Strangest thing you've found while sourcing

[fbusoni]

I saw for sale yesterday at a thrift shop an empty pickle jar (complete with lid, and label still attached) for $1.

Seemed a little pricey.  😂

A sign of the times, perhaps?

[fern*wood]

I found a pistol with bullets in a 1950's traincase I'd bought.

[dhbookds]

Not sure it qualifies as "strange", but got a $5 gold coin in a box of junk jewelry.........paid $1....

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Tbf, you never know what the mother did to her.

[conservitvs]

I saw a human skull on a table at a big antique show in Ohio. A real one… 100%.

And it did not have the usual cut through/across the crown to remove the top.     😕

[mamacassidy]

@fbusoni 

Quite a few of my local thrift stores have been putting these jars out lately. I asked about them, because like you, I thought they were kind of ridiculous. They told me that many of the glass jars from pickles, pasta sauce, etc can be re-used for canning because the canning lids fit/ seal properly.

I don't do canning, so I have no idea if this is actually true, but it's the justification they used, lol. 

[simba6]

Once at a flea-market a seller had a table full of prescription bottles filled with pills along with the large bottles a pharmacy has. Those too had pills in them.  Some have quite high prices. 

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@mamacassidy 

It is true mama, we got them in all the time at the thrift and sold them in a lot. The canning rings fit nicely.

[reallynicestamps]

can be re-used for canning because the canning lids fit/ seal properly.

This is true.

Classico brand spaghetti sauce was one I saved the jars from, although for storage not for canning.

They used Mason brand jars.

They recently changed the cap to something cheaper, and most of the flavours are US imports, so I don't buy them anymore.

[chapeau-noir]

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@toysaver wrote:

I found a glittery evening bag with a baggie of 'handmade cigarettes' inside.  

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BONUS!!!

[tobaccocardyahoo]

A sealed class urn with a silver base and top with a Victorian vintage photo in a frame on the front. Rattled when shaken. Someone's ashes.

[rokkworks]

I found a loaded gun in a bag of clothing in the middle of a small bedroom, during a chaotic estate sale buying frenzy. Not trusting others to do the right thing, and not to freak anyone out, I wrapped it in some clothes, and took to the ladies running the sale and gently told one to please come with me…I prefaced it with I found something a bit concerning. Showed it to her, and she said “Oh no!Not another one! This makes 3 today.” 😲

[mamacassidy]

@simba6  said:

"Once at a flea-market a seller had a table full of prescription bottles filled with pills along with the large bottles a pharmacy has. Those too had pills in them.  Some have quite high prices."

Hahahaha, maybe those were some of the super rare 'vintage' quaaludes left over from the 1970's!

[fbusoni]

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@silverstatetreasureboxes wrote:

How in the world could someone be that cruel to hate their mother like that?

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@silverstatetreasureboxes 

I am reminded (and I digress, admittedly) of a dating app that I once perused some years back.

It contained a series of questions that could be answered by both men and women.  The more similar answers you shared with another, the more you had in common, in theory.

Men could see all the questions a potential partner answered, and vice-versa. 

One of the questions was a fill in the blank.

My relationship with my mother improved when...

There were perhaps 5 answers that could be selected.  

To my astonishment, the most widely selected answer was "... she died."

For reference, I was viewing the profiles of women who were born in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time when children generally speaking were not believed to have inner psychological lives.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@simba6 

Oh gawd, selling prescription meds without a license,  he would have been reported so fast his head would still be spinning. How dangerous. 

[ltldpr]

My sourcing is different than most. My husband & I own a salvage business. We pay salvage fees for structures that are deemed for demolition and before the demo crew shows up, we get a little time to salvage anything we can unless it's specifically off limits in the contract. Been doing it over 30 years. We mostly salvage building materials, but you'd be amazed at what some people leave behind and not so surprised at other stuff they leave.

Last year my husband was cleaning out a building on our lot and ran across a bucket of medical tools/equipment used for gynecological exams. 

They obviously can't be listed because they're literal medical devices.

My granddaughter wanted to list them on Facebook Marketplace for Halloween or a haunted house. My daughter was horrified at the thought of a twisted serial killer getting his hands on them if we did. 

They're still in the bucket. I guess I should tell my husband to just scrap them the next time he does a scrap run.