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

[DPBOB]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

From the archives

 

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[Scots Gaelic]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

Heck Yes!!! My favorite is dumpsters located at construction sites! Contractors buy material, and what they don't use they throw out I have found alot of brand new (still in the original wrappers) items that I have/use on rebuilding/repairing my house. I have found new faucets, anchors, hammers, a scroll saw, a roto zip, a box of 500 deck screws, electrical wiring, conduit, ect. Other than that, I have not dived regular dumpsters, but after seeing some of those pics......hmmmm.

 

[halfdime]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

I'm exhausted just from reading all this! I'm a diver at heart, still using a pair of 12" Revereware skillets that a neighbor had set out to the curb. Some years ago, I was working at a Condominium; someone moving out left an oak buffet, a silver tray and many other goodies near the dumpsters. Needless to say, me and the boys had a field day; I refinished the buffet and gave it to one of the other guys as a wedding gift. It was worth hundreds then (in the 80's); can't imagine what it might go for now. It's incredible what people throw away.

 

[Alchemy]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

I'm in shock over seeing the coins and gold someone threw out!
Pawn shop or no....why the heck would they do it?
That's just weird and crazy!

Anyway, the year before we moved to the middle of no where (away from the city), we used to walk our dogs on garbage pickup day and look for stuff.
That year we sold about 2k worth of stuff on eBay all from our finds in the garbage.
Around those parts they called anyone they saw digging through garbage "The Sheeny Man" (or woman)

I've been doing this (dumpster diving, digging in dumps, going through peoples throw aways stuff) since about 1968

Later when I have more time I'll tell the story of how as a kid I found something in an old dump from the mid 1800's,
then I sold it at our garage sale, and how some 38 years later it made it on the Antiques Road Show (I was sick as to it's value)

 

[DPBOB]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

Later when I have more time I'll tell the story of how as a kid I found something in an old dump from the mid 1800's,
then I sold it at our garage sale, and how some 38 years later it made it on the Antiques Road Show (I was sick as to it's value)

Do tell the suspense is killing me now.....I won't be able to sleep tonight...

 

[PAyoungin]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

How do you guys pick which dumpsters to search? Do you actually jump in or just pick out from the side? Thanks,
PAyoungin

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

How do you guys pick which dumpsters to search? Do you actually jump in or just pick out from the side? Thanks,
PAyoungin

PAyoungin:

I live in an upscale neighborhood. Trash day is once a week on Thursdays. Wednesday, beginning at sundown, you can see the pickup trucks cruising my neighborhood looking for trash. You don't need to dumpster dive...Just drive around upscale neighborhood before sunrise on trash day. I myself have picked up goodies just by chance, like an antique sewing machine table, and An antique desk

On one occasion, I picked up an unbelievable Onkyo sound system (was just missing a button) and Onkyo CD Player and Onkyo dual cassette deck! (result of an angry divorce, I think). It is such a great system, I moved my existing one to the basement!!!

So just keep a keen eye on trash day!

 

[Marty-Graw]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

I was driving through town today and right in front of one of the many Hispanic stores that have popped up in the area and right beside the big garbage can was a store display counter with glass top and front with glass sliding doors on the back. you should have seen me and my son strapping it down on the back of my little Geo Prism lol

 

[scotto]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

I live in an upscale neighborhood. Trash day is once a week on Thursdays. Wednesday, beginning at sundown, you can see the pickup trucks cruising my neighborhood looking for trash. You don't need to dumpster dive...Just drive around upscale neighborhood before sunrise on trash day. I myself have picked up goodies just by chance, like an antique sewing machine table, and An antique desk

On one occasion, I picked up an unbelievable Onkyo sound system (was just missing a button) and Onkyo CD Player and Onkyo dual cassette deck! (result of an angry divorce, I think). It is such a great system, I moved my existing one to the basement!!!

So just keep a keen eye on trash day!

I've done this in upscale neighborhoods, and it can be a gold mine. Found many a good items that nothing was wrong with, people were just "upgrading" so to speak, and out with the old, in with the new. No getting in dumpsters, just picking up from right along the road.

 

[tpmrcp]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

I just moved here to Reading PA, but I lived in Bradford PA last summer, (Home of the Zippo Lighter). There was this older house being remodeled and there was a big dumpster next to it. It didnt have much stuff in it yet, so i looked through the bottom and found 2 old Zippos. One sold for 1,200 and the other for 400. Not too shabby for a few hours of exploring.

 

[allenb]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

Just pulled a nice chainsaw out today! Sitting in front of somones yard.
Allen

 

[DPBOB]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

Just pulled a nice chainsaw out today! Sitting in front of somones yard.
Allen

Reminds me of the time I saw a 40 ft aluminum ladder sitting up against the tree and garbage cans.
I put in the van with the backdoors left open.
Drove off. 5 minutes later the owner pulled me over.
He had set it there and went in the house cause he had a phone call
and then came out to see it gone. He said I didn't do anything wrong and that he would have done the same thing. DARN!!!!


Chain saw ? Tree cut up.. logs all over .... Nobody around.,... Just Kidding

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

Anytime I see a computer on the curb, I can tell off the bat if it has anything worthwhile. Well, most of the time they do, wether it's a hard drive, memory stick, CD/Floppy drives, etc, it's all worth money. I've even found ATI Tuner cards in some. Yesterday 1/26 was the biggest computer find of them all.........a missing the side case HP Pavillion 771n. That is 256mb X 2 for a total of 512K, the board is running a p4 at 2gigs. 80gig Hard drive and DVD and CD are included. Took it home, started her up and got the BOOT Failure, insert system disk. The Bios settings has the wrong boot sequence and the Master Drive had been turned off. Reset these, and even tough I got the same message, I simply put my Windows XP setup disk #1 and away she went. Fully operational computer. I'm going to take all parts out and put them in a new case for dad, who's working with a sorry 866mhz system. Back to the post, I computer Garbage Pick!...........lol

 

[EDDE]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

Anytime I see a computer on the curb, I can tell off the bat if it has anything worthwhile. Well, most of the time they do, wether it's a hard drive, memory stick, CD/Floppy drives, etc, it's all worth money. I've even found ATI Tuner cards in some. Yesterday 1/26 was the biggest computer find of them all.........a missing the side case HP Pavillion 771n. That is 256mb X 2 for a total of 512K, the board is running a p4 at 2gigs. 80gig Hard drive and DVD and CD are included. Took it home, started her up and got the BOOT Failure, insert system disk. The Bios settings has the wrong boot sequence and the Master Drive had been turned off. Reset these, and even tough I got the same message, I simply put my Windows XP setup disk #1 and away she went. Fully operational computer. I'm going to take all parts out and put them in a new case for dad, who's working with a sorry 866mhz system. Back to the post, I computer Garbage Pick!...........lol

 

[ghostrider1775]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

I work construction for a living, and one time I was taking out the trash from my office and just happened to look in the dumpster and there was a huge box of record albums, some of them were really cool. Old Hendrix, Doors, Elton John ETC, I'm sure you all remember the pull outs art that was with a lot of the older albums. Anyway in all 200 records!!! sold them in a flea market for 500.00. Just goes to say" One Man's Trash, Another's treasure" Cheers GR

 

[allen]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

i guess technically i do, in a way...if i see a few aluminum cans in a trash bin at work, i'll pick them up, it adds up after awhile...

 

[davesx]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

Hi all.
I tried to find this thread last week.
The recycle site at the supermarket where I work is a favorite
dumping ground. Last week I found these golf clubs.
A few months ago a £5 note under some carrier bags,also
in the car park I found the 1GB memory card I use in my camera,
I did'nt know what it was at the time.

[/img]

 

[kevino1960]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

The absolute strangest thing I found was a live raccoon in a Have-A-Heart trap in Winettka, IL. Found a lot of stuff but that was the oddest.

 

[detector de metales]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stu

The absolute strangest thing I found was a live raccoon in a Have-A-Heart trap in Winettka, IL. Found a lot of stuff but that was the oddest.

Better than a dead one..

 

[Minnie]

Re: BESIDES M D DOES ANYONE GARBAGE PICK OR DUMPSTER DIVE FOR TREASURES cool stuff

Cool stories here. Here is mine.
I have gone curb shopping many times myself. One of my last finds came while just driving down a busy street and my son shouted out go around the block I think I saw a bag of cans. Here we have a 10 cent deposit for each aluminum beverage can. I pulled the van into the driveway of the house and my son gets out and comes back with 12 garbage bags of diet coke cans. We went straight to the nearest store to return them and we (actually He got it) got $56 and some change.
One of the funniest things was when I was having a garage sale. I went out curb shopping to add things to the sale and I picked up an old gaudy lamp. I put a price of 50 cents on it. A lady at who was interested in it come up and says to me “You have $5.00 on this lamp would you take $3.00 for it?” I was all smiles as I ripped off the 50 cent tag and said SURE.
The best thing I ever found was an antique dresser with an intact beveled mirror. It was grimy and almost black when I got it. I took it home, shined it up and found 6 different shades of wood inlay, a carved design on the drawers, brass handles. It’s beautiful and I still can’t believe someone thru it out.