posted on January 11, 2001 04:55:41 AM
Well at first I would go dumpster diving strictly to get new boxes. Warehouses and some stores throw away plenty of brand new boxes so I would get them to ship out my items.
In doing this, I started to come across all kinds of new and used merchandise. I mean everything under the sun !
I once went to a computer warehouse dumpster in which the company had closed down and threw away all of their brand new inventory. It took me 3 trips in a full size long bed truck to get all of the stuff !
Over the period of a year I managed to sell about 50% of that find and made well over $3000 on it !!!!
I find vintage stereo equipment, vintage and new bicycles (some damaged, but all fixable), brand new clothes, brand new automotive products, used (but working) automotive parts, brass items, glass items, etc.... You name it, I have probably found it.
I once found a dumpster filled to the top with brand new unfinished wood picture frames in several sizes. I took all of them (thousands) and went back the next day to find the same dumpster full again !!! I took home thousands more and I have been selling them on ebay for about $1.00 - $2.00 each !!! I still haven't sold out yet !!!!
It is amazing what some people throw away and I do not have a problem mentioning to anyone I do this. When they here how much money I have made soing it, they are quick to ask where exactly is it I go.
I do not go near any restaurant dumpsters and as far as medical equipment dumpsters, I would be way to scared to touch anything in a dumpster that had bio-hazard stickers in it or on it ! As far as a human head, EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW !!!!!!!!!!
I would not even want to touch that !
The bio-hazard of dealing with anything like that is enough to make me not want to go near any medical dumpster.
posted on January 11, 2001 05:16:40 AM
A lot of the stores here have a seperate dumpster for cardboard only. They recycle it but I don't take much just a few small boxes. If you ask they are always real easy to let you have boxes. So it does not get mixed with the yuck stuff.
If you could shrink that head nice it should pass as a genuine southeast asian antique!
I have a few heads around the neighborhood you are welcome to...
posted on January 11, 2001 06:20:54 AM
A couple of points.
True Dumpster Diving is when you are inside the dumpster and your line of sight is blocked by the sides of the container. Anything else is just "picking thru the trash" but people do try and put on airs.
Plan your egress. I looked out a shop window several years ago and saw someone who had been lured into a dumpster and could not get out. I brought them a small step ladder and chuckled for a week.
Industrial Parks are a great source of items. When a company moves there are many items of value that do not justify paying to be moved and/or are out-dated for their needs but still have value.
I have filed as VERO with eBay for "Original Dumpster Diving" items. While this in no way prevents you from acquiring items in this manner, if you are going to advertise them in your listings using this designation, you will have to deal with me.
posted on February 20, 2001 09:19:30 PM
This is a real funny thread. One warning to dumpster divers though, when I was a teenager I worked in a grocery store, I once pushed the 'compactor' button while(unbeknownst to me) a homeless man was inside the dumpster. Luckily I heard him screaming and pushed the emergency stop button in time. So if you are going dumpster diving make sure you are going into the regular, non-compacting type dumpster.
Here's a few pointers. In my home town they charge $50 to carry a pick-up sized load of junk to the dump. My grandfather used to go with an empty pick-up and wait for people as they drove up. Then he'd offer to help offload their stuff if he could pick through it, since they were throwing it away anyway no one ever objected and were thankful for the help. He brought home lots of perfectly good furniture.
But the best thing you can do is get in good with an apartment manager. My mom managed hundreds of apartments when I was a kid and whenever anyone moved out or got kicked out we had to wait X number of days for them to claim their stuff and then it was ours for the picking! I'm talking entire furnished apartments worth of stuff. Once when I was 11 we picked through a drug dealers apartment and found he was my size! The next day I went to school with a silk shirt and a three hundred dollar jacket and two hundred dollar sneakers! I felt like a pimp! LOL
posted on February 21, 2001 10:34:02 AM
It really is amazing what people throw out. Found a huge, old VERY ornate mirror a lady had set out, totally perfect condition. Wish I had got there sooner, the lady had rolled the matching dresser out end over end, smashed it to smithers, too bad. She had gotten a very cheap but NEW set to replace them with. Bad move on her part.
Next door neighbor cleans houses for a living, sometimes where people move from, estates and such. One household threw out a bunch of Noritake dishes AND a real diamond and ruby ring. They thought the ring was fake because the stones were so large! Need I say, she didn't return the ring or tell them what it appraised for?
posted on February 21, 2001 06:51:56 PM
DUMPSTER= best source of packaging supplies.
At a mall behing a pharmacy I get all my small boxes.
At the same place the florist disposes of huge boxes full popcorn bubbles (peanut foam).
I'm talking a cubic yard of the stuff! He gets thase gift vases packed that way, and floriste never bubble wrap flowers!
Bet I saved $100's in bubble foam last year alone.
Some humour:
We sold a home and when moving, being the pack rats we are, we had a line af stuff 3' high about 3' wide running about 50' long lined up on garbage day.
At about 2 in the AM we were awakened by the clatter of some 5-6 guys with pick-ups sorting out the stuff!
The next AM there was only enough to fill about 2-3 garbage pails left.
One took scrap metal, the other clothing, another another commodity etc etc. There was one near fight and a lot of cussing!
posted on February 21, 2001 07:31:36 PM
Hey, cajunatpassmore,
Are you in NC? If so I have been to the big Wade yard sale. Got a great go cart that the kids scared the heck out of me...no brakes.
When your at the end of your rope:
Tie a knot and hang on!
posted on February 21, 2001 11:36:58 PM
Oh you folks are SO inspiring! If my kids weren't already asleep I would take off on a hunt tonight!
I have heads to find!
I need to get a head too!
Once I found a VCR (didn't work but we gave it away at our next yard sale.)
On a side note about picking up after hours at the thrifts.... the closest I ever came to doing this was I traded something once. I was leaving stuff and saw this shelf that I HAD to have so I traded it for the boxes I left for them. In my own defense it was a weird store that was only open once a week on saturdays from 10-2. And even then I never felt right about it so I wound up giving the shelf to a neighbor.
posted on February 22, 2001 05:49:38 AM
One tip is to go garbage picking in areas of the community which have a lot of elderly or senior citizens. You are amazed to see that they throw away. "Johnny hasn't visited me in years so I think I will throw out his Aurora car racing sets.." or sadly when a spouse or parent dies, relatives don't want to bother with disposing of items at garage sales or estate sales - they just cart it out to the trash!
