| | Trash Treasures anyone?Page 1 of 2 (1, 2) | Ever find something you always wanted? In the trash?? When I was a kid I always wanted a Schwinn Racer bike. I saw one at the bike shop. Red, 3 speed. Fenders, Chrome, handbrakes. A real beauty..... But, these were expensive in the 60's, My Dad was'nt rich so I got a used one speed with coaster brakes instead. A great bike but I still can remember that Schwinn....
Fast forward 30 years. I now have a son. He rides his bike all around our neighborhood. On one of our trash pickup days he comes home all excited and says he saw a nice bike in the trash. I said he ought to grab it but he feels bad taking things out of the trash. I however have no such aversion so I take my van to where my son says to check out this bike.
There, sitting in a heap of trash is a Red Schwinn Racer. This thing is exactly like the bike I wanted when I was a kid. My jaw must have hit the ground. It was in great shape. The lady throwing it out said she never used it and I could have it. I took it home, cleaned it up and I still have it. Original dry rotted tires and all...
Ever find a dream in the trash? Something that was discarded and found a home with you? I do it all the time. It's amazing the unwanted things out there waiting for someone with the proper appreciation level they deserve.
Come to think of it, this could also apply to people could'nt it? | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 5:36:42 PM | Yup ... a wood burning stove.
I have it hooked up in my barn.
Keeps us nice and toasty when we want to hang out on chilly nights. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 5:42:08 PM | Yep, I found a Bud Moore NASCAR racing intake manifold, complete in excellent shape for Ford Boss 351 engines.
Sold it to a collector for $2200. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 6:15:43 PM | | I love dumpster diving and have no problem taking things from someones trash. I've gotten many great finds over the years. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 6:41:01 PM | I tried standing out next to my trash bins every week, but no takers yet.
Perhaps because my parents were both Great Depression babies, I grew up with a strong appreciation the "gold in the tailings." Always will, I imagine. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 8:50:03 PM | Igor, maybe I should try that idea. I could try hanging some scrap copper around my neck as bait.
And, another nice find last summer. I was driving theough an unfamiliar neighborhood North of town. Some people were moving and had left a 7 drawer writing desk, matching chair and small end table laying by the curb.
Cleaned it up, relined the drawers and now it's in my spare room full of my paperwork and stuff. Whatta' gem. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 9:34:28 PM | I once found an electric skillet in the middle of the road.
It worked, too.
Still don't know how it got in the middle of the road though. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 9:58:26 PM | Around 2 years ago I was walking down the street near home.I was on the sidewalk and noticed something shiny just off the curb. It was a rather large coin. It was embedded into the road tar, as if a car had been parked on top of it.
I whipped out my pocketknife and extracted a 1896 Morgan silver dollar. It's kind of beat up and I wonder about how it got there. Not worth much more than scrap value but cool anyway. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 10:33:15 PM | Years back, I wanted a sort of cabinet and I drove around on garbage day, and right there next to a dumpster it was!
A vintage sort of liquor cabinet with legs, calling my name. I tried to move it but it was too heavy. So I opened it, and there was a full set of plates, utensils, a silver gravy boat, and three dollars in change in it.
I think that was my best find ever! | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 10:43:52 PM | | Two years ago I came across his guy tossing out a 1950 okeefe and merrit gas stove with the griddle in the middle.He told me that his grand mother past and he didn't want it.I got it home and did a ground up restoration on it.I was totally anazed that there wasn't any chipped porcelin any where.I was offered $2500.00 from an appraiser last week.It's way to cool to sell.Go figure! | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/27/2012 11:01:52 PM | when my middle son was about 7 years old, I came out into the yard to watch for him because he was so late, walking home from class ... as I started walking toward his school, I saw him, slowly walking toward me ... he was grinning, all excited ... dragging a "distressed" early American solid oak coffee table he'd rescued from the trash! it was bigger than he was!
crazy little kid! as "keeper of the memories," that coffee table is still in my garage ... I'm going to put it in the back of my truck and drive it over to his house ... so he can keep his own memories now! | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 5:32:03 AM | Concerning dumpster diving and trrash picking...
I have thrown trash out and people come by early in the morning opening bags and
pulling stuff out to see if there is anything!
Then they leave it all everywhere.
I guess they are HOPING to find sme great treasure and its very upsetting to have
to go clean up your trash !
So at times I have more than a bag or two........ I have to stand gaurd at the trash until the
trashman comes. Luckily his route is known and I can hear him as he appraoches, never having to wait more then 10 to 20 minutes.
I have had people come up to tear up my trash as the trashman appraches ! and had to tell them to get lost !
I do not know why they do this... I don;t think I've ever thrown out anything of value as to them doing this.
Maybe a local group has formed doing this and its aggrivating.
Y0u put your trash out at 6am and upon leaving the house at8am its all turn up like rabid dogs have gone through it !!!
If you pick someones trash, be sure to bag it back up !!! | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 5:39:59 AM | | Absolutely! All mining operations ought to work under the same principle: make it hard to tell you were there, save that you found something that made you happy. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 5:57:41 AM | A friend of mine that lives in a college town looks forward to when school is out for the summer and the kids are going home. He makes the rounds picking up all kinds of things.........some really NICE things!
Among other items, he found a beautiful mahogony dresser. NOTHING wrong with it! We joked that when the kid got home without it.........he/she got their ass WHOOPED! | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 8:32:30 AM | the name of my art business is "Junktafunk"......so yeah......you can find me picking up things from the side of the road all the time!
Last year I was looking for something to organize all my stained glass. As I was driving through town in my convertible......I seen the perfect thing. I believe it was used in a business of sorts for either mail or papers. About 7 feet tall.....3 colums of "slots" that are the size of a regular sheet of paper and about 3 inches tall. A total of 48 "slots". Perfect for what I was wanting.
You should have seen that 7 foot tall cabinet sticking out of the back seat of my convertible!!!
Took me 3 days to "color" coordinate all my glass into each "bin".......but so worth it!
I'm always looking for any kind of table, shelf or musical instrument to do stained glass mosaics or to paint. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 9:44:59 AM | Concerning dumpster diving and trrash picking...
I have thrown trash out and people come by early in the morning opening bags and
pulling stuff out to see if there is anything!
Then they leave it all everywhere.
I guess they are HOPING to find sme great treasure and its very upsetting to have
to go clean up your trash !
So at times I have more than a bag or two........ I have to stand gaurd at the trash until the
trashman comes. Luckily his route is known and I can hear him as he appraoches, never having to wait more then 10 to 20 minutes.
I have had people come up to tear up my trash as the trashman appraches ! and had to tell them to get lost !
I do not know why they do this... I don;t think I've ever thrown out anything of value as to them doing this.
Maybe a local group has formed doing this and its aggrivating.
Y0u put your trash out at 6am and upon leaving the house at8am its all turn up like rabid dogs have gone through it !!!
If you pick someones trash, be sure to bag it back up !!!
I don't think anyone here is saying they actually "open" your garbage bags. Just see things laying beside them and take them. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 11:00:49 AM | See, this is why cities should mandate the use of clear plastic trash bags. That way, junkers could window shop....
Actually, trashing someone elses trash is just trashy behavior. In my town they went to cans for trash and recyclables. Picked up by a truck with a clawlike arm and dumped in the top of the truck. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 12:04:39 PM | Sometimes, I see things, and wish I could pick them up. I don't, because a few years ago, I had a downstairs neighbour who had bed bugs, and they migrated to my apartment. It cost thousands of dollars in fumigation, and in lost furnishings.
When I see something, all I can think is "what if there are bugs"?
Not logical, I know, but you can't control your gut reaction. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 12:26:42 PM | speaking of trash cans ...
where I live, there are two sides to the trash can ... one for trash, one for recyclables ... on top of THAT, I have two green waste cans where the grass clippings, branches, etc. go ... so someone going thru the trash would need to know the entire cycle of which can's picked up when ...
I personally would never open someone else's trash can ... but ... you know ... if there was something interesting sittin' out there, alongside the trash can ... I might rescue it! ... I got a wonderful desk top that way ... college town ... the desk was long gone but they'd left the desk top behind ... I had a van, stashed it inside ...
was probably obsessive about CLEANING it ... but ... now, it's a wonderful place to set up villages with trains and tracks, cars and houses when the grandkids come over ... | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 3:07:47 PM | when I was a young kid, I loved to collect world curency,look up the country, and imagine going there
I remember, I bought a collection, for 10 bucks, most of it was junk, but in it I found a red army stamp note, it was worth 6000! | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 3:16:45 PM | The garbage dump has long been one of my favorite places. I have to be careful I don't bring more home than I take to the dump.
Last year I was working on a remote,fly-in only native reserve in northern Manitoba. Things are quite expensive up there and as a result the locals didn't keep an eye on small change. A lot was accidentally tossed into the garbage. I made a lot of trips to the dump with building materials,and I often found change,a couple dimes,etc. Finally in early September I decided to actually start looking for change,and over the next 2 months before the snow hit I picked up close to $50. Most of it was quarters,dimes and nickels,but I found a few 1 and 2 dollar coins as well. Maybe I should have been picking up the pennies too. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 3:38:39 PM | Yup. As I was going through the dumpster, I found pounds of copper.
The maintenence men in my apartment building were tearing out stuff in a few of the the vacant apartments, and threw the goods in the dumpster. I guess they didn't realize that big bucks can be made off of copper, and I hated seeing that kind of money being wasted.
I came up that day cus lawd knows I needed the money at that time. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 7:04:45 PM | | An uncle managed a "transfer station" (dump) and would pull all the musical instruments out for me. He pulled out so many guitars, amps and horns it was just stupid. Lots of vintage stuff that I sold for a ton of money. Last score he got me was in 2005 just before he retired. He pulled out a 1966 Fender Pro Reverb amp that was flawless with the exception of a bad reverb driver tube. It howled when it warmed up. $50 later it was like new and sounded great. Sold it for $2000. | |
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| Trash Treasures anyone?
Posted: 5/28/2012 8:37:04 PM | Alas, no more dumps here. Landfills. The last dump closed about 13 years ago. Got some great stuff that last summer: grates, grilles, plowshares. And most touching, an old home-made "ladle" for stirring home made soap, made from a carved piece of wood with a pie plate lashed by wire to it. Last soap was still on it. . . . Some things just *touch* your heart.
There IS a table at the Laundromat for recycling old clothes. Take what you need, leave some of your own. Works. I've done both. | |
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