On my walk back from a baseball workout yesterday I found roughly 20 pounds of LEGOs in one bag! This bag was unexpectedly hard for me to carry because there was a scooter battery in the middle of it. No wonder...
I spoke with the maintenance man who was bringing more to curb in the early evening and he told me that they were his boss’. I wanted to know if he recalled seeing any other LEGO bags, but that was it.
Oddly enough, the first thing I found when starting my normal late night route was a near compete Harry Potter LEGO set for about 2 pounds more.
I’m going to sift through them to remove any mini-figures and then list them locally as a bulk lot. Finds like this sell almost instantly once posted.
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Here are 5 more items I’ve recently sold that were personally salvaged from my local curbs.
Miele Vacuum Cleaner:
- Sold for $150 cash, with $5.50 put towards public transportation to deliver it.
- I found this on Friday night right by my apartment.
- The maintenance guy was putting more stuff out and said that it was a good find because it still worked.
- I thanked him for the info and took it.
- The vacuum had scuffs all over it, but I removed them with rubbing alcohol in under 10 minutes.
- Sold within half a day of listing it.
- 19 pounds.
Before (was like this all around):
After:
Test rubbing alcohol on the surfaces you want to clean first. It’s a magic eraser.
Sealed New Post Surgery Rehabilitation Padding Kit:
- Sold online for $80.
- I used a stock picture for my listing because the sealed bag was crinkled.
- A rare occasion where I used a stock photo without original photos to support. I may have some on my external hard drive, but am posting this from my phone now.
- I found this almost 5 years ago and patiently kept it stored in my loft for the right buyer.
- They’re worth a lot more, as medical supplies are inflated, but people usually buy these through insurance.
- 4 lbs 11 oz. shipped.
Miele Vacuum Canister:
- Sold online for $132.
- Scuffs cleaned like above.
- I usually sell vacuums as complete sets for cash, but the special hose for this was damaged and too expensive to replace.
- 12 pounds shipped.
- Shipping wasn’t bad at all to a nearby state.
N64 Game Cartridge:
- Sold online for $38.
- Found in the rain in a bag with lots of other video games and video game system elements.
- The label has some marker on it that I was able to carefully remove.
- 8 oz shipped.
Vintage Dental Light Part:
- Sold online for $93.
- I found the entire antique dental light unit, but it was too annoying to take, and would sell too slowly.
- I marketed this as an artist deco piece on top of a replacement part for the original unit.
- This reminds me that I have a second part from this find to list...
- Get creative!
- 7 lbs 8 oz shipped.
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- 5 sales / $493 revenue = $98.60 per find.
- 30% of revenue received as cash.
- Shipping weight included all recycled packaging except tape.
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I’m posting 5 examples here to spread out the recent results since I don’t have millions of examples. I’m also being more detailed for each as you can see, a fair trade versus my typical 10 examples with less info.
The amount of items here in no way shape or form correlates to the amount of effort I put into finding, restoring, fixing, selling and shipping them. My effort is intended to help the environment, others, and to support myself so I can keep doing this while patiently waiting for crypto to do its thing. It’s been almost 6 years since I worked for anyone else, or at all... These things are my rewards.
Bonus: to keep or not to keep...?
- I found this in the rain last week inside an ottoman on top of a pile of trash along a main avenue.
- It’s in mint condition and I have two N64 consoles.
- Take a trip down memory lane or just sell it for the instant income?
- Sometimes I have to ignore the nostalgia or emotional attachment to things I find to keep the cash flowing in and space available in my apartment.
I also pulled these three paintings from 1966 out of a trash bag and left them on the curb for people to hopefully grab. I’ve done this before and see people walking by later with the painting, so it’s worth the chance.
My latest active post:
Thanks for your interest,
Matt