DUMPSTER DIVING GARBAGE PICKING READ & SEE WHAT IS FOUND HERE UPDATED 2012

[Gypsy Heart]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

We have a huge Junk Days week here. {People put whatever they want on the curb for a week and then the city picks it up)..but the public has made a party out of it and everyone goes around and takes what they want...urban recycling...The finds are unbelievable....I have gotten brand new windows and doors, gardening tools,rakes shovels,a swingset,antique desk,wicker chairs antique furniture etc. My sisters come and everyone drives a round with a truck and trailer and just has a blast...Everyone does it and I have met the same attorneys wives three years in a row...Some people feel its beneath them, but here in Wisconsin its like a weeklong Holiday. Hundreds of people come in from out of town and business's advertise for it. The best ones are when young couples inherit or buy older homes and throw everything out. I stick to the older neighborhoods and last year found a place where the grandson was getting rid of his Granny's stuff...My sister and I pulled Redwing,McCoy and Roseville pottery out of the pile, along with several cases of jewelry and really old kitchen items.
Its a blast and a great way for the city to recycle. I see guys who only pick up bikes,lawnmowers and snowblowers. Or just lumber. Last week I put out several items on the curb with a free sign (Barbie Jeep,snowblower and stack of windows) Within three days it was all gone...!
This year on the way to dance with the girls ,I spotted two brand new metal fifties lawn chairs...The old guy had just carried them to the curb, so I parked ,sat my butt down in one and called a friend with a truck. I didn't want to take the chance of someone else getting them ...hahaha.....and two guys stopped while I was waiting and asked if I was taking them...You betcha! ...In the meantime the old man across the street was carrying an Arts and Crafts style set of nightstands to the curb, and I just had him load them right in my jeep! So it is a lot of fun to curb hunt and actually my sisters and I prefer "Dump Diva Or Garbage Goddess! Hahahaha

 

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[Michigan Badger]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

The best I have is a dumpster Spirit of St. Louis find. I didn't find it myself but many years ago I bought it from the guy who found it in the trash after a large estate sale. I had to pay $$$ to get it from him.

It's an unpublished original photo of Charles Lindbergh's plane (and Lindbergh?) in a hanger in Michigan (someone wrote on the back of the photo to identify the location).

The plane was evidently being worked on when the picture was taken. As far as I know it's the only photo of the plane prior to the famous flight that was taken while Lindbergh was visiting his mother.

I almost forgot I even had it until I read this post. I'll have to see if I can find it in one of my boxes of stored goodies. I guess I really should do something with it. Not doing anybody any good stored away.

HDD (happy dumpster diving)

Badger

 

[ringding]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

Write the book, I'll buy it.

My uncle used to upholster furniture. He found all kinds of coins and stamps in the chairs.

 

[goodhubby]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

Once when in college at UNO, my business fraternity Phi Chi Theta decided to have a yard-sale fundraiser to help pay for a road trip to Six Flags in Houston (Astroworld). Two days before the big yard sale, I was driving through my grandmother's neighborhood and saw a child's small dresser put out for the garbage man. I picked it up from the side of the road and figured we could sell it at the sale. A few blocks later I saw where someone was tossing out about five old, antigue-looking rakes and other garden tools and picked those up too. In the next block, I picked up two ceiling fans. Excitedly I brought all this good stuff to our President's house and told her I was going back for more. I drove through the Lakeview neighborhood where I grew up (yes in New Orleans, the one that flooded during Katrina) where in between the blocks there are service access alleys. It was the day before trash pick-up. I was finding and grabbing all sorts of things and loaded up my Corolla wagon twice, both times until it was stuffed. I remember finding a beautiful lizard skin belt (that I kept) and wore for about three years. I even tied a large, cheap kid's plastic swimming pool with a big hole in it to the top on the last trip. I remember we figured that all the stuff I found sold for about $75. We even sold the swimming pool for about a dollar to a lady who was going to use it to bathe her dog. She said she needed the hole in it to let the water drain!

To this day, I still eye every pile of interesting looking garbage for a good find. The big joke is to tell my wife, "Honey, that looked like a good chair. Let's go back." Of course, when she's not with me, I usually do.

 

[BjC]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

I dumpster dive behind a tech component manufacturing plant, rolls of cat5 cable. computers, keyboards, hdd's tons of goodies!

 

[Huntin' 59er]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

I have a story to tell that sounds like one of Monty's funny stories. I used to dumpster dive for aluminum cans to sell for extra cash. One evening I was at a local convenience store digging for cans. Of course I was wearing old clothes for the job. As I was digging in one of the trash cans, a lady had been watching me for awhile. Appearently she thought I was a homeless person and felt sorry for me. She came over to me and said "Here, take this." She handed me a $10.00 bill. I was stunned and told her that I couldn't take the money. But she wouldn't take "NO" for an answer. So I finally took the money just to make her happy !

My best dumpster dive for aluminum cans came one week-end at a local nightclub when I found enough cans to sell for $116.00.

Some of my other dumpster finds have been a wooden bookcase and a pole lamp. I took the bookcase home and refinished it and used it for about twenty years.

Huntin' 59er

 

[trk5capt]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

In My Younger Days I Would Search The Trash, But I Never Found Any Great Coins Or Jewelry, Mostly Lamps That I Could Repair And Use. trk5capt...

 

[ceejay64]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

I have been known to stop and pick up a find or two on the side of the road on pickup day. Not so much anymore. Now, I have a tendency to buy "box lots" at auctions that have had some most interesting finds in them. For example, 2 Coach bags in a box of purses for $7.50 and a 1944 K-98 German bayonet and scabbard with matching numbers in another box that cost me $10.
You just never know...

 

[EDDE]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

LMAO

 

[ashleen]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

About 5 years ago I picked up a Lawnmower and fixed it in a matter of 15 min ( Valve seat come loose ) I went back to the house and asked the guy if he wanted to buy it back for $40.00 .I told him it was fixed .He told me the engine was blown..His wife wasn't to happy to hear that the mower was still good..he went out and bought a 500.00 new mower that day...they started arguing .He slammed the door.. I left... Sold it for 120.00 a week late... I think I pissed him off...........

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!! ROFL! BOY....did you ruin HIS day!
too funny

 

[emesis]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

I found a 1960's era surf board with peter max type designs on it. It had saw cuts and paint from some one using it as a work bench. I traded it to a surfer friend of mine for a case of bass ale and a large bottle of kettle one vodka. He gave it to his buddy who restored it. My brother in law told me it would have been worth hundreds if it was in better shape. Have also found lamps and advertising signs, garden tools, weed whackers. All found in dumpsters or at the dump. Also picked up best selling novels that people are throwing away. I call them books of the dump club. Know someone who picked up a 1940's peddle airplane from a roadside pickup.... worth big bucks. Treasure is everywhere. Ya just have to be lucky.

 

[Mighty AP]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

A guy I work with moved this weekend so he filled the dumpster at work with boxes of crap. A girl I work with was saying she needed to get a new phone, my buddy told her he threw a cordless in the dumpster this weekend so she talked me into looking for it. I didnt find the phone but found 2 vcr's that work, a huge spool of weed eater line, a cool little rock water fall with working pump (ol'lady likes that) &..................a jewelry box full of all kinds of rings, chains & pendants! I let him look through it, he pulled out his ex-wifes class ring & gave me the rest! (ol'lady REALY likes that!) I aint too proud to dive in, it was a good day today!

 

[bazinga]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

I have found countless treasures in the trash, especially where I used to work. Often times after an auction people leave behind their junk and we would have to throw it away.... All I can say is that I made more money selling that 'trash' than I did working at the auction house as a full time job.... It's the only thing that kept me working there for so long, haha. But it did piss the boss off because others would tell him how well I was doing with the stuff he thought was junk. One time we had to clean out a house and the person there asked us to throw away the old oven.... So in the process I removed the old clock off of it and nobody cared that I took it... and it got $225 on eBay I could go on and on and on and on with these stories!

 

[lou423]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

Dear Monty...
You are as funny as the real Charles Montgomery Burns

 

[lou423]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

The VCR I have, I found it in the trash, It was lying next to the dumpster,
no remote, but It works well...

 

[Digginman]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

My brother and I went garbage pickin when the economy was on a downturn. This was when we lived in Michigan. We started picking up newspapers, sold them at the recycling center. I don't know if they buy these anymore. People who noticed would bundle them for us before putting them on the curb. We started noticing different metals (copper, aluminum, etc) in the trash, also. We took them to the recycling center, also. We would do this every night. I still keep a magnet on my keychain. If it isn't attracted to any metal, I salvage it. Tuned into quite a little sideline for us. It continues to this day.

During the summer of 2002, I worked on a trash truck. We picked up a couple of very nice neighborhoods in Northern Virginia. You won't believe what people throw away. I found a working laptop,and a wonderful china tea set for my daughter. A backpack was on the top of a trash can one day. I pitched it in the truck and it jingled. Inside one of the pockets I found 25 Golden Dollars. My boss also found a piggybank with over $60.00 in it.

 

[oakalley2]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

I WORK ON A TUG IN NEW YORK, OUR COMPANY HAD A CONTRACT WITH THE CITY HAULING GARBAGE SCOWS TO FRESH KILLS LAND FILL AT THE TIME BIGEST IN THE WORLD. JUST BY BARGE ALONE THEY WOULD HAUL 25,000 TONS A DAY. WE WHER ALL PROS. BACK IN THE LATE 80'S
SOME GARBAGE WAS BETTER THAN OTHERS DEPENDING ON WHAT PART OF THE CITY IT CAME FROM.
BOY CAN I GIVE YOU SOME STORYS AFTER 4 YRS OF DOING THAT
THE BEST IS WHEN WE HAD ONE OF 4 BARGES ALONG SIDE OF THE TUG, THE DECKHAND SAID HE WAS GOING TO CHECK OUT THE LOAD. HE FOUND A BAG THAT WAS BROKEN OPENED AND MONEY WAS SPILLED OUT OF IT,I MEAN M.O.N.E.Y.!!!! WELL THAT WAS IT WE WHERE GOING TO RETIRE. BUT WE WHERE ALREADY AT THE LANDFILL AND THE CRAIN WAS GETTING READY TO PICK THE GARBAGE AND THEY SAW US IN THE BARGE AD THAT DREW ATTENTION. WELL THE BOYS AT THE LANDFILL SAW WHAT WAS HAPPENING AND WE WHERE TOLD TO GET OUT. THEY GOT THE POLICE THERE, THEN THE F.B.I. TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT. IT WAS COUNTERFIT AT THE AMOUNT OF ABOUT $400,000.00
THEY SAY IT WAS THE BIGGEST HAUL OF COUNERFIT MONEY THEY HAVE SEEN.

THE WORST I FOUND WAS A HUMAN HEAD IN A BOX THAT STOPPED ME FOR A WHILE

HAVE FUN PICKIN
OAKALLEY2

 

[Mighty AP]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

Did you check the head for gold fillings? Treasure is where you find it! lol

 

[Mighty AP]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

Just kidding Flea.............

 

[DPBOB]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES new pics

................LOL...........lol...........lol Maybe it was JIMMY HOFFA"S