4 "USED" tires. (inside funny on the Cougar) she actually made a joke inviting me to come over to the club. I told my wife and the wife laughed and said "she was planning on getting some of her money back...little does she know you're TOO CHEAP to give her a dollar"

...Anyone else pick trash?

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I think I can top that! I was stationed in Germany in the early 80's as a young GI and was allowed to live on the economy rather than stay in barracks. During that time period once a month Germans had a day where furniture could be set out on the curb for others to take anything they wanted before it was hauled away, not having a lot of money, that's the way I furnished my small one bedroom apartment. One of the items I rescued is an old wall clock that had been set out with other old items, apparently because it wasn't working and the door was broke off. I took it to a German clock repair shop and the guy said "do you know what you have here?" Turns out it's an unmolested Gustav Becker built circa 1895 with all it's original parts and original finish, a spring had just came loose and the door was an easy fix, it hangs in my home office and still keeps good time to this day.

My A1226 MacBook Pro was saved from a dumpster. One of my friends who works on-call for Base Civil Engineering checks the dumpsters for flammables, and found a really nice laptop case. Pulled it out and the laptop was still in it - with a damaged LCD... that's all. He bought the new LCD and OSX DVD, had me repair it, and wanted it for his daughter - she always 'wanted' a Mac, but was a 'Dell kinda girl.' She couldn't get her head around OSX, so I wound up with it for the cost of the parts he bought. SCORE!

Hey - $2600 laptop from a dumpster... ain't nothin' wrong with that. (Especially since I avoided getting called a 'scrounge' because I wasn't the one doing the actual dumpster diving rofl )

Beautiful clock, Jim. ::thumb::

I think a lot of feel the same way about finding something old and making it nice again (or just preserving them if we get them already in good condition), otherwise we wouldn't have chosen to take on ownership of our classic Mustangs.

jim that is a FIND.... just wow..that is cool. no telling what that thing is worth.

I also end up at the local Goodwill's a couple times a week. I got a killer video set up that I use going to Africa. It is Sony HDR-FX1 1080 HD camera that had different lens, 40 gig portable hard drive, will also record on tape or memory. Had the editing box, filters, microphones and full camera bag, shoulder mount and on and on. When I got home we looked everything up on the net and it was over $10,000.00 and I paid $850.00. The first time I used it was at granddaughters graduation and a local TV news crew guy came up and asked if I did professional video work and I said no that I got it at goodwill. He said it was better than their field cameras at the TV station.

I got a pressure washer at one today looks like it has never been started, spotless and air cleaner looks new. It is a DeVilbiss 6 HP. and it was $75.00. Every time I go something is a great buy. Navajo pottery signed for $2.00. My daughter is setting up a ebay store to sell the stuff. We live in a big retirement area and when they die they give everything to Goodwill so you never know what will be there. I got my Nikon Digital SLR there for $65.00 with nice flash when new was over $2,000. There was 45 wooden shaft golf clubs there the other day. There is money laying around everywhere you just have to pick it up. I sold parts at swap meets for 20 years that is how I bought all my cars. Never worked a day to pay for any of them, buy, trade, sell.

One of the thousands of things I've "picked" was my old bosses dad owned a Ford garage in the 60's and 70's. My old boss has a box of old window stickers, dealer plates and license plates from the early 70s. He was going to throw it all away. So I didn't mind picking his trash at all. Sold most of the plates. Still have all the window stickers.

LOL Carolina Stang, my house in Floriduh is in the midst of retirees as well. I always said I wanted to connect with the funeral homes, I could start one heck of a car lot. But I learned my lesson.

One of my neighbors had a Caddy that was 3 years old sold it for 4000.00 but they FORGOT I wanted it. it had too many miles on it. under 5000!!! Missed a deal on a 84 ChooChoo custom El Camino for 3000 that was as perfect as the day it was bought. Sorry deranged ole bastage told me he FORGOT that I wanted it. Only went by there once a month for 3 years the jackleg that bought it used it to haul roofing supplies. :huh:

I watched a 66 and 67 El Camino ROT as I drove by it everyday. Next door neighbor had a 70 Benz 450 sl ...PERFECT...SOLD it.... yep he FORGOT that I offered to buy it. When he showed me his new Benz SUV...I ask if he still had the 70....well no I traded it. "what did they give you for it" 8000!!! and guys that's 8000 in PRETEND money!!!! He ask if I thought he got a good deal? I could not hold back, I said well if you were looking to donate it why didnt you just call GOODWILL. he looked at me kinda funny. I was pizz'd!! So here's the lesson, old people FORGET!

Picked a 1970 vintage Kenwood KR-5150 receiver on large item trash day when I was 12. My uncle fixed a weak channel in it, and I used it another 20 years after that. Retired it because the winter time humidity in the shop got to the tuner.

Nice score on the Kenwood!

When I was a pre-teen, I picked a nice marble lamp out of a neighbor's trash. It had a broken light bulb in it. A few minutes with needle nose pliers, and it was as good as new. I still have that lamp, 40-some years later.

The best score I ever found was 3 sets of nice golf clubs and several fancy drivers and putters. Turns out the recent divorcee wanted to punish her ex husband.

I ended up selling most of the stuff about a year or so later when I finally realized that better clubs don't make you a better golfer, LOL

Made a little over $1,400 selling the stuff on Craigslist

love to have a vintage Kenwood. My Panasonic in the garage finally gave up after 20 years. Wifey got me Bose "soundlink mini" thingy that bluetooths with the phone for my office and i can carry it out to the garage.

love to have a vintage Kenwood. My Panasonic in the garage finally gave up after 20 years. Wifey got me Bose "soundlink mini" thingy that bluetooths with the phone for my office and i can carry it out to the garage.

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The Frau had me move my antique stereo system to the garage several years ago, Kenwood, Pioneer, Panasonic, Bose speakers and an a 80's strobe light. Although the lights dim when I crank it up (LOL) it still sounds better than 90 percent of the new systems. I can rock the neighborhood by cranking the 501's up (much better sound than the new modern system we replaced it with...but the new one looks better in the house so that's all that matters to the Frau)

Jim

The neighbor had these sitting out a couple of weeks ago with a "FREE" sign on them. Of course my husband came home with them



Nice set of Akai SW-175 which I see selling online for $400 or so

Nice. I rock 4 Large Advent's and a Pioneer SX-828 in the family room.

I'd love to downsize my home theater/sound system, but I don't know if I could bring myself to effectively 'get rid' of my beloved monster stereo system (exiling it to the garage in the West Texas heat will pretty much seal its doom).