One Person's Trash is Another Person's Treasure!

[collectibles201818]

As eBay sellers, we sometimes come across items that people throw out on the side of the road and we take them, we clean them and we fixed them up so that way we can resell them on here or somewhere else. It's sad to see when items get tossed out of the side of the road, because some things may be able to be reused again. Just because you may not have a use for something doesn't mean that someone else won't. Just recently, we found a lawnmower on the side of the road, and we cleaned it up and we sold it on the Facebook Marketplace for $20. So with that being said, think twice before throwing something out, because things can be recycle, donated or reuse for someone else. Therefore, If you see something on the side of the road that someone is throwing out like for example a exercise bike, try to see it you can find some use for it. You never know until you try. 

[Anonymous]

My best roadside find was about 8 years ago which was a vintage Roland Space Echo that I sold here for $600, it worked flawlessly and only had to wipe it down. I just looked it up and I see they now sell for $1500+

Unfortunately, 99% of what I find goes in the burn barrel or the landfill. Like playing the lottery I am still looking for that unsigned Rembrandt.

[divwido]

Isn't that the basis for a garage sale?   Wood is nice because it's simple to fix and recreate.  Metal never dies so that's a good purchase too.

[Anonymous]

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@divwido wrote:

Isn't that the basis for a garage sale?   Wood is nice because it's simple to fix and recreate.  Metal never dies so that's a good purchase too.

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Stay with metal or be extra careful... Just a bit of forewarning:

Many decades ago I found a birdseye maple bedroom set at the curbside listed as free - as I was loading it in my truck I saw hundreds of tiny holes all over it, probably carpenter ants, but being I was in Florida I didn't discount termites either - I unloaded it asap.

Also when I owned my electronic shop many would drop off TVs and such for repair, once opened I would often find live and dead cockroaches, I'd spray them then bag and call the customer to pickup with no repair. Could not risk infecting my shop or other peoples equipment.

[bkb1942]

I didn’t find a Rembrandt but we bought a house 30 years ago and there was an old shed where a found a Renoir. Print of course, but thought I was rich for awhile. Haha

[Anonymous]

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@bkb1942 wrote:

I didn’t find a Rembrandt but we bought a house 30 years ago and there was an old shed where a found a Renoir. Print of course, but thought I was rich for awhile. Haha

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Too bad, I like Renoir. 

The problem with some of the famous artwork, especially the more contemporary ones, is that you can't discern if the artist was human or an elephant and just turn it over to clean your weed on...

[fuzzface50]

Years ago when I had my paper route I saw a guy putting stuff out by the curb and recognized the double snorkel air cleaner.  I asked about it. He told me to take it, he was cleaning out the garage after many years and was just throwing it all away as trash.

I resold that air cleaner at auction here starting at $75 and forget how much but it was a couple hundred and some change I got for it first time around.   when I researched who brought it, they brought a Mopar the week before on here  that had the wrong chrome style  air cleaner on it.  Perfect timing on that one. 

I do scrapping on the side so I am always picking something up.  they might call me in to take it out as scrap but quite often I find treasures in there that get sold instead.  just cleaned out an airpark that got sold the last 2 weeks. the new owners didn't want nothing to do with the old helicopter parts.  today I picked stuff up from a hoarder estate that had a passion for old cars. been there 3 times already and have a few more trips there when they are ready. tomorrow I am doing my last load at a guy that is moving to Fl. on Wednesday morning. 

Yep, my eyes are always watching the curbs for that gold. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@collectibles201818 wrote:

As eBay sellers, we sometimes come across items that people throw out on the side of the road and we take them, we clean them and we fixed them up so that way we can resell them on here or somewhere else. It's sad to see when items get tossed out of the side of the road, because some things may be able to be reused again. Just because you may not have a use for something doesn't mean that someone else won't. Just recently, we found a lawnmower on the side of the road, and we cleaned it up and we sold it on the Facebook Marketplace for $20. So with that being said, think twice before throwing something out, because things can be recycle, donated or reuse for someone else. Therefore, If you see something on the side of the road that someone is throwing out like for example a exercise bike, try to see it you can find some use for it. You never know until you try. 

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I used to live with someone who shared your philosophies. When we decided to sell the house in 2017, it took more than 18 months to deal with all the "treasures" we acquired from other people's garbage. I took countless trips with my car to Valu Village (that's our Goodwill type store in Canada) to dispose of these things. Anything that couldn't be used ended up back in the trash after having 10 years of free storage in our basement.

C.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Yep, it's okay of the "finder' does clean it up straight away and sell it but far too often, they just get stashed to be worked on "later" (or never).

[lex-talon]

That's very true. I have some old video game accessories laying around in my drawer that are worth 10x their original price. Almost threw them out awhile back. 

Think twice before throwing away anything you might think are junk.

[fuzzface50]

Yep, that is another problem.   Stuff coming in faster than you can get rid of it.  

[mistandy]

I read a fascinating blog called garbagefinds.com. A young man in Canada that calls himself a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage.  Amazing what people will throw out in the trash.

[thecollegefund]

I live in an area where the Home Owner's Association rules don't allow garage sales. There are a lot of people who will set perfectly good stuff out at the curb rather than bother with calling a charity to come pick it up. Over the years we have gotten a beautiful antique wood cabinet with a curved glass front, a hand made (not a kit) 2 story vintage wooden dollhouse,Little Tykes toys in great condition that my kids were thrilled to have when they were younger.  We even pick up non-working things for my college student son to dismantle and sell for scrap.

We just got a perfectly good, new-ish counter top microwave for one of our college kids for free. The guy who installed our new microwave had just swapped out a microwave for a customer who just wanted different colored appliances. Don't know if it would have wound up in the dumpster or what, but one of my kids will be happy to have it!

[gamersbaystore]

Wish I still had all those old gaming magazines I threw away years ago. They're worth a fortune now.

[luckythewinner]

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@collectibles201818 wrote:

 It's sad to see when items get tossed out of the side of the road, because some things may be able to be reused again. Just because you may not have a use for something doesn't mean that someone else won't. 

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Not sure I follow.

Around here, people who put things out on the street are specifically doing so because they think someone else might come along and want them. 

They are not throwing them out - they are doing exacly what you say they should do; they are recycling them.