Anybody ever REALLY find anything worthwhile in the garbage? Seriously!

vintagetoppsguy · January 25, 2008 10:40AM

About 3 years ago I found one of the original Nintendos with console, cables, games, controllers - the works. It was actually inside a paper bag laying outside of the dumpster. I brought it inside and plugged it in, but it didn't work - although it did power up. So I took it apart cleaned it up, put it back together and it works fine - even to this day. I love to play that thing! They don't make them like that anymore!

Anybody else???

CDsNuts · January 25, 2008 10:41AM

I may be in the minority, but I don't look for stuff in the garbage.

fur72 · January 25, 2008 10:41AM

I was wondering who took that!

CDsNuts · January 25, 2008 10:42AM

Oh, and David, do yourself a favor and find the Solomon's Key cartridge. Weeks of puzzle gamey goodness.

AlmostPerfect · January 25, 2008 10:55AM

<< I may be in the minority, but I don't look for stuff in the garbage. >>

yup, you are, I love to tumble about in dreck, searching for crap.

fur72 · January 25, 2008 10:56AM

<< Oh, and David, do yourself a favor and find the Solomon's Key cartridge. Weeks of puzzle gamey goodness. >>

I loved that game! It wasnt a big name game but it was challenging. Never could finish it.

BigDaddyBowman · January 25, 2008 11:17AM

back in '88, my cousin was a garbage man. He used to bring me any cards he would find. I hit a jackpot twice. Once was one of those card lockers made by topps...inside were 1981 football cards.....and yes a Montana RC. It was almost the complete set. I still have alll the cards. Jackpot #2 was a box of 70's football that included a a bunch of 1975 football as well. Most of the stars and Rookies, Bradshaw, Staubach, Swann and Lambert...still have those two. Surprisingly all in NM. I sold the beat up stars for 250 bucks on ebay a few years ago.

julen23 · January 25, 2008 11:18AM

i found a pickle in the garbage.

that's about it.

j

perkdog · January 25, 2008 11:18AM

<< I may be in the minority, but I don't look for stuff in the garbage. >>

bhl2359 · January 25, 2008 12:45PM

One time, I found an eclair in the garbage that had only one bite missing.

eyebone · January 25, 2008 12:56PM

Know a guy who has a booth at a nearby flea market...his day job is at a Toronto landfill site. One time some guy came with a truck full of new stuff. Anyway, it was props, scripts, photos, etc. from the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore movie about the Bosox (cannot remeber the name right now). They started talking and it turns out the guy was dumping all the "junk" from the set as the filming had ended. The guy I know arranged to buy a couple more truckloads of this stuff. There was some super neat stuff.

Eyebone

ripkenintheminors · January 25, 2008 12:59PM

My cellular phone was in the garbage can one day. I looked everywhere and finally heard it ringing. Good thing I have a 19 month old to blame it on.

MeteoriteGuy · January 25, 2008 1:00PM

<< One time, I found an eclair in the garbage that had only one bite missing. >>

I think as long as you know who took the bite, it would be cool to eat it.

MeteoriteGuy · January 25, 2008 1:00PM

<< 

<< One time, I found an eclair in the garbage that had only one bite missing. >>

I think as long as you know who took the bite, it would be cool to eat it. >>

And it was on top of course.

Leiascards · January 25, 2008 1:01PM

Well the 32 inch TV I have in my bedroom was sitting beside a dumpster. I took it in it did not work checked the internal fuse found it was broken. I replaced it and it has been working for about 14 years now.

Serferdude · January 25, 2008 2:30PM

I have a buddy who saw a lawnmower next to the other trash on big trash pickup day, across the street from his house. So he brings it home, and takes it apart on his garage floor, figuring he could make it work. After about an hour, he took a break, went outside, and there was his neighbor looking all upset, so he went over to talk to him. The neighbor said he couldn't believe it, he was cutting the grass, went inside for a beer, came back out to finish the job, and someone had stolen his lawnmower. My buddy starts to feel real stupid at this point, and fessed up that he thought the lawnmower was just being tossed in the trash. So the neighbor says, oh good, can I have it back now? So now my buddy is really feeling stupid, and took the neighbor into the garage to put the mower back together. They actually got it working again.

WinPitcher · January 25, 2008 2:46PM

Back in High school during summer breaks i worked for the village of Scarsdale highway dept and some days they would send some of us over to the sanitation dept. You have no idea the nice clean stuff those people throw out. I got, and have to this day early recordings (78's) and a collection of Beatles and Hendrix albums. As a kid I would always go to the town dump and would find baseball cards almost all the time. Mainly cards from the 50's (yes i am that old) I must have had 5000 cards, no 52's, most were 55 and up to 63. However, sadly I gave them all to the kid next door when i went away to school. Years later I reunited with him and asked about those cards, his answer? His mom threw them out, so from the dump back to the dump!

I have not gone garbage hunting in the past 20 years.

Steve

nam812 · January 25, 2008 3:04PM

Steve - Did you know that baseball card store Fantasia back in the 80's? It closed down suddenly, and then we heard the guy went to jail for faking autos, but never had any proof that the story was legit. I believe it was on Central avenue in Hartsdale/Yonkers.

WinPitcher · January 25, 2008 3:10PM

Nick pm sent

Darin · January 25, 2008 3:17PM

I have a buddy who saw a lawnmower next to the other trash on big trash pickup day, across the street from his house. So he brings it home, and takes it apart on his garage floor, figuring he could make it work. After about an hour, he took a break, went outside, and there was his neighbor looking all upset, so he went over to talk to him. The neighbor said he couldn't believe it, he was cutting the grass, went inside for a beer, came back out to finish the job, and someone had stolen his lawnmower. My buddy starts to feel real stupid at this point, and fessed up that he thought the lawnmower was just being tossed in the trash. So the neighbor says, oh good, can I have it back now? So now my buddy is really feeling stupid, and took the neighbor into the garage to put the mower back together. They actually got it working again.

Thanks for the laugh!

WinPitcher · January 25, 2008 3:23PM

Yeah I thought that was funny too.

Steve

mafoliq · January 25, 2008 10:20PM

I didn't find it, but I bought a 87 card collection (t205s and T206s) from a man who was helping empty a house that an uncle was living in. The uncle was moving into a nursing home. While in the kitchen, he noticed these cards in the trash can, thought they looked neat and removed them. They had been the uncle's father's cards and no one had any idea that they were worth anything. To make a long story short, most of these cards are still in my collection. Some highlights;

psa 3 t206 Cobb bat off
psa 5 t206 Young glove shows
a psa 3 t206 Carolina Brights backl
psa 5 t205 Speaker
Psa 6 t205 Wheat

F1ferrari · January 25, 2008 10:49PM

I think the closest I come to finding stuff in the garbage is going to the nearest flea market.

As for looking IN the garbage, I only do that when I've lost something.

sayheykid54 · January 25, 2008 11:30PM

I once spotted a box of old 1960's Lp's so I had to stop. Out of the hundred or so in there I pulled out the best one's to sell online. I sold the remaining 70-80 in my garage sale at $3.00 a piece.

That was the only time I've ever garbage picked, but based on how much I made of the deal it does make me think...

1989FleerBillRipkencollector · January 25, 2008 11:45PM

Lived in a small place that 3 people shared a dumpster. Went to take out my trash and there was a fan sitting outide of it. Took it home. The problem was the blade was loose. Still works 5+ years later. Whats great is it is a tall standup and I have a short one of the same brand/color. A pair !!

Oh... the only other thing I found semi worthwhile in the trash was my x-wife. But that eventually went back. You know what they say...One mans junk....

1989FleerBillRipkencollector · January 25, 2008 11:47PM

A embarrasing story. When I was around 15 ? McDonalds had this deal where you would get points on drinks and fries and redeem them for sheets of cards. They were Football or Basketball? Anyways I went thru the McDonalds one a few times and scored MANY of those sheets. Gave 'em all to my Dad.

Mrcardsniper · January 26, 2008 12:49AM

A few years ago I was driving thur my parents subdivison just after a visit. You see I just lost my job, My wife was expecting and the healh insurance was going to cost me a fortune. My folks told me they would help me if i needed some cash untill I found a new job. Well it was a Sunday night and Monday was trash pickup day. Just before I left the sub I seen a engine crankshaft laying next to some trash cans. Do to my interest in chevy cars, this caught my eye. So I stopped and looked closer to see it was a big block chevy steel crankshaft. I got out of the truck and looked it over thinking of loading it up. When a small gray haired lady who live in the house came out and asked me if I was going to take the parts. I said I could use the crankshaft. She than asked if I wanted the rest of the stuff she could not move. I followed he into her garage and found a 427 block and heads. She asked me if I could use these parts. If so I could just load them up for free. I backed the truck up and almost broke my back loading the block. After I had it all loaded she told me that this stuff was her sons and she asked him to get rid of it atleast a 100 times. Than I heard how see threwout some of the light stuff the week before. That brought a tear to my eye. So when I got home and looked up the numbers on the deck of the block I found out it was a 1968 Corvette 427 engine. I sold it for around $3800.00 on Ebay a few years ago. Im sure it's worth more now. But the extra cash sure helped to cover lots of bills untill I got a new job. I still find this kinda odd on the timing. I was low on cash and out of a job and fell into a sweet deal. Every time I drive past that house I cant help myself, but think how her son felt the next time he came over and found his Corvette engine gone.

samspop · January 26, 2008 1:15AM

One time, I found an eclair in the garbage that had only one bite missing.

Costanza??

SportsItUpCards · January 26, 2008 1:19AM

I didn't have to look in the garbage, but I found a $5,000 painting next to the garbage!

Giovanni

frankhardy · January 26, 2008 1:49AM

I have never found anything worth while in the garbage. However, I was deep sea diving several years ago and found a stockpile of early 50's Topps cards. I brought thousands of them back up to the boat, brought them home, let them dry out, and now they are all residing in PRO 10 holders!

NickM · January 26, 2008 5:35PM

When Jamba Juice came out with their all-fruit smoothies, they mailed coupons for free ones to P.O. Box holders in cities where they had a storefront.

Over a couple week period of time, I picked up 180 that people had tossed away at the post office. That's almost $750 of free smoothies.

I shared with friends and family. The alternative would have required drinking 3 a day myself.

Nick

AgnusDei · January 26, 2008 6:30PM

It wasn't the garbage but a garage sale.

Many years ago, my gf's family was given some items to sell by an old lady who lived across the street. One of the items was an "ugly" painting of some flowers. To make a long story short, the person who bought the painting knew something about art and ended up with an original Van Gogh.

ptper · January 26, 2008 9:13PM

Almost all of the furniture in my living room, dining room and kids' rooms has been found in the trash. It is amazing what people throw out. Luckily I'm handy with restoring wood and with a few minor repairs and refinishing, it is as good as new. And it's all free, which means more money to spend on cards.

downtown · January 26, 2008 10:50PM

Back when I was in kid, early 70s...we had a special day called garbage picking day, where people would toss all kinds of things in trash...and everyone would rumage through everyone elses trash. I did find a shoe box of cards once.

bowdowntome · January 27, 2008 1:13AM

Back in 70's, as a small lad, while walking to school on trash pick up day, I use to find empty Hostess boxes, with the cards, laying right on top of trash cans, so I's snag them. Still got most of the panels today.

Also, back in 1970, while taking a load of junk to the junk yard, my dad backed our truck up to the pile and found, right next to us, CASES, that's right CASES of 1969 Topps football vending football boxes. Unfortunately, most of them had suffered some kind of water damage (maybe a flooded warehouse?). Anyway, we managed to find a couple of the more decent looking cases and brought them home, one for me one for my brother. We had fun sorting for years. It was essentially the start of my football collecting, although I didn't know it at the time. I still have dozens of Gale Sayers and Piccolo cards. We had to throw out alot of the cards though, as they were stuck together.

Most of the boxes I use for ebay shipping come from the dumpster where I work, as well as packing peanuts.

I see no problem in recycling.

Post25 · January 27, 2008 1:18AM

when I was in high school/college I worked for the Parks dept of our local town. For 4 summers I rode around on a garbage truck that picked the trash from cemeteries, parks, beaches, and baseball diamonds. Found a ton of stuff. Some of the highlights:
- A box of 4 never opened VCR's (this was back in the early 90's)
- A box of never opened Adidas track suits
- New Oakley sunglasses (2 pair)
- Countless baseball gloves, bats and balls
- A big box of old stamps
- A new pair of Air Jordans
And the low-lights:
- Porno magazines... the same trash can would have a big stack every Friday morning the whole time I worked there.
- A dead puppy dog

Found much more stuff but don't really remember. It was great job and I miss those days of riding around on the garbage truck. The guy who drove it was nicknamed "Garb", short for garbage. I live close to Niagara Falls and there are lots of strip clubs around. In the summer, they close certain golf courses so the strip clubs can have their VIP golf tournaments. On those days, Garb would make us hurry to get all our work done by 1pm so we could go and sneak out in the woods to watch the girls on the golf course... Ah, memories!

jamesgotpoorman · January 27, 2008 1:23AM

We are are now building more "green" buildings in construction. I just finished up two buildings for my employer that we recycled 80%+ of the debris from construction. The industry is changing to more recycled products. When ever you can you should try to recycle. Some day soon it will be more profitable to be 100% recyclable, but for now we are just in the learning stages of these new products.

" One man's junk is another mans treasure"

wildjimmy · January 27, 2008 2:00AM

we used to dumpster dive at blockbuster when i was in high school. they always had funny promotions and threw the stuff away. We found nearly 2 hundred miss piggy finger puppets. (sounds lame but made for funny jokes at school)

I have found a couple of mannequins and cardboard cutouts of people and we used to ding dong ditch people and leave them by a window or door and scare the poop out of people.

One my favorites, we found a gigantic back for packing peanuts and my friend had this lousy old corolla that he left unlocked. we rolled down one window and filled the entire car with peanuts at about 3 am, he wasnt too happy and was still pulling them out of the seats for years later.

and5zac · January 27, 2008 2:17AM

when I was a young kid maybe 5yrs old an old man died who lived across from my aunt,they were cleaning out the house and on the curb we found a bunch of baseball cards from the 30's, this was in the late 60's .There were names that were famous enough that we knew who they were but I dont remember specific names.anyway we played with them and when they got all bent up we threw them in the trash.Probably threw away a fortune!

Lou

cavalier · January 27, 2008 5:29AM

About four years ago
I had an older couple bring me some stuff they dug out of the trash in the late 80's early 90's -- they couldn't remember exactly when

near sets of 48/49/50/51 Bowman including most every big name except the Mantle Rookie
some 48 leaf Football, 3 Joe Paterno rookies plus about 40-50 of the other felts
some 48 Leaf boxing, a lot of 50/51 Bowman football
about 200 exhibit cards and approximately 400-500 non-sports cards

DeutscherGeist · January 27, 2008 6:43AM

One day when throwing something away in a dumpster, I saw a dark blue Samsonite carry on luggage inside. It was the same type found in stores until maybe recently. It was not an old piece and it looked very clean. I took it out to inspect it knowing that these things run for $80-$100 retail. I looked at it as I would when grading a card. It was only used a few times, but looked virtually flawless. No damage whatsoever. No stains. Nothing.
Since I do a lot of traveling, this worked out great. I am a big fan of high quality luggage, and Samsonite was exactly what I wanted. It is really neat with the wheels and extra compartments.

There are lots of treasures in the garbage. I like what one person said about finding the 32 in TV and just replacing a fuse to make it work. If someone is handy and savy enough, anything can be found in the garbage.

RipublicaninMass · January 27, 2008 8:28AM

eyebone...that movie was Feverpitch

I have a full 2 family furnished with trash stuff and aerobeds

Anybody ever REALLY find anything worthwhile in the garbage? Seriously!

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