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These finds for this entry are from November, and as you'll see in some of the pics, the grass was still nice and green. We had a really late winter in 2015 and it was great :) I'm not really that motivated to go out in the winter because I loathe the cold, and lots of stuff at the curb ends up buried in snow. I hate getting my hands cold and wet just to find something has gotten ruined by the snow, plus I find people aren't as eager to clean out in the winter, so there aren't as many piles and finds either. I was really happy that November and December were green...Thank you garbage gods! :)

So here is a look at what I picked up during the nice balmy month of November...

The best pile I came across had 2 big blue Rubbermaid bins stacked at the curb by the garbage can. I stopped because the top bin had no lid and I could clearly see brand new Christmas lights still  in their packaging sitting right on top. I grabbed that one, and then peeked in the one underneath with the lid and saw a bunch of Harry Potter books, so I grabbed that one too.

Inside the bin with the lights were various knickknacks. Some stuff was still packaged and unused, like some candles and picture frames, you can see above a grass hula skirt still in the package sticking out. All of that stuff went into boxes for the second hand store.

The lights of course worked perfectly

The bin also contained this nice glass cake dome and plate still in the box seemingly completely unused. I ended up quickly selling this for $10

 

The bin with the lid held the best stuff though. In addition to the Harry potter books that I could see on top, there was a bunch of other papers and notebooks hiding the good stuff at the bottom. Underneath there were tonnes of things that I ended up donating like Harry Potter picture frames, Harry Potter key chains, Hermione and Harry dolls, and a wooden box that looked like a spell book.

 The wooden box held a bunch of these Harry Potter collector coins which I sold for $30

The bin also contained this sweet little porcelain communion set

And something that looked like a small book. 

I noticed that it opened, and inside I found...

On the left are some .925 silver pieces, in the middle are some "junky" religious icons, and on the right are some 10k gold pieces. Awesome!

Other things I picked up...

This airplane crate that supposedly held a dog. It's totally clean inside, well built, and secure, so I'll probably end up contacting a rescue to see if they can use it

2 different clothes drying racks. These fold flat and can be wheeled around. People on my selling site go nuts for these, so they were an easy sell at $15 each

This barely used self healing cutting mat for crafts

This beautiful girls bike was tossed because the people were moving. There was another bigger mountain bike with it, but I didn't have anymore room for it, so I hope someone else grabbed it.

This cute rocking horse bobs his head up and down and makes horse noises when a button on it's ear is pressed.

A cute kids camping chair set

This nice wine rack. Not a thing wrong with it, I guess it just wasn't someone's taste anymore

Original price tag underneath...

A bunch of these goalie sticks were sticking out of the top of a bin . My son loves being a street hockey goalie, so I knew I had to grab them for him. He freaked when he saw them. Some are like new!

This one might even have an autograph on it, but I really cant be sure.

These Christmas garlands

I did a little giggle of joy when I spotted this sweet vintage Auto-Mini bike at someones curb.

The coolest part is that it folds in half for easy transport. So cool! It just needs a bit of cleaning up and it will be good to go. Looking online, this bike can sell for up to $150. I coincidentally already have another vintage folding bike which I also picked out of someone's garbage about 20 years ago that has held up amazingly after all these years. These things were built to last :)

On another night I was being a bit lazy about going out and had ended up leaving about 45 minutes later than usual. I was kicking myself in the car on the way thinking that I was probably missing all the good stuff to the other scrappers that I know also go around, so I wasn't expecting to find anything great.

However, I was completely shocked when I found this at one of my first stops...

 Who the heck just throws this away??

Yes, it totally works. It barely has a scratch on it and still has a piece of plastic protective covering at the top of the...arm? I have no idea what it's called...the top where all the strings tie up and where the twisty things are to tighten them.

My parents came by, and my Dad who plays guitar, tried it out and tuned it. He was as amazed as I was that someone just tossed it.

Also in that town I took home...

This nice framed print

And a vintage flip clock radio. 

I have been wanting one of these forever but never managed to find one at garage sales or thrift stores, and here I found one just sitting right out in the open on top of someones pile.

And these guys that I call "The Triplets" 

I found one fan at one place, and the other 2 I found together at another place. Since I hadn't found much else in this town, and my car was relatively empty, I decided to take a chance on them. They all work beautifully! I have 3 kids and they all have their own rooms, so now they are all getting their own fans for the summer time. I felt like Oprah that day..."You get a fan! You get a fan! And you get a fan! Everyone gets a fan!" LOL

That's it for now! I hope you can have your own Oprah moment :) 

Keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!

In with a bang

I gotta say, 2016 started of great. On new years day, I arranged to meet someone not too far from here for a $185 dollar sale. Cha-ching! When I got home, I decided to add up all that I had kept track of this year to see how I did. Now, I didn't really start keeping track too well at the beginning of the year, and when I did garage sales in the summer, I also didn't always mark down every sale when I had a bunch of people keeping me busy, so my total is missing some. From what I have kept track of though, I did:

Online sales - $1972.00

Garage Sales - $423.85

Found change - $30.82

 

For a grand total of...*drum roll*... 

$2426.67!

 With the missing bucks, I'm pretty confident that I did at least $2500. The total could have been higher, but there are some things that were valuable that I chose to keep instead of selling, and I haven't cashed in my scrap gold and silver in either, both which would add in probably another couple of hundred to the total. Is that amazing or what? Granted, there are picker's that do a lot better than me, but they are also working in areas with a greater volume of garbage to pick through, so with what I have to work with around here, I'm pretty darn happy. This year I'm going to do a better job keeping track of things, and hopefully I'll be able to beat this total. :)

Now, I am still pretty far behind in my posts... we're in the new year and I'm still posting finds from October for pete's sake. So, let's tack some more stuff on to this post to get it out of the way...

This beautiful burgundy chair sat at a curb with a bunch of broken up furniture. I'm not sure why they decided to throw it out, there was just a slight bit of wear on the armrests, and it passed the smell test, so I figured they probably just changed their decor.

 

This huge ship was at another curb all by it's lonesome with the garbage cans. A few of the strings from the sails had come loose, so I hooked those back up, but then I noticed a deck rail was missing. Unfortunately the deck rail was nowhere to be found, so I brought it down to the second hand store because I figured it either wouldn't be a problem to fix for the serious hobbiest, or someone would just enjoy anyways whether it had a deck rail or not.

 

 Again, many more clothes. These were still folded. It's like someone just grabbed them from a drawer.

Also these lovely pieces...

 

This dress is from Jones New York. The necklace was in a jewellery box which was also tossed.

 

Here is the jewellery box and a bunch of other girly things. The jewellery box probably got tossed because the hinge and screw kept popping off. A little glue, a slightly bigger screw, and it's good as new!

 

Here is a look at some of the better pieces. The bracelet is silver, the single earring is gold (no match to be found) and the ring is gold as well.

 

I was hoping that diamond was real, but alas, inside it was marked CZ...cubic zirconia

 

And this gold men's ring weighed in at 2.0 grams

 

 In the dark of night I stopped at another pile because I spotted something that looked to be a mid-century modern furniture piece. It turned out to be a Selig ottoman by either the designer Jensen or Larsen. I kept an eye on the spot for a few weeks, but there unfortunately was no matching chair to be found. A chair and ottoman together would have been worth over $1000, but even just this ottoman alone will net me a couple hundred.

It was in pretty dingy looking when I picked it up...

 

I cleaned off the wood with some Murphy's Oil and cut off the broken straps, and as luck would have it, in another town a week later, I found a cushion from some out door patio furniture that was being tossed. I grabbed one with the ottoman in mind, and when I got home, I found it was a perfect fit! I still have to go over it with some Howard's Restore-a-finish and it will look good as new :)

 

The pile also produced this antique looking folding plant stand 

 

 

I've placed it in my living room to hold all my plant cuttings, which were also propagated from a garbage plant.

 

 At another pile I grabbed this huge stained glass light. 

 

 

and a collection of creepy masks

 

and else where I grabbed these statues that I call "80's power couple"

  

These 2 "redneck wine glasses" made from mason jars and a nice wooden serving tray

 

A perfectly good laundry hamper

 

Some track lighting never used and still in the box. 

 

At a move out pile I saved a box full of books. The title of the cat book cracks me up...

This retro vegetarian cook book from the 70's

 

 

 and this antique book printed in 1921 telling the story of William Wallace aka: Braveheart

 

  

which has some beautiful colour illustrations...

 

 

 A baby carrier

A vintage Speak n Spell from the 70's

 

 And this huge case which I grabbed without opening only to get it home, open it up, and find a C-PAP machine! Weird. Anyways, I didn't feel at all comfortable with even thinking about reselling this, so I donated it and asked that they give it to someone in need or at least properly recycled it.

This sweet antique fishing reel that I also found happened to be featured in an old reel catalog I picked up at a large pile a month or 2 ago in a completely different town.

 

 

and lastly, this wood burned Jesus portrait which got me singing "You're own...wood burned...Jesus" in the tune of  Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus"... and if that is now suck in your head, my sincere apologies!

 

 I hope your year started off with a bang as well! Keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!