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You threw away what?!

237 50 June 21, 2012 at 05:05 PM in Finance
I decided to put my log book on this forum so you can all see the crazy amount of free stuff in good condition that I find while walking my dogs at night in NYC. My girlfriend and I recently moved into a new apartment on the Upper East Side and we had been noticing how much brand new (or antique) stuff is left out on the curb.

So for fun (and because we are both as cheap as they come), we started grabbing stuff that is in good condition. Either we use it, try to sell it, or give it away.

Oh, and keep in mind, bottles and cans have a $0.05 deposit on them so we return those.

We just started keeping track, here is what we have so far:

6/18 - 18 books, 1 milk crate, 4 deposit cans ($0.20)
6/19 - Aero-Swiss Humidifier (Valued over $100), Keurig Coffee Machine ($120), Small Dust Buster, Best Fitness Leg Developer (Over $100), 11 deposit cans ($0.55)
6/20 - 7 deposit cans ($0.35)
6/21 - 37 bottle deposit cans (took the dogs on a long walk this afternoon) ($1.85)

That's the last four days, I'll update this as we get new finds.

Anyone else do this either out of necessity or as a hobby?

Stephen

Check out the new blog @ http://youthrewawaywhat.wordpress.com ... my site where all I do is talk about garbage!

Community Wiki

Last Edited by stephenNYC July 30, 2012 at 06:41 PM
Here is the master list of all of our finds to date! It also includes what has sold, the upcycle projects and any other benefits we have gotten from our trash!

Found:

TOTAL: 8 milk crates
TOTAL: 635 My Coke Reward Points
  • 18 books
  • Aero-Swiss Humidifier
  • Keurig Coffee Machine
  • Small Dust Buster
  • Best Fitness Leg Developer
  • Giorgio Armani Sunglasses Case
  • June issue of Backpacker Magazine
  • Verizon Phone charger
  • 7 dresser drawers
  • 2 Wilson Titanium Tennis Rackets
  • Large Kitchen Garbage can
  • Michael's Arts and Crafts drawers
  • A crochet purse
  • Shannon Hand-Crafted Lead Crystal Cake Plate and Server
  • Cooks Panini-Maker
  • 3 Magazines -- Elle, Cosmo, and Glamour
  • 2 Picture frames in their original plastic
  • Film Quarterly magazines from the 1960s and 70s
  • CAT5e Ethernet Cable
  • DesignForLiving Water Bottle
  • Broyhill Nightstand
  • Cheese Grater
  • NIB Wilson Titanium Tennis Balls
  • Some eating utensils
  • Two Hard Rock Cafe Glasses, NIB
  • 254 my coke rewards points.
  • Black and Decker mixer
  • Frying pan
  • Lemonade pitcher
  • Coffee table
  • HP1040 Fax Machine
  • HP Floppy Drive & Smart Card Reader
  • Dell Keyboard
  • BodyBlade Classic 4
  • Bake King Cupcake Pan
  • Step stool
  • United States Annotated Code Chapters 28 (Federal Rules of Evidence) and 42 (Public Health and Welfare), 2001 edition with the 2012 supplements.
  • A Trash Can
  • Laundry Basket
  • Kelty Kids Ridgeline Backpack
  • Budweiser Billiard Cue
  • HP Toner
  • CAT 3 Cable
  • Holmes AccuTemp Window Fan
  • "The Naked Nude Nude" screen print art
  • HP OfficeJet Pro K850
  • 2 Electronics Stands
  • Laptop Desk with Built in Fan
  • Signed Artist Proof, Fragment by Arline Sherman
  • Small screwdriver set
  • Players Image Alignment Golf MIRROR Training Aid
  • 2 Family & Friends CPR Training Kits with Manikins
  • Pantone Color Tint Selector by Pantone Library of Color
  • 3 Books on Woodworking
  • 10Base-T Concentrator
  • A bunch of cedar shoe-horns
  • S-Video Cable


Upcycled:
  • Two dresser drawers into kitchen shelving
  • Film Quarterly Magazines into Art for wall

Converted to Cash:
  • HP1040 Fax Machine, Recalled for $100 rebate. Used to buy new printer
  • Bottle Deposit Returns: $16.30
  • HP Toner and HP1040 Ink Cart, HP OfficeJet Carts/Toner (11) -- $26 @ Staples
  • BodyBlade Classic 4 -- $68 via Ebay
  • Michael's Storage Drawers -- $25 via Ebay
  • Air-O-Swiss Humidifier -- $25 via Ebay
  • Both Wilson Tennis Rackets -- $27 via Ebay
  • Kelty Kids Backpack -- $36 via Ebay

380 Comments

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Joined Jun 2012
Trash Connoisseur
> bubble2 237 Posts
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Original Poster
stephenNYC
07-08-2012 at 01:36 PM.
07-08-2012 at 01:36 PM.
Quote from Zoe Moon :
Does the Keurig have scale in it? If the vinegar doesn't work, try some Durgol Express, it works great on water scale and is safe to use on coffee makers. We use a kettle to boil water for tea and every few months I use Durgol on it and it's spotless inside when done.

We were walking through downtown Bellevue yesterday and saw a dumpster ahead with, from that angle, what looked like a wooden desk sticking out of the dumpster. So I got all excited but as we got closer you could see it was a broken plywood cabinet with white laminate on the other side, wasn't salvageable at all. Oh well.
I can't really tell what's going on inside of it actually. What happens is, I power it up, it takes the water into the heating section, it bring it to a boil, says "Brewing" and then nothing happens (no water at all comes out, not even a trickle), and then like 15-20 seconds later it says "Ready to Brew"
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Joined Jun 2012
Trash Connoisseur
> bubble2 237 Posts
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Original Poster
stephenNYC
07-08-2012 at 01:49 PM.
07-08-2012 at 01:49 PM.
I added an email follow option, an RSS feed, and a "Converted to Cash" box on the left menu on the blog if anyone wants to follow Smilie
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Joined May 2012
L6: Expert
> bubble2 1,853 Posts
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UncleJase
07-08-2012 at 01:52 PM.
07-08-2012 at 01:52 PM.
Quote from stephenNYC :
I added an email follow option, an RSS feed, and a "Converted to Cash" box on the left menu on the blog if anyone wants to follow Smilie
Will do!
Reply
Joined Jun 2006
Jambi-rific in Seattle!
> bubble2 31,436 Posts
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Zoe Moon
07-08-2012 at 02:32 PM.
07-08-2012 at 02:32 PM.
Quote from stephenNYC :
I can't really tell what's going on inside of it actually. What happens is, I power it up, it takes the water into the heating section, it bring it to a boil, says "Brewing" and then nothing happens (no water at all comes out, not even a trickle), and then like 15-20 seconds later it says "Ready to Brew"
Sounds like it's clogged with coffee grounds or scale. Here's the ehow on how to fix it.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5858741_fix-keurig-coffee-maker.html
Reply
Joined Jun 2008
L3: Novice
> bubble2 197 Posts
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knott02
07-08-2012 at 05:51 PM.
07-08-2012 at 05:51 PM.
Back from our trip to NYC. I thought it was funny that my eyes always wondered to the trash piles! Saw a beautiful leather chair on 42nd, but thougth that was too far for you! We went to 2 of the thrift stores and Hell's Kitchen Flea Market. Bought a few things at the flea market, but they said there were very few vendors yesterday from the heat. The thrift stores weren't that exciting to me. I guess having a lot of space in our house we have a lot of crap and I don't think twice when I buy stuff...maybe I will start! There were lots of clothes, but I wasn't needing anything. Thanks for the fun and the offer for help when we were there...we just needed more time to do all of the things on our list...and it was HOT, so that made it harder to go fast.
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Joined Jun 2012
Trash Connoisseur
> bubble2 237 Posts
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Original Poster
stephenNYC
07-08-2012 at 07:13 PM.
07-08-2012 at 07:13 PM.
Quote from knott02 :
Back from our trip to NYC. I thought it was funny that my eyes always wondered to the trash piles! Saw a beautiful leather chair on 42nd, but thougth that was too far for you! We went to 2 of the thrift stores and Hell's Kitchen Flea Market. Bought a few things at the flea market, but they said there were very few vendors yesterday from the heat. The thrift stores weren't that exciting to me. I guess having a lot of space in our house we have a lot of crap and I don't think twice when I buy stuff...maybe I will start! There were lots of clothes, but I wasn't needing anything. Thanks for the fun and the offer for help when we were there...we just needed more time to do all of the things on our list...and it was HOT, so that made it harder to go fast.
I'm glad you two had a good time! It was a brutal couple of days to be here... it defintely slowed the amount of stuff being put out. I'm hoping that a lot of people were doing some cleaning while they were stuck inside and tomorrow (bulk trash night) could be great. Plus, I've been moving some of our inventory on Ebay the last few days and we have room for more now Big Grin
What'd you end up buying at the flea market?
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Joined Jan 2004
Here's to the future
> bubble2 25,141 Posts
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Iaaaiws
07-08-2012 at 07:27 PM.
07-08-2012 at 07:27 PM.
Quote from Zoe Moon :
That's not bad for New York considering your utilities are included. I expected worse, guess all of us non New Yorkers think it's crazy expensive there.
It didn't do anything to convince me otherwise. That still sounds crazy expensive to me. laugh out loud
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Joined Jan 2011
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> bubble2 310 Posts
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chibicherub
07-09-2012 at 02:33 AM.
07-09-2012 at 02:33 AM.
Cool thread! And I bookmarked your blog Big Grin
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Joined Jun 2012
Trash Connoisseur
> bubble2 237 Posts
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Original Poster
stephenNYC
07-09-2012 at 10:29 PM.
07-09-2012 at 10:29 PM.
I went out early this evening with ambitious plans to find some great stuff. I ended up covering a lot more ground than usual tonight because while there were a lot of couches and mattresses out tonight, there wasn't much stuff that I either A) needed or B) thought I could sell. I came back with only three things:

HP Toner -- This was inside of a really badly beaten up LaserJet printer. I figured I'd grab the toner because it is a guaranteed $2 at Staples!

Holmes AccuTemp Window Fan -- This thing is great. It is clean, works perfectly, and is cooling down our bedroom quite nicely! They retail for around $65+

128 feet of Superior Essex Cat 3 Cable -- They must have been using this to wire a building or something. Still trying to come up with an accurate price estimate, it is usually sold in 1000' spools.

In other news, we have been working on selling the stuff we find. We have 7 items listed and JUST SOLD THE FIRST! Remember the Body Blade? That fetched $68.65 +S/H! That is pure profit. Chelsea and I were watching the bidding over its last few minutes and it went up over $18 while we were watching.

In addition to selling the stuff we have found, I was decluttering my own stuff over the last few days and have racked up $450 in sales over 48 hours. It feels good to turn over the inventory in the house, but now that I got a taste for selling, I am feeling the pressure to find better stuff!

I'll keep you updated Smilie pics below

Update: Took the dogs out to pee just now and found 7 (Our highest yet in one night!!) empty cases of Coke products = 70 MCR Points. Also found 3 milk crates to bring home Smilie
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Last edited by stephenNYC July 9, 2012 at 11:29 PM.
Joined Nov 2005
L10: Grand Master
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SlickChik
07-10-2012 at 08:02 PM.
07-10-2012 at 08:02 PM.
Nice job on your first sale!
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Joined Aug 2003
(o)(o)
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ikonoklast
07-10-2012 at 09:23 PM.
07-10-2012 at 09:23 PM.
$450 for "trash" sounds good to me.
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Joined Jun 2012
Trash Connoisseur
> bubble2 237 Posts
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Original Poster
stephenNYC
07-11-2012 at 08:51 AM.
07-11-2012 at 08:51 AM.
Quote from SlickChik :
Nice job on your first sale!
Thanks!!

Quote from ikonoklast :
$450 for "trash" sounds good to me.
It has me stoked! We are now up to $575.

A few more items have sold from our finds:
Michael's Storage Drawers: $25
Air-O-Swiss Humidifier: $25
Both Tennis Rackets: $27
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Joined Jul 2004
Master Of Scamps
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Scampsters
07-11-2012 at 09:43 AM.
07-11-2012 at 09:43 AM.
Hope your subtracting mailing costs Wink
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Joined Dec 2006
Wanna touch it?
> bubble2 531 Posts
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infesttragedy
07-11-2012 at 09:54 AM.
07-11-2012 at 09:54 AM.
Quote from stephenNYC :
It's definetly an acquired taste. I don't listen to that type of music any more. Like most things in high school, it was a phase that I grew out of. Hardcore and Metal represent the teen angst I think a lot of kids feel.
Ohmy

I had no clue I was angry!

But actually, it goes like this:

For some people it's a phase because they wanted to be angry teens. Other people actually just really like the "noise" and never stop listening Big Grin
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Joined Jun 2012
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> bubble2 237 Posts
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Original Poster
stephenNYC
07-11-2012 at 12:02 PM.
07-11-2012 at 12:02 PM.
Quote from Scampsters :
Hope your subtracting mailing costs Wink
That is the profit after mailing costs Smilie
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