Joined Jun 2012
Trash Connoisseur
Forum Thread
You threw away what?!
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://youthrewawaywha
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://youthrewawaywha
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
Upcycled:
Converted to Cash:
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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Us SD-ers are a nosy bunch!
Needless to say, my dad gets all kinds of stuff.
Awesome, right? Nooooooo!!!!!! My parents are hoarders.
We were coming back from the dog park and found this awesome piece of art work. It is a signed artist's proof called "Fragment Fourteen" by an artist named Arline Sherman. We love it and it is going to be reframed and put on our wall. This is our second art find in the last two weeks!
Thank you for asking -- it ended fine. The buyer who had the wrong racket was making a lot of threats (we're talking over 20 messages within 48 hours) about leaving bad feedback and Ebay doesn't like feedback extortion. Long story short, Ebay let him keep the racket, THEY paid the refund, and I got to keep my money. Ha!
Yes we have! If you go to the blog, there is a section called Converted to Cash, which isn't fully updated. We are up over $200 in Ebay sales from trash finds, and it also inspired me to sell some other stuff I had in my closet and I've sold an additional $450 worth that way.
What are you doing on here?! Get out there and find some shit!
Don't make me jealous... sounds like my dream.
I'm curious how you clean/sanitize/de-germ items? I guess the dishwasher for utensils/glassware/plastic. How about larger items? Say furniture? A desk? I'm kinda sorta a clean freak.
Also, do you notice if there are better finds in higher income areas vs lower income areas?[/QUOTE]
To sanitize I use kitchen antibacterial wipes. Works great for furniture, shoes, purses, anything solid, leather, etc. Top rack dishwasher for lots. For things like toys, antibac wipes or a bleach bath. Books you are nervous about bookworms, put in a plastic bag in the deep freeze for a couple of weeks. I've done that with some seriously old books that I didn't want to take a chance on, then later sold on ebay easily. Spray couches and such with a kitchen antibac spray and air out....although I've never picked up a couch or anything like it.
Finds seem best to me in middle income areas for me. Best thing is going for a walk very early on trash day. I used to walk around 530 am and sometimes couldn't carry back everything I would have kept. Too lazy to go out that early these days. Do get coupon inserts, coke points and tons of books when I go by the library dumpster where they recycle paper. Tons of books dumped there, some very old, lots of magazines, often the current ones. Crazy because the library would sell them--they sell hb for 1.00 and pb for .50 and magazines for .10 inside as a fundraiser.
Once I found an entire big box of greeting cards I went back for, furniture, whole boxes of toys (bet Mom said if you don't clean your room you'll be sorry!).
Inherited the tendency, Dad was a meter reader for the water company at one time and brought home great stuff often. Fun.
We were coming back from the dog park and found this awesome piece of art work. It is a signed artist's proof called "Fragment Fourteen" by an artist named Arline Sherman. We love it and it is going to be reframed and put on our wall. This is our second art find in the last two weeks!
And nice on the ebay situation.
And nice on the ebay situation.
Well I ended up talking to the other buyer on the phone and the racket was for her son. They got the more expensive racket and she said her son liked it just as much so I let her keep it. Didn't want to make her go through the hassle of shipping it back to me.
• "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
And I added a recent Ebay sale, the Kelty Kids Ridgeline Backpack which sold for $36 +S/H
We are also up to 630 MCR Points found. I haven't been logging them here regularly enough, but what has happened is that since we started looking for coupons in the paper recycling, we also have been finding the Coke product fridge packs. Each of those is 10 points, and we had one night that we found 7 of them. It can't be any easier
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30 coke points per day
The first three items are new in box and worth about $40 on Ebay. The Pantone Binder sells for about $150. Hopefully they do well
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