The box of sadness

Last weekend a near by town was holding their own version of "Antiques Roadshow" in a church as a charity fundraiser. The charge was $5 per item to be appraised. I figured, hey, it's going to be a bit of a crappy weekend, and I have $15 to spare, lets see what I can find to get appraised! :)

I brought in 3 items...one was an old painting that my husband had passed down to him from his great aunt. There has always been talk about the painting amongst the family, that she had paid a large amount of money for it in the 50's, and that she even spent a great deal getting it restored after it had survived a fire. Appraisal? Worthless!

Turns out Auntie got swindled back in the 50's by an antique dealer. The art dealer that looked at the painting says it was done about the 1860's, and likely a local artist (no signature) that copied the scene from another picture as practice. He showed me the back of the painting and said it was very rough and that the person likely used a burlap type sack as the canvas. He said if it was a real artist who had made it, the supplies used would have been a better quality. So the only value to it is sentimental value.

The next item I brought was my Christmas poster that I had found in the garbage. I had looked it up on Ebay and found similar posters, but not the exact one I had. I thought maybe I had something rare and valuable since mine is in great shape and since the ones I saw on Ebay were going for anywhere between $150-$300. However the appraiser didn't look impressed, shrugged his shoulders and gave me a value of $65 on it. Hmmm....

Next up was another garbage item...an old Dutch Military/World War II item with a naughty side to it . I still haven't figured out what it is exactly. The appraiser laughed and thought it was the greatest thing he had ever seen...said he has never seen anything like it before, and also didn't really know what it could have been used for. He guessed an ashtray, but I said there weren't any of those dented areas around the edge to hold the cigarette in, so then he guessed it was just a hanging decoration. I had only found one similar one listed online for $80 that really didn't give any info on the item, so again, I thought it may have been a rare collectable. His appraisal? $25.

It was a fun and interesting experience, but I'm not sure I'm going to put much faith in those appraisals. I'm not looking to sell those items or make any money off of them anyways, but maybe one day they will increase in value and my kids will get a nice little amount of spending money when it's passed down to them :P

On to the curb finds! There wasn't much this week as I ended up sick as a dog. I had no voice for about 3 days which my kids and husband found très amusing. I skipped a few days to recuperate, but still managed so get some stuff.

This bin was at a big pile that was a move out, the blatant clue was the realtor's sign which they threw out as well. Can they do that? Wouldn't the realtor want their sign back? I'd assume it would be pretty expensive to have those things made and printed.

On the left in the bin you'll see 3 folded twin sized mattress protecting sheets. I threw those right into the washer even though they looked clean. One of the plastic bags contained a bunch of sheets that curiously had these long round oblong circles cut into them. Very strange and unfortunately, not donate-able. Another bag contained a large orange piece of sheer crinkly material. I ended up using it in my living room draped around one of my windows.

The next bag contained a bunch of nice men's shirts. I had scribbled down some of the brand names on a piece of paper, but now I can't find it. I remember one of them was Hunt's Club. Some of the black shirts look the same, but they all have different embroidered detailing on them.

At the bottom of the bin I found the following: A pair of slip on boot ice grippers still in the package, a package of 2 black pillow cases, a red faux suede body pillow case still in the package (both of which went right into the wash because they got wet), and an audio cassette still wrapped up. That black electrical thing says DVE switching power supply and has a traditional electric plug and a car lighter plug on it. I have no idea what it is for, but I'm sure someone perusing the second hand store's electrical department will know, and will be able to use it.

Also at the bottom, a bunch of cassette tapes. I know people don't really use these anymore, but I have seen them at the second hand store and someone does buy them, so someone out there still wants old cassettes!

I also managed to pick the following out of the pile...

An over the door storage/shoe holder for a kids room

Inside on of the pockets was a red kid's hat that they probably forgot was in there...

 

 These ski boots and rubber boots were also in good enough condition to donate

On another night I had only come across one pile that was worth a look. Indeed, it looked like another move out pile. When sorting through all the stuff, I came across a bunch of papers and diary inserts. Reading some of it left me sad... this person had a bit of a hard life, there was talk of cancer, alcoholism, and infidelity. I'm not sure now if this was a move out, or if they had died. :( In any case, I sorted through it all and am going to make sure this person's stuff goes to the second hand store so that someone else can get some happiness from it.

Once sorted, I found a small file folder, 2 plastic mousepads, a black faux rose, a burgundy umbrella, a small hand painted vase with a summer cottage scene on one side and a winter cottage scene on the other, a hanger, a cordless phone, 3 photo frames, on magnetic fridge photo holder, large wide clothing elastic, some sticky tack for hanging posters, a blue pen, some kind of mp3 player (I'm not sure how it works, but I turned it on and heard music, so it works!), 2 excercise DVDs, a Nintendo 64 gaming cartridge and a Playstation 2 Teenage Mutatnt Ninja turtles game which I'll put in my pile for my comics/gamer guy, a head massager, a mirrored tray, and 6 cents

This photo frame isn't even used

Inside a manilla envelope I found an old photo. I took this picture of it with the glare so you can see the cool crackle effect that is on the paper.

 There were also a bunch of books

2 brass crane statues

A fluffy boa scarf, a pink dog sweater which I'll give to my friend for her Chihuahua, a doily, a santa hat, and a lone slipper. My cat tried to grab the slipper out of the box, so since it looked practically new, I decided to cut off the trim and make it into a toy for her.

Here is Harriet enjoying her new garbage toy :)

I didn't get the memo...

Has the world gone mad? Did I miss the memo? It was another week that left me shaking my head wondering what people are thinking when they bring those bags and boxes to the curb. Let's take a look at what would have ended up in the landfill...


A briefcase that will go to my friend who I mentioned in a previous post. It's a bit scuffed up, but she'll paint it up and use it to display her wares at the farmers market.

 

Next to the briefcase was a stack of boxes. The one on top was filled with a jacket, so I took a quick peek in the other 3, saw that they contained more interesting stuff, so I put them all in my car to sort through at home.

Box #1 contained a down filled jacket (nothing at all wrong with it), Helly Hansen rubberized work pants in perfect condition, and 3 small stuffed animals: a Christmas bear, a black and white pig, and an orca.

Box #2 contained a vintage singing Santa. He still works, but he is unfortunately missing an arm :( Wrapped up in all that paper was a bunch of beautiful Christmas ornaments. Some with the tags still on! The brown and gold ornament is priced at $4.99, the stocking at $9.50, and the box of silver balls is priced at $11.99.

Box #3 contained clothing all in fine shape. 1 cap, 2 winter hats, a pair on anti-slip socks, a nice burgundy sweater, a pair of ear muffs, 4 t-shirts, Nike shoes, and a pair of leather work gloves.

Another stop at a pile that looked like a move out. There was a bunch of broken up press board furniture, and on top of one of the bags was a blue plastic basket. I decided to take a closer look into the garbage bag and spotted a bunch of clothes...

This bag was huge and heavy, and it's no wonder...look at all the stuff inside! 7 mens underwear, 7 pairs of socks, a swim cap, 4 bikinis, 3 t-shirts (Denver Hayes, Reebok and Old Navy), 2 dress shirts (Hang Ten & George), 2 pajama pants, 2 leggings, 1 CP Rail train berber vest, a nice scrunchy scarf, a hat, a Guess wallet, 2 bras, a paddle ball, a screwdriver, a flashlight that plugs into and charges in a car's cigarette lighter, 1 giant can of fish food (half full), 6 complete Bionicle Lego sets, and 20 cents in Canadian Tire money.

There were also 3 CDs that I saved and placed in the blue plastic basket. Yes, I even saved the Justin Bieber CD :p

Once again, this pile was right across the street from a donation bin :(

Another move out pile was a bit further down the road. This time there was a couch, a pool liner and a bed included in the pile. I peeked into all the bags and found 2 that looked like they potentially had good stuff in them. The rest of the bags had food and construction materials inside.

 

 Bag #1 contained 2 shirts, 2 tank tops, 1 Disney shirt, 2 long sleeved shrugs that tie up in front, 2 pajama pants, a pair of Tokyo jeans, a bra, 2 pairs of socks, a scarf, a pillowcase, ear buds still in the package, an anklet still packaged, and a dime.

Bag #2 contained a nice road atlas, some kind of contraption from Samsonite for folding your clothes, a huge ball of yarn, 2 binders with dividers inside, a pad of scrapbook paper, a Wii Sports game, some kind of Tupperware contraption, an allan key, a par of scissors, pens and markers, a small picture frame, unused lip gloss in a heart shaped tin, a spool of red thread, eye make-up remover, nail polish, 2 small baggies of crafting bows, a bungee cord, a hanger and a bracket. Not pictured here but visible in the bag above is a spray bottle half full of Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom spray, and a pair of safety glasses.

I came upon this Rubbermaid bin with a bunch of stuff sticking out of it. I was hoping for another free bin, but alas, this one was cracked. It still looked like there was a bunch of good stuff inside, so I just threw it all in my car for sorting later.

Inside I found a pop-up kids toy. It was unfortunately missing 2 of the shape blocks, but all you have to do is push the shape holes and the parts of the toy pop up anyways, no need for the shape blocks really.

 

  

There was also 3 candelabras, one had a bit of wax still on it that I was able to just pop right off, 1 tea light, 2 wooden shelf brackets with hardware,various small kids toys, an extension cord, a hanger, a small artificial flower bouquet, a dusty tab curtain panel that I'll be washing, a navy tie, and an unopened bottle of 2004 Chardonnay.

 

Yes, chardonnay. This garbage picking stuff is getting fancy! 

This stuff was picked up in front of a home that has stable where they board horses and give riding lessons. They were holding an open house about 2 months ago and I guess some of this stuff was left over from the event. 

This picnic basket was sitting right on top of another pile. I grabbed it because a closing basket could come in handy for storing any number of things, however I was surprised to find that other than the missing plates, the set has been unused! I'll visit the dollar store to see if I can replace the plates, and then the set will be as good as new!

On another day at another house, they had a huge pile at the end of the driveway. Unfortunately, they also just dumped a bunch of stuff straight on the wet ground. There were some really nice items that could have been salvage if they had been more careful. There was an adorable airplane piggy bank being flown by 2 teddy bears that had it's wings broken off, and art work that was sopped and ruined. I managed to take 2 pairs of sandals for my 2.5 year old who is out growing his pair, and I picked up this complete bedroom set out of the wet grass. Thankfully I had a spare garbage bag in the car to put this in so it wouldn't soak and mess up my car. Here it is once I got it all washed out. There was just one small stain on one of the curtains, but it came out easily with some OxyClean. Who just goes and throws this out? This would be an easy sell for sure, it's adorable! I can't believe it almost rotted in a land fill :(

There are 2 twin size duvet covers, 2 pillowcases, 2 tie tab matching curtains and even a matching floor rug.

I also found this dollhouse that I'll have to hose off before I bring it to the second hand store because I left it out in the rain and it's a bit mud splattered. Thankfully it's all plastic!

 

This whimsical garden statue was at the end of a gated driveway, so I'm sure it wasn't cheap. It has unfortunately lost a few chips of paint here and there. I'm going to power wash it and see if anymore flakes off, or maybe even get it all off, and then try to repaint it. If it doesn't work out, no loss right? 

I came across these blue garbage bags at the curb on a weekend when there was no garbage pick up in this town until the following Friday. I mainly saw a bunch of loose giant Lego pieces, but decided to take a chance on the bags anyways.

Inside I found 2 Easter baskets, a small mirror, some baby themed fabric, some anti skid mats, a roll of shelf liner, some 3D Christmas cards, an unused Bingo dauber, a mesh bag full of some small dolls and Littlest Pet Shop figurines, some wings for dress up, a Christmas antler headband, a play hair set with a brush, comb and hairdryer, a Tarzan Disney book, a Barbie mouse pad,  and a home made box for a Skip-Bo card game,

 

There was also this...I thought it was a vase, but there is a round hole on the bottom about the size of a dime, so I'm wondering if it may have been part of a hanging lamp. In any case, I think I'll buy a "make your own lamp kit" at the hardware store and turn it into a lamp anyways as I really love the bumpy glass pattern.

29 cents in change

3 bedazzler rhinestones that are coincidentally in the same colours as my kids' birthstones...weird!

This pair of clogs in a size 7 (I'm a 9, bummer!)

and all this childrens clothing...a knitted scarf, a pair of mittens, a hat, a creepy ghost puppet, a ballet dress up costume, a pair of slippers, 2 underwear, 2 shirts, a bib, and stockings.

Another great haul for the second hand store! I'll crack open the chardonnay and toast the trash!