It's been a month since my last post. I chose to reallocate my usual blogging time to attack the gym almost every day with my baseball season approaching. It's amazing how quickly your body responds when you challenge it and treat it well afterwards.
Nothing motivates me more than the combination of somebody unnecessarily criticizing my appearance along with baseball approaching. It's the perfect storm. The last time I was this motivated two years ago, I won the league MVP by a landslide. That baseball trophy in front of me definitely has room for another next to it.
On the environmental front, I've been salvaging and selling all along. I don't quit and have some nice finds to share in upcoming posts. I reached out to network with an environmentalist who does much of what I do, albeit chasing fame with canned social media pics/posts/tiktoks. To my surprise, they've ignored me three times since connecting on LinkedIn. I wrote nice messages simply hoping that we could talk to trade ideas and expand our impact, but learned that they act one way for the 'gram, and another in private. If someone doesn't want to act like they're on the same team, I love competition.
Crypto has taken a lot of time as I'm researching macro trends, engaged in other communities, managing staking and liquidity pool rewards, and tuning my long term plans. I've fully embraced the DeFi space and am doing my best to educate several friends. In short, IBC-enabled cross-chain solutions are AMAZING. Hive is in a bubble, so I generally hope that people can explore benefits of the Tendermint protocol. I've also invested more in Splinterlands to get my owned Collection Power over 1,042,000. I'll post about this soon.
I ramble, but please see below for some notable items I've saved by plucking them from on or within piles of bags on my city's curbs just before being crushed on a truck.
Money:
This vintage silver-plated ice bucket was sold for $50 cash to a new friend I've made who keeps buying smaller items for her apartment to support my cause. Its recycled weight was 4 pounds and 11 ounces. I'll post on some other things they've bought soon. They've also introduced me to their friend who's also looking for vintage items for her own apartment.
^ How it looked before I saved it and brought it back to life.
One person's trash is another person's treasure.
This brand new complete Respironics CPAP machine set from 2012 was sold for $300 cash to a guy who picked it up urgently since his broke while on vacation. Its recycled weight was 7 pounds and 3 ounces.
I found unscathed in its travel case by feeling the outside of a black garbage bag filled with mostly empty Apple product boxes. The accessories were factory sealed. It was like a time capsule.
The buyer messaged me the next day to thank me again for the unexpected Craigslist solution to his problem. He has a hard time sleeping at night due to a car accident, so this was a big deal to him.
Proud of this one.
This working vintage coin sorting machine from Italy was sold for $215. Its weight with recycled packaging was 16 pounds and 4 ounces. It took a few years to sell this after gradually lowering the price, but it now resides in Maryland.
This luxury vehicle dual trunk cover and pet cargo net divider was sold for $325. Its weight with recycled packaging was 23 pounds and 4 ounces. It took about 1.5 months to sell once I listed it.
I find a few of these a year and have a few left. I distinctly remember being at the post office shipping a Land Rover one when Covid first arrived... feeling my very first symptoms while standing on line to scan my package in. I went right home and got hit by a freight train for a month. This is a nice bookend to that memory as my city has gotten through the worst of it.
Knock on wood.
This working coffee machine grinder motor was removed from an expensive machine and sold for $109. Its weight with recycled packaging was 2 pounds. The machine had a broken hose to make it leak, but most of the parts were confirmed as operational before disassembly. The items that I couldn't verify have been listed as for parts/repair.
The result of 1.5 hours of careful disassembly. I've parted one machine just like this one out before and used that experience to extract more value this time.
....A broken luxury coffee machine in a clear bag on the curbs to most, but not to me. The doorman watched me with a wary eye as I found it and carried it away. He kept starting at me all the way down the street. That pissed me off, but the joke is on him.
Summary:
- 5 items sold for $999 revenue = $199.80 revenue each.
- 35% received as cash.
- No repair or parts costs. All free money.
- Total weight of recycled items = 53+ pounds.
- 100% recycled boxes/package materials used on all shipments above (minus tape).
If you're seeing my recycling post for the first time, the value in it isn't in the entertainment from the handful of items I show as saved/sold. It's from the passion and hustle I consistently exhibit off-chain to produce the items for posts, and my goal of motivating others to address our global waste problem.
Thanks as always for your interest and support.
Please reuse, repurpose and recycle. If you aren't able, then donate them to shelters, churches, or thrift stores.
Have you saved anything in the last month? If not, change that now. My goal is to motivate, not entertain.