Home Metal Detecting

Dump diving...

kiyotekiyote Posts: 5,573 ✭✭✭✭✭
Anyone else do this? I found a costume ring, 20 horse-shoes and other horse tack,a huge tree saw, 1940s desk telephone, a '56 CA license plate, a toy lead solider and some pretty neat bottles. My time now is torn between dump diving and metal detecting.
"I'll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!" -Gef the talking mongoose.

Comments

  • pocketpiececommemspocketpiececommems Posts: 5,865 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Is this at a modern dump or an old abandoned one?
  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 28,334 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i helped out with a coupla old ones. got some decent glass bottles. nothing more thou
  • fiveNdimefiveNdime Posts: 1,088 ✭✭
    a new reality show? - dump pickers!


    i have a friend that used to drive a bulldozer at a dump. the stuff he came home with was amazing (more so that it was discarded)

    i always look for treasure no matter where i am.


    ** if you want to get rid of the lic plate, its another item i collect for the walls in the garage.
    BST transactions: guitarwes; glmmcowan; coiny; nibanny; messydesk
  • kiyotekiyote Posts: 5,573 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's on a hillside behind my house-- there's two sections; one from the 40s to late 50s, one from the late 1800s. Things from the late 1800s are fun-- they're all: "PATENTED JULY 14th 1892" and such.
    "I'll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!" -Gef the talking mongoose.
  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 28,334 ✭✭✭✭✭
    thats cool kiyote. and alot of fun as well
  • OldEastsideOldEastside Posts: 4,602 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's been awhile but I used to go dumpster diving in the industrial areas of
    the San Fernando Valley years ago, the main theme was aluminum cans for
    which it was not uncommen to recycle $40 to $60 worth of cans a night,
    being jobless at the time this kept the roof over our heads and basic food
    staple's on the table, and on Sundays we'd sell all the other cool trash we'd
    come across at the Swapmeets, among some more memorable items retrieved
    from the trash were three gold pocket watches (found at three differant times)
    over a period of two years, a canadian 1958 totum silver dollar, and also we
    found countless HP copier cartridges that were worth $15 to $25 each to a few
    guys that would refill them and resale them to companys that had that equipment,
    we found all kinds of stuff and we prided ourselfs at reducing the waste in our
    local landfills.

    One memorable day at the swapmeet was a day this Guy was checking out the
    boxes of circut boards I would retrieve for a half dozen or so electronic guys
    that loved looking for memory chips and such, memory chips were in short supply
    and recycling them was not uncommen back in 1988, I had no idea at the time
    about memory chips soldered to circut boards so I grabed any boards found
    in the trash and had a box of these paticular boards that were later explained
    to me were rejects for the targeting system for the B1 Bomber, that guy was
    a CIA agent from Langley VA, anyhow I checked that can a couple days later
    and found it to be enclosed completely in chain link fence even over the top as
    well as two cameras mounted and signs stating all electronic items are broken up.
    The regulars at the Swapmeet over the next few weeks told me that they were
    approched and were asked about me for about a month before they confronted
    me.

    Ain't that wild, but ya never know what ya can find in the trashimage

    Steve
    Promote the Hobby
  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,461 ✭✭✭✭✭
    PC I'm using now, came from the dump.
    Needed a hard drive, installed XP, wamo, working PC.
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO
  • pcgs69pcgs69 Posts: 4,324 ✭✭✭✭
    My buddy's lawn used to be part of a dump. When he was creating his garden he sifted the dirt and found two silver dimes - one's a merc and I'm not sure what the other was. So some stuff can be found.

    My dad and I used to look through a dump from one of the old grand hotels in this area. Found a lot of bottles that way.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Old dumps can yield a lot of treasures.... lots of bottles, but also small gold items - remember, gold was not of the value we see today and many people discarded 'old gold' like kids rings, watches etc. When I was a kid, there was a fellow that would go door to door in the town - and other small villages - and ask to buy 'old gold'.... he would give a token buck or two (a big deal then) and would go merrily on his way. Cheers, RickO
  • curlycurly Posts: 2,880


    I know a feller who used to work at a trash incinerator in Dayton Ohio. He sorted the trash as it came in on a conveyor belt. He told me he made on average half again his weekly pay sorting trash and finding money. Once, he even found a dead man that had spent the night in a dumpster and was crushed in the hauler. He thought it was a manequin at first.

    The dead feller was a childhood friend of mine.
    Every man is a self made man.
  • pocketpiececommemspocketpiececommems Posts: 5,865 ✭✭✭✭✭
    And take all of the old broken wornout Craftsman tools back and get new replacements.
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Being "down in the dumps" can be fun, sometimes!


    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
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