Piffin posted an interesting thread about the things we save that actually ends up costing us money. He has a viable point there and I am sure this occurrence has happened to most of us, we just do not like throwing something good away so we do not think of the cost of keeping it.
But I am a believer that this behavior does spill over into many other actions we do and it pays off in the long run. We loose on some but we gain more on others.
That being said, how many of you have profited from other peoples premature discarding? The other day I picked out a pressure washer out of the garbage with the intentions of salvaging the wand, got home plugged it in and nothing. Looked closer the plug was cut. Changed the end and it works perfect!
So what has been your best find?
Replies
If in doubt throw it out.........or EBAY! As is!
Be another "thing" in my storage room (house).
Namaste
Andy....PS.stop name dropping.lol
"As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is."
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I'm a dump picker from way back when...
Great thread idea!
My wife has a three thousand dollar Diamond Tiffanies cocktail ring
I got a sears Shop Vac
Lots of little stuff
We happen to live in an affluent neighborhood so the dump pickings can be pretty good! And much stuff never makes it to the dump. ie. I am just starting the demo phase on a house some new clients purchased. I asked them to tell me ahead of time which furniture they wanted to keep because(this goes to that watsed time vs wated materials balancing act) I have so many times when they end up paying for handling labor and storage while work happens, only to decide later that they really never wanted the furniture anyway and getting rid of it. (I had one guy who couldn't make up his mind, pay three thousand for movers to haul stuff from Florida to here first, and then send most of it to the dump.)
Anyways, I try to find this stufff oyut ahead of time and get it out of my way to avoid wasting time with it and get it headed to Goodwill or Salvation Army or someone else who i know can use it.
Today, I hauled a hutch home - of course, that meant that my wife needed to re-arrange the whole living, dining room.
Excellence is its own reward!
Hey Piff
Wasnt there a thread about if you found a can of money or sumpin would you keep it or return it?
What exactly did you say again? LOL
Be a garbage picker.....I just found a $2500 rototiller up the block in the garbage with a bad spark plug..I didnt tell : )~
PS was the ring in the Shop vac? yeh yeh yeh..lol
NAmaste
Andy"As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is." http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
My dad had a large weeping willow tree cut down and did not want to pay to have the logs hauled away. He put out a sign saying Free Firewood. The log pile was gone in two hours. One guy filled his car (front seat, back seat and trunk) and had his kid sit on the pile of logs, It's to bad that willow does not burn very well. Only one guy asked what kind of wood it was and then drove away without taking any.
Andy, take it back. The previous owner hammered that plug closed for a reason. He wanted rid of that thing.
Now you have the bad back machine at your house. It is a thing of Great Evil, closely akin to a jumping jack or a jackhammer. It will cause you great pain if you do not send it on it's way!!
Joe H
Worked in a landfill for about a year back in '77.
Gaud awfull what this country throws away with so many in need.
Lots of commerical and industry dumped there.
Cases of clothes,paper products(toilet paper,klenex,towels),candy(M&M-Mars Co.),paint(liquid and spray)Tons of copper,Alu.,cast.
and SEARS!
Used to come in once a month with a 20yder with all the hand tools you and I took back for exchange.The driver and another guy in the truck were supposed to watch the load be desposed of but they never got out of the truck .The dozer operator would wind roll the tools into the garbage and wait for the truck to leave.Every thing would stop as people combed the load for what ever they wanted.Sears stoped that practice though and started destroying their own returns and taking serial numbers.
This will get ya
Sears came in one day with two semi trailers loaded with radial arm saws,brand new in the box, .Had a Sears rep and an armed guard watch as each box was unloaded ,took the serial number,and run over by a D-8.All because the seals on the trailer doors were broke.Liability issue they said.WOW!
Same with all the other stuff.If the box or crate is damaged it goes in the trash.
Nothing would surprise me in a US dump.
Before they made it illegal and started locking up the dump. When I'd help dad take a pickup load of garbage there we'd often come back with a load. Anything and everything. Built a real nice 14 x 30 shed out of scrounged wood. Put up a nice wood fence someone had replaced, still in great shape. Heated our house with wood scraps and construction debris at times, easier and faster then spending all day going to the woods for firewood. Paid for lots and lots of things as a kid picking up aluminum cans there. Now it just all gets plowed under and wasted.
You've all seen the environmental signs at Walmart ect. Don't believe it. The signs mean nothing. They just end up cluttering up the landfills when they are tossed out. The people I know who work there say that they are constantly throwing new in the package items in the garbage. As well as many returned items, or those with damaged packages. Which is why it goes in a covered dumpster the public can't get see into. Somehow they can write it off their taxes even though they didn't give it to charity. His words, don't know tax law well enough to know if it's true.
I've saved some beautiful wire shelving units from the KMart dumpster. Gonna put them in a store room, and some in my master bedroom closet. Much nicer then what you can buy in any store I've found. I usually just ignore it and drive by, that time I couldn't stand the waste. They also pretend to care about the environment, but the things I see in their trash just driving by sickens me. I hate waste. The really sad thing is they share a large parking lot with a charity thrift store that will pick up from your house if you wish. They could pick up the phone and have all this hauled off and write it off their taxes, but it's too much trouble. So, they toss tons of good usable stuff. When I got the shelves I also found a box with a dozen new disposable cameras in it. No wonder their going bankrupt.
Nobody to return it too. She found it in a pile of junk jewelry - you know - costume jewelry.
She got to looking it all through and asked me, Do you think these two rings here look authentic?
I thought one did but the other was too gaudy. She got them appraised and lo and behold, the gaudy one was the real thing.
She had another piece of luck with jewelry too. You'll like this one.
She was head housekeeper at J Travolta's island estate for three or four years and one summer, the diamond from her engagement ring disappearred. Must have fallen out while scrubbing the toilet or folding sheets or something. She mentioned to all the other household help so if they found it laying around, they could get it too her.
Somehow, the masters of the house found out and called her aside to tell her that they felt responsible since it happened in their house. (She made it clear that she didn't have any idea where she lost it - but since she was putting in ninety hour weeks, it was a good guess that it was there on the property somewhere) Anyways, they asked her to give them the ring so they could get a new stone set in it.
Well, I'll tell you - that replacement rock was four times as big as the one I could afford! And twice as pretty..
Excellence is its own reward!
Oh yeh, I forgot this one and its my gift to all you all. You can all dive into this one if ya want.
When picking up some Tiawan Green marble from the supplier that supplies my tile place I noticed in their side yard was dozens and dozens of pilled up pallets ready to throw out from tile that was delivered to them.
Well the tile came from all over the world. I walked through the graveyard of Hondoran Mahogany 6' 4x4's and some intense cherry and all kinda exotic hardwoods that would absolutly blow your mind. A lot I know came from South America. Some even gave me a serious rash on my arms after carrying them into my van. Musta been a real exotic one.
Yoh have to see this wood to beleive it. Its free for the pickin's
Be scavenger
Namaste
andy"As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is." http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Well, let's see...My coworker took home a push mower that was nearly new that we found in one of our dumpsters...changed the oil and it cranked right up. Another coworker found enough Pergo leftovers to Pergo the foyer of his house, and I take all the trim scraps to make picture frames, etc. Not to mention five gallon buckets and good bricks that get thrown away.
I don't do a lot of junk collecting but I have been coming across one handy item for the garage/shop. Old undercounter from banks. The doubles work great for work benches. I just built a nice station in the corner of the garage for my Kreig pocket jig today using one for a base. The old ones are heavy duty steel and have good solid drawers. When we do a change out we set the ones we want off to the side and take them home. The singles aren't good for work benches but I did run across a deal last summer. A new single with a safe on the bottom with a digital combo came in damaged from shipping,and I claimed it (with the owners approval). The damage is a little wrinkle on the base. You have to know it's there to see it. I have it in the computer room, and use it as a light duty safe. For extra checkbooks and small stuff like that.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
Wayne Greztky
Edited 3/9/2003 4:32:27 PM ET by Gunner
Best finds in true 'junk', I assume salvage yards and Boeing surplus free wood lots don't count<G> :
3 way tossup as free stuff in dumpsters:
a. working "pipe master" 2" power pipe theader with all dies ready to get thrown into dumpster at a hospital. (ca 1978 find)
b. old $50 bill and an 1874 nickel under marble countertop of old cash register. (1960's find)
c. full unopened bottle of tequila in a restaurant dumpster along with about 100 empties. (yesterday?; 100 'empties' = 2 shots)
'bout thirty years ago, I was renting a duplex half a block behind a chain Grocery store. Twice a week, they jettissoned their three day old beada and the produce going by. I pulled in next to the dumpster and filled up the old half ton with as much as i could fit in. Even got some boxes of candy bars once!
Then I drove out to my buddies palce where he was raising a brood of eight pigs to put dinner on their table.
That was some of the best tasting pork I ever ate!.
Excellence is its own reward!
Woa, That reminds me of the ceiling fan my buddies wife dug out of the dumpster at Lowes,and gave to me. It lasted something like eight years. You miss 100% of the shots you never take." Wayne Greztky
Years back had a roomie who worked in a bagel shop. End of the day they were to toss all the bagels in the place. So for a long time all my friends had bagels bagels bagels every day.
this guy i sell honey to owns a bakery and drops off a couple of large flour bags full of stale bread a week. I've got two happy and fat dogs! Time to get some hogs!
P.S.- Andy what does the lol stand for at the end of your post; losts of love?!!
lol laughing out loud or some form of that, basically means the wrighter found it funny, or is trying to demonstrate he is joking opposed to being serious.
View ImageGo Jayhawks
last summer customer gave me a list of small jobs to do . one of the items was to clean out the garage and take everything to the dump . In the pile were 12 40 oz. bottles of bacardi amber rum plus vodka etc . I asked her if she meant to throw them out. Her reply was that they were at least 25 yrs old therefore no longer any good. In the end the empties made it to the dump. Another time she had me tear down an old shed insside was an antique foot powered butter churn shed went to dump churn was refinished and is in my family room.
Reminds me a lady at work asked me to help her haul a bunch of junk the last owner of her house left in the garage to the thrift store. I instead hauled it home and hauled what I didn't want to the store. Got a good down ski coat, some levis, a weight set, new 8mm projector for my FIL's home movies, a chain saw, a couple guitars, some expensive kitchen stuff, and other stuff I've forgotten now.
Your antique churn is probably worth a mint if you chose to sell it.
What a guy being nice enough to empty those bottles for her.<G>
Anybody ever lived for awhile in Japan and frequent the 'gummi' piles?
Any kind of 6 mo old or older electronics always available. The custom is that it is below Japanese dignity to take a castoff from someone else, so there are piles of stuff at discrete locations. When Son and DIL went there to teach for 2 years, they were advised to NOT bring any electronics, they got TV, stereo, VCR, etc within 2 weeks at the gummi pile. When DW and I visited once, they refused to show me where the piles were as they figured I'd show very u;n-Japanese behaviour <G>.
I was looking for a push mower for my boys to use - One with the safety release handle, toe guard, etc. My Uncle found one that was dumped along the road and gave it to us.
The throttle cable had come loose where it was anchored to the side of the engine. Hooked it up and it's worked fine for 3 years.
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I have one more story you might find entertaining -
A friend of mine owns a furniture store. If you buy a new piece of furniture from him, he hauls the old one away free. The vast majority of them are not in a condition that's good enough to sell.
So he sets them out on the sidewalk in front of his store, with a sign on them that says $25 each. He rarely sells one. But people come by at night and steal them, thinking they're really getting away with something.
But that's O.K. - The trash hauler charges the store $5 each to haul them off. So my friend gets rid of them for free.
If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
Roar! Sounds like a yankee.
If you've got a building near you that says IBM on it, you might to check those dumpsters every couple of days.
One of my BILs has worked for these folks for about 12 years now and you would not beleive the stuff that gets chucked there. Brand new or virtually so........everything under the sun.
If they buy or lease a building or office space............everything goes, not to mention the stuff they toss on a regular basis for unknown reasons. Brand new carpet(hundreds of sq yds at a crack), desks, chairs, filing cabinets, etc....... is all chucked. I've got desks,computer/desk chairs, two osciliscopes, many sq yds of carpeting, numerous filing cabinets, cabinets with countertops, a Rustrak temp/humidity recorder, briefcases full of expensive SS hand tools, and scads too much stuff to remember or list.
BIL alerts us as to what is being chucked, when the dumpsters will be picked up, we place the "order", and he puts a tag with his name on the stuff and tries to guard it until we can arrive. We get a PU or three together and put the pedal down cause you can only hold off the other scanvengers for just so long.
But still, way too much of the stuff in those dumpsters makes its way directly to the dump over the course of a year. Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
When I got my first apartment in college our entire living room was filled with furniture we found on the side of the road.
Seniors figure they are moving on to bigger and better things, so leave it outside, freshmen, and sophomores pick it up for their first place.
Seems to be an on going cycle.
Fortunately I've moved on and have some decent furniture which was kindly supplied from my parents house over the years.
Dad comes home and ask's wheres the so and so and Mom says I gave it to Neil. She gets rid of the "ugly" stuff she doesn't want, I loose the crap, and somebody comes and picks it up from in front of the dumpster..View ImageGo Jayhawks
My three best finds were a Makita 8.25" table saw, a dremel scroll saw, and a big shop vac.
The scroll saw cost $25, the other two cost me $5 ea. as is at the local thrift store. The saw had worn out or busted brushes. New brushes and it works great.
The vacumn had a problem with the switch, and was really dirty. I think it had either had the wires put on wrong or a bad connection, because after messing with it the switch works perfectly.
The scroll saw came with a broken lower blade arm. I gambled the part wouldn't be too expensive. Turned out it was a lifetime warrenty item. Only cost was postage to mail the broken arm to a dealer. He sent me a new one.
But, I also have a Black and Decker metal chop saw I gave them $5 for. The motor armature is gouged, it runs but pops 20 amp breakers in a few seconds. Still trying to figure out a good use for the vise on it. I think the saw's useless, but can't seem to toss it. Haven't priced a new motor for it yet, but probably more then a B&D saw is worth.
Got shelves full of misc. elec. plumbing ect. That I've gotten on clearance or thrift stores, most of it new. Many projects this saves me a trip to the hardware store. Generally saves me tons of money. But, it's a pain trying to keep it all organized.
I keep things I shouldn't too.
Maybe I can get Tim Mooney to wade in here . . . . or I could start a thread on " what tenants leave behind . ." Tim and I have written before about the inevitable pound of ground beef that you find in the refrigerator only after the power has been off for several days.
Here's my 23 year list of what tenants left behind,
Brand new Kirby vacuum cleaner.
2 brand new coolers, one with the label still on it.
Model train set, pretty nice.
Old fashioned baby pram, the big one like the British use.
Decent micro-wave oven.
Fairly new Kenmore washing machine.
Two dogs and a cat.
Many pots and pans, usually in the bottom range drawer.
I went into an attic once and found a regular pot smoking parlor, swag lamps, easy chairs, stereo, all wired with cheap brown lamp cord. The only attic acces was through a little cuddy hole with no ladder apparent.
How 'bout it Tim ? Greg.
What tenants left behind --
Seth Thomas clock, a clock collector/fixer upper gave me $150 for it
A pre-Columbian urn from Costa Rica, appraised at $1000 - 1200. Anybody want it?
Dumpster Dives --
I missed out on the best one here, they tossed loads of VistaVision camera equipment that had been in a flooded basement. Some of the guys got good Leica lenses from the 1950's, and other good stuff.
Just walking around, I pick up loads of double head nails and drywall screws that fall off of set pieces. It saves the company some flat tires, and I never have to buy any.....
-- J.S.
Picked up a nice camel hair men's coat from someone's streetside garbage pile. Didn't even need drycleaning.
Drycleaning - that reminds me!
I found an oriental carpet worth about 750-800 that was like new - no wear and tear - but it was white with dog hair. I vacumned most of it off and then took it to the dry cleaners. It cost me two hundred to clean but it is my favorite florr cover in the house..
Excellence is its own reward!
Great idea for a thread, kev!
My wife used to live in Denver about 1970 to 1980. Where she lived there were wide alleys. Lots of people threw out all sorts of stuff in the alleys with the intention of letting anyone come by and take it away. The general rule was to walk the alley, not just to get somewhere, but to look for goodies (she found an anvil, amoung other things!). A friend of hers came up with "The alley giveth, and the alley taketh away"
I once got several new garbage cans because I agreed to haul away dirt for a lady who was landscaping a new home. She had bought new cans to put excess dirt in! Nope, didn't want the cans back.
Still have an excellent Navajo Rug on the wall. Found it in a dumpster as I was finishing the last details on a new home. That lady said she didn't want the rug anymore because it had a hole in it. Still does!
A lady next to a home I was working on "threw the sob out". Next day she came over to our job site and asked us if we'd care to go through the stuff she was pitching out. I threw a party that night for a couple of friends and we all dressed in that guys clothes for the next couple of years! Lots of the clothes were still in the package!
Average Joe says:
I'll wait here while YOU go wrestle the wild alligator.
Another thread idea
Hasbeen's junk - wife's antiques.
Here's one where the junk came to me--I recently found a dirt bike in front of my house (I live in the city, I understand to many of you country dwellers this might not be very unusual)
Anyway I saw a guy pushing the bike up the street at 7am on a saturday, he stopped and tried to kick it over but wasn't getting too far. I was just contemplating how the neighbors would deal with the sound of a barely muffled 2 stroke firing up when the guy looked around and leaned the bike against the retaining wall by the sidewalk and walked away...
I let it sit there until Tuesday, right on the sidewalk, when I called the police and was told that it had not been reported stolen. (I inquired again a month later, still no report).
I rolled it into the back yard, cleaned the plug (see I'm an old 2-stroke torturer) and it fired on the 2nd kick. Put it in the shed with the other motorcycles I don't have time to ride.
For all you moto heads, it's a '84 ktm
My two favorites, or at least all I can think of right now, would be the nice welded 2" box rail machine stand I found at the "Mall". It fit my 15" Grizz planer so well, that 3 of the 4 bolt holes lined up!
The other was the old Stanley#78 router plane I spied in the heap. Perfect condition.
My SSC panel saw and panel router both came out of big box's dunpster. Same dumpster, same store - Delta drill press and IR 5 hp compressor. No fix, no nothing. Plug 'em in and go for it. The Hand tools were something else. 10'' Mil CS.