posted on September 19, 2004 08:29:10 PM new
A few weeks ago, the GM of where I work wanted EVERYONE to clean out there work areas and get things looking spiffy. He brought in a dumpster-on-wheels into the office and everyone was putting stuff in there.
Some items caught my eye...There were a few books, some CDS...a clock in the shape of surfboard, a plastic enclosed inaugural ticket for Safeco Field in Seattle, a "Bud Light Emergency" box (where you break the glass and get the enclosed beer can)...
Everyone was ribbing me when I picked out some of these items...
Well, I sold nearly everything for $10 - 20 range this last week on eBay.
Dumpster Diver and proud of it. Maybe I should change my eBay name?
posted on September 19, 2004 09:08:26 PM new
Dumpster diving is fun, but I don't have time for it any more. College towns are a phat score of doo dads. Furnished an apartment back in the day.
Loompanics is not for the faint of heart, but it's a great book. Plus there is a chapter in there that will have most everyone shredding their paperwork even the junk mail.
posted on September 19, 2004 09:18:25 PM new
Seasoned dumpster diver here. My Friend Joan and I did it quite often last year and the year before and I will tell you there is lot of stuff thrown away. We did nothing this year. We went to an estate sale and on the porch were garbage bags and the owner said whoever wanted the garbage bags could have them. Well we spoke up put them in the back of the truck and there were better things in their then in the estate sale. When we open bags we get to keep the items in our bag. Well Joan went through one of hers found a black man bobber and sold it for $125.00. I must not have done so good cuz I can't remember what I got. Hers made a great impression. In another dive I got a playboy bunny sash and ears and I got $125.00 for those so we were even. One dive we got bags of linens so you never know what is in the bags. Of course we wore rubber gloves and some bags were a bust but it was fun.
posted on September 19, 2004 09:37:40 PM new
hmmmm...posting finds....
....set of corning dishware still in box, perhaps someone's mom was hoping kid would try cooking in?
....behind sofa table (no lie) black base w/dark cherry top, solid pine (versus laminate or particle board) with some great sort of stain job. wish I'd kept that one, it was fab, cheap, but could hold a plethora of good decor!
....wingback chair that had good bones and reupholstered, gave to friend upon move
....cocktail shaker, one of those weird penguin shaped ones, a small dent and frozen top on it, some tlc and it works fine, gave it to my sister, a penguin collector
....Marble lamp. Still have it, brass detail, pan asian flair, on it's third lampshade
....bubble wrap.
....jumper cables, still have them...they work!
....When a downstairs neighbor moved (after 3 years at a $300/credit hour art school (!!)) I scored enough electrical appliances to keep martha stewart happy. I still have the juicer, the mixer, and the oh so nifty electric skillet a la 1962 - works like a charm and makes a mean fried chicken)
....45" square ottoman behind a furniture store in the dumpster(!!!), with the $750 custom order tag on it. Problem? I still haven't found the problem, the crazy abstract muted design in a dark chocolate and green brings out the perfect color of the sofa. Plus it has dark brown legs and it's in perfect shape!!! I still have it. It's quite my happiest find...it looks like I went out and HGTV'd my darn house!!!!
It's actually pretty recent...ya dumpster cuz ya love it, eh?
Okay, I am just expansive because a 99 cent item I thought would be landfill sold for over $70. Yay!!!
Sorry for the ramble...I love hearing dumpster diving stories. A friend of a friend found a claw foot tub and refurbed it for her remodel.
posted on September 19, 2004 10:59:49 PM new
Man ..we have them little houses on our dumpsters now with state workers in them...some are nice and will let you grabs something if you ask but they can get in big trouble so most say no, Before they put them houses on them we'd make a couple of grand each year off old lawn mowers. Jason would clean the plug (which what was wrong with 95% of them) and sell them to the local pawn shop for 20-40 bucks each. I found some Mikasa China once(dinner plate,salad plate ,soup bowl,bead & butter plate,cup & saucer)4 complete place sets...real pretty .You could save the stuff you found for 2 weeks and have a yard sale .lol we made 800.00 once off of stuff from the dump.A Old Coca Cola cooler,an old erector set...I could go on and on.Neat stuff !!
A old man that used to go every night found a great big bag of old coins ,some gold.It was worth over 10,000. He also found a gun. Turned it into the police station for 90 days and they returned to him after they ran a check and no one claimed it....I think it was a 357.
posted on September 20, 2004 04:09:07 AM new
I've never done it, but my mother has. She worked for the old Revco and they'd throw out full bottles of shampoo, cream rinse, soap, perfume. You wouldn't believe what she'd come home with. Of course, she could have lost her job if she got caught. What a shameful waste. Most of these products could have gone to shelters and such. Anyway, for years we never had to buy shampoo and cleaning products.
Cheryl
. . .if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend.. . - War and Peace, Tolstoy
posted on September 20, 2004 04:19:46 AM new
yahhhhhhhh... my ex-sis-in-law sells on ebay, item gotten from "curbing" exclusively.
she swears her father's ghost guides her good fortune as to which curbs to stop at and check.
she has found early 1950s baseball 'scrapbook' magazines, which sold for around $140 EACH; wedding rings; wads of cash stuffed into shoes; czech pottery vase ($190 bid); retro awesome ladies 'swing dance' dresses, garden party dresses, other retro clothing that have brought her at least $1,000; crystal prism table lamps ($300 bid); old adv. coin banks, antique doll clothes and oilcloth shoes {boucou bucks}, a perfect antique Jenny Lind bed, etc etc etc ...
she also found this one curb where it was obvious the lady had thrown her man out, and you could tell from the personal belongings, the guy was cop; scorned and hateful even before he got booted, there were audio tapes he spoke into, showing he was 'stalking' her every move, and gosh was he scary.
posted on September 20, 2004 04:23:24 AM new
Yeah, of course!
I tie a rope around Ralphie's butt & throw him over the edge of the dumpster -- 45mins later, ya just reel the little sucker in & go home to list on feeBay!
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!"
posted on September 20, 2004 09:41:06 AM new
That was the way I got started many moons ago. I was out in the dumpsters every morning before school pulling out old tube radios and tv's. I would take the tubes out and check them at the local TG&Y, find out which were the bad ones and then go through my stash of used tubes to find a replacement. A lot of the time all this stuff needed was a new cord. When I first got my car (one my mother wrecked and sold to me for scrap weight) I would get everything I could find that might have some value and then spend all day Saturday at the flea market selling this "trash". I don't do that much any more, hard for me to get into a dumpster. However, put something out in the alley and its mine! My last really great find was s Stainless Steel Double Jacketed electric skillet. The is water sealed in between the 2 stainless steel layers, this makes it perfect for cooking almost anything that you would worry about burning or scorching. The only place that I had ever run into one of these was in the restaurant that I worked at. Expensive piece. I LOVE what it does to fried chicken and Fried Green Chilies!
Once again, I ramble....
Kevin
posted on September 20, 2004 11:41:04 AM new
I started Dumpster Diving when I was a pre-teen and was always pleasantly surprise. I used find boxes of posters and videos outside the local video store, once found a vintage Zippo from a LONG time ago with a WWII insignia on it as well as stereos (working), tools, etc. When I was 16, my best friend and I horded all of the finds over a few months and had our first garage sale and made over $600.00! Lots of cash when you're 16.
Within the last several years, I used to live in an apartment in Beverly Hills. I used to walk to work through the alley and was BLOWN away by the finds. Computer speakers, a box of designer clothing including Versace silk shirts, Ferre cashmere sweaters and an Armani jacket! Big bucks on ebay, by the way. I found a box of screen-plays including original versions of Silence Of The Lambs, Blade Runner and Jacob's Ladder (still have yet to sell those) and I found a set of Bose speakers that I got a nice bit of lunch money for.
I used to get made fun of when I was a kid for diving, but its paid off for me and I am proud of it. I drive a pickup truck and when driving around LA I NEVER hesitate to pull over and pick furniture, etc off the side of the road if I see it. Every 4-5 weeks we have a garage sale and it all adds up, believe me. I guess it's not for everyone, but any true entrepeneur can see the relevance of looking at something that is seemingly worthless to someone and seeing $$$.
posted on September 20, 2004 11:57:18 AM new
Playbackfactor...ooooh niftage!
K@G's I have one of those too, they are just UNbeatable by the currant teflon amateur jobs these companies are making today.
posted on September 20, 2004 01:00:17 PM new
libra said --- "I will bet there are some closet dumpster divers out there. If you are one come share your story.
I think the thrill of it is 1 the prize and 2 that you don't get caught or vice versa."
one time when my ex-sis-in-law and i were 'curbing', cops drove by slowly ... just smiled ............ i know of other nearby communities, where they would indeed hassle us or worse? ... affluents ... the "haves" ... sniff sniff ... we're the "have nots" LOL
[ edited by AintRichYet on Sep 20, 2004 01:06 PM ]
posted on September 20, 2004 02:55:44 PM new
Archie Bunker and Edith,,,,,,Those were the daaaaaays. Dead fish, chicken bones. and Yuck! what's THAT! BUT! the Goodies were there TOO! Police, City Hall, they were too. Fierce competition. Newspaper! $40.00 a ton twice a day. College student days. scrap metal. Graduated right into Driving one of those MONSTER trucks! Unbelievable finds! Christmas time! Joy to the world,,,,,,
Grandfather clock! HUGE!
One (twice per week) pick up was from Crown Zellerback paper Co. in the platic wrap. ready to SELL in a store BUT,,,weight was OFF by so much,,,dump! Me and all my friends had toilet paper for around 3 years,,,,,,,and that was from JUST one days dumpster. 20 footer,,,10 feet high, 10 feet wide. right to the dump? hahahahah, hardley! right to my place! the neighbors went crazy! No complaints ,,grabbing!!!! And the county dump workers,,,,,,yippie! here he comes.....
I rolled that truck one day, The owner had ONE strand of hair,,,,then he was COMPLETELY bald.
I bought a real truck and for a few years more.
Price of scrap paper down,,,,Good economy,,,Price of Scrap UP! Bad economy.
posted on September 20, 2004 09:59:01 PM new
Well after I said I didn't do it any more my husband came home and said did you see the table and chairs by the dumpster. Well it is now in my house but I am going to try and find a needy family for it. I couldn't see the garbage man taking it. It is in great shape. Two chairs are good two are bad so we just kept two. The table is like a blond butcher block 30 x 48", chairs are padded.
posted on September 21, 2004 05:11:07 AM new
I have an award on the wall made for me 20 years ago by a friend that reads President D.D.O.A. (dumpster divers of America). He made it for me after I showed him the garage full of items I had got from a dumpster.
The dumpster was the huge ones that you need a ladder to get into it was behind a department store that had closed up 2 days before and they had thrown away everything left in the store when it closed. Among those items were over 100 disposable cameras, over 100 key chain cameras, boxes and boxes of office supplies, 2 bicycles, 1,000s of record albums, +++.
I hauled 5 truck loads home and made over $3,000.00 in the first month selling the stuff at the local flea market. I still sell at that flea market and have been selling ever since that first dumpster dive. I have found plenty of other stuff since but nothing to compare to that.
posted on September 21, 2004 06:01:01 AM new
I was in a Norstroms one night and a worker was pushing a big cart of bags of peanuts to the trash. Always needing more packing materials, I asked, "Can I have that?" He was more than happy to give it away.
When I got home, I discovered that under a thin layer of peanuts was mostly worthless paper, plastic and other trash.
posted on September 21, 2004 08:41:55 AM new
ok, I'll confess. Actually, it's not so much me as my DH. We were looking for boxes for a move and came across Sally's Beauty Supply having ? They threw away brand new hair dryers and curling irons and all sorts of things.
posted on September 21, 2004 10:33:42 AM new
Gosh...I haven't dumpster dived in years. When we lived on the military base all kinds of goodies got thrown away. They have weight limits on your moves and you have to pay for over limit weights. Lots of things got thrown out at the last minute as people tried to lighten the load. I packed my garage full of stuff all year and then would have the mother of all garage sales every year. All the people moving on base needed another couch or dresser or whatever seeing as they left their last one behind at the last base.
I also did couponing & refunding back then where you attach the upc say off a couple of cereal boxes and you mail them in and get cash back. I was diving for proof of purchases all the time. I did several of those shopping trips where you buy $1000 of groceries and only end up paying $25.00. Now that was fun!
posted on September 21, 2004 11:44:37 AM new
....ahhh since ya all diving in garbage cans for you ebay stuff, can ya post your Ebay I.D here so I can put ya on my blocked sellers list .
posted on September 21, 2004 11:45:15 AM new
Never did it, always wanted to.
My son does & his favorite dumpsters are behind any Eckerd Drug Store. After their 50 to 90% off holiday sales are over, Christmas, halloween, Easter etc, everything goes into the dumpsters, lost of great decorating stuff.
At other times they dump shampoos, face creams, lipsticks, make-up, hair dyes, vitamins (not expired) hair brushes, toys,
cans of nuts, also not expired & much, much more. He often finds several full boxes of candy bars, still fresh, which he sells for a nickle each at flea markets. The five cent candy bars draws them in & most buy something else. He does well with this & has fun doing it too.
Look at this, I found a book about DD on Google.
DUMPSTER DIVING:THE ADVANCED COURSE
$20.00
How to Turn Other People's Trash into Money, Publicity, and Power by John Hoffman It's been 10 years since the publication of John Hoffman's cult classic of urban scavenging, The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving. Now the Garbage Guru is back with an advanced course in turning other people's trash into money, publicity and power! Be prepared to be challenged by this mind-bending tutorial in the unconventional economics of digging through trash in pursuit of fun and profit. Just some of the lessons you will learn include • The "key" secret to dealing with locked dumpsters • How to dive for information ("dumpster dirt" and use it to humiliate corporations, politicians, and other evil-doers • The unusual profitability of diving for movie and celebrity castoffs - without ever having to visit Hollywood • The BIG-bucks potential of industrial diving, including the top 10 most lucrative places to do it • How to sell your dumpster-dived wares through the greatest flea market of the 21st century—eBay! • How to parlay "dumpster diving consciousness" into finding cheap property, supporting radical causes, even landing political office New readers, as well as those familiar with Hoffman's work, must be warned that Dumpster Diving: The Advanced Course is decidedly weirder, more ambitious, more disturbing, and profoundly more subversive than his first book. You're gonna dig it! 8 1/2 x 11, softcover, photos, 128 pp.
posted on September 21, 2004 05:53:19 PM new
My mother and stepfather used to go dumpster diving and would sell on Ebay or put in her shop. Finally one day my mother stucked her hand inside to pull out something and she saw a hand. She was screaming. My stepfather went in there and found a tore up manniquin. After that I think she stop going into dumpsters.. That broke her!!! LOL!!!
posted on September 21, 2004 06:10:36 PM new
This post is a hoot!
There was an Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house right across the street when my kids were in grade school. When the frat guys went home for summer they tossed unbelievably nice things. Drafting equipment, art supplies, small pieces of furniture, sporting goods, all the stuff Cal Poly Aggies use.
When they realized my three were diving in their dumpster they decided to save out the things they thought the kids would want. A holler across the street and my sons were there in a flash!
Those Frat guys were super neighbors. One time we went on a 3-week vacation to Hawaii. They came over and offered to watch the house. When we got back we could see thay had gathered up the newspapers and related stuff and put it inside the front porch. Did the lawn and watered the tubbed plants, too.
posted on September 21, 2004 07:32:39 PM new
I just love dumpster diving stories and I love dumpster diving myself. Allthogh I have gotten a little more sophisticated with it and I hardly ever actually jump inside of the can anymore. Instead I have a couple of poles, a long one and a short one, with hooks on one end and loops of rope on the other.
My very first Ebay sale came out of a dumpster. It was an old vintage leather covered firemens hat in very good condition that sold for $168.00
I used to take my niece with me dumpster diving and we'd come back with all sorts of things. We found one dumpster that had about 500 unopened boxes of cigars in it and another that had about 2 feet high in the bottom with nothing but makeup, lipstick, rouge, eyeliners, etc. I used to tell people that I would hold my niece upsidedown by the ankles and move her around inside the can and she would throw stuff out (not really, we just used to tell everyone that for the laughs.) She was a pretty good sport about it and tell her mom and dad, no really that's how we dumpster dive. Boy the looks we'd get from everyone, I could just tell that they were envisioning the whole scene inside of their heads. It was alot of fun.
posted on September 21, 2004 07:50:40 PM new
Sounds like some of you have made some pretty good hauls dumpster diving, but I think I probably made the best. 25 years ago this past Sunday, I was attnding an Elks Lodge family picnic at a local park in the town I was living in at the time. As was the practice at that time, all the empty soda and beer cans were just thrown in the dumpster. I noticed a young lady trying to retrieve something out of one of the dumpsters, so I got curious and decided to see what she was after. She explained that her son's pre-school was having an aluminum drive for a fund raiser and she was trying to get the aluminum cans, but couldn't reach them. I volunteered to jump in and start handing them out. She made quite a haul that day. I discovered she was divorced, and a week later we were dating. Seven months later, we got married. We will celebrate our 25th anniversary this April.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
[ edited by sparkz on Sep 21, 2004 09:39 PM ]
posted on September 21, 2004 09:28:09 PM new
I read out loud the whole thread to my 17 year old who wouldn't leave her bedroom to come read it and your post sparkz made her say Awwwwwwww how sweet all the way in her bedroom. You win !
posted on September 21, 2004 10:00:52 PM new
STONE: MAKE THAT IMAGE SMALLER PUHLEEEEEEEEEEZ! I have to scroll for miles to read the thread!! Great image BTW but WAY too big!
AWWWWWWWW Sparz - great story!! Congrats on the Silver Wedding Anniv.!!
**********************************
Sig files are too much trouble!
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards
[ edited by neglus on Sep 21, 2004 10:03 PM ]
posted on September 22, 2004 02:54:12 AM new
OMG Sparkz ... that IS the best dumpster find EVER! lol ...
a year ago last spring, i saw a curb full in front of a house with a 'sold' realty sign ... had to stop and take a look-see ... they had a few large boxes of sumpthin' like 'metabolife' or 'megavegavitamin', {but that wasn't it; i can't remember now the exact name of the product} various products in there, like different flavor milk shake additives, dietary supplements etc... all still safety sealed ... i had vaguely heard the name-brand on them before but didn't think much about it, and i left.
i was on my way to the antique shop, and i hopped on ebay and plugged that name/brand into 'search', and went 'wow... oh no! i better go back and get those boxes' ... hightailed it back a couple miles to that curb and got 'em ... since they didn't "really go with" all our antiques listings, i asked my daughter if she would want them to sell ... she + her hubby were apprehensive at first too, but i told her 'look on ebay' ... she made well over $800 within a couple weeks from them.
[ edited by stonecold613 on Sep 21, 2004 09:51 PM ]
and use it to humiliate corporations, politicians, and other evil-doers • The unusual profitability of diving for movie and celebrity castoffs - without ever having to visit Hollywood • The BIG-bucks potential of industrial diving, including the top 10 most lucrative places to do it • How to sell your dumpster-dived wares through the greatest flea market of the 21st century—eBay! • How to parlay "dumpster diving consciousness" into finding cheap property, supporting radical causes, even landing political office New readers, as well as those familiar with Hoffman's work, must be warned that Dumpster Diving: The Advanced Course is decidedly weirder, more ambitious, more disturbing, and profoundly more subversive than his first book. You're gonna dig it! 8 1/2 x 11, softcover, photos, 128 pp.
