Jim

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On February 15th, around 1:40 in the morning, my stepdad passed away after a long battle with Lewy Body dementia. Lewy Body is a progressive disease, so the outcome was largely foretold and the main unknown was the exact timing.

My biological dad died from lung cancer when I was 12, so in a lot of ways Jim ended up being the primary father figure in my life. And I’m not sure where I’d be if not for his influence. For example, when I was young, I was generally anxious, painfully shy and largely avoided other humans. I refused to eat much besides peanut butter and jam sandwiches and disliked most food. My dad was a little too laissez-faire, Jim was more proactive.

I remember he made me sit at the table until I finished my chunky soup. I cried a bunch (I was probably like 8, ha ha), but I ate that soup. And now today, the only food I truly hate is olives.

He also made me start talking to people. I would have to call restaurants to make reservations, golf courses to make tee times, and so on. And what do you know, I ended up coming out of my shell, and became a reasonably functional human bean (pun intended, one of his favourites). It was basic exposure therapy, but it worked.

He was determined and sometimes bull-headed, which led him down many different paths. Most famously, he formed Operation Dismantle to oppose nuclear proliferation, and if you were Canadian and watching or listening to the news in the late 70s and 80s, there’s a good chance you saw him on your TV. More recently, he was focused on his own vision of world federalism, where his idealism led him down a path well before its time.

I hadn’t seen him since 2014, due to my own illness (agoraphobia/fear of traveling), and then his progressing dementia. I’ll always regret my part in that, but it is what it is. We grew apart for a few years there, and then the Lewy Bodies made it impossible to build much on the foundation afterwards. He had a hard time relating to my mental issues, which are apparently too complicated to be solved by exposure therapy alone. He never really understood the trash picking either. I think he doubted the long-term viability of it, which is fair. Only in recent years do I think, without a doubt, that I’ve proven that making an ok living doing this is possible. But by that time, his brain wasn’t working so well anymore.

He always loved owls and had a nice collection of miniatures. I sold him a bunch more several years back, when I found a nice collection on the curb. His brain was starting to go around then, so I’m not sure the headspace he was in when he decided to buy them. Maybe he just liked the owls, or maybe he just wanted to connect. Regardless, I’ll soon inherit a few of my favourites, as well as some other stuff. Dealing with someone’s possessions can be overwhelming, which is partly why some of it ends up in the trash (even when it’s treasure), but I think our family knows how to deal with it in the best way possible.

Anyways, he could be a pain in the arse sometimes, but no one could dispute his passion and his dedication to the betterment of humanity as a whole. He didn’t like religion and didn’t believe in heaven, but I’m more of an agnostic. Who knows, maybe some part of him is still out there, and hopefully he’s proud of what comes next for both me and humanity (even if it’s looking a little bleak right now).

Stuff and things

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It’s been one of the harshest winters in recent memory, but enough decent trash has been trickling out to make my picking expeditions worthwhile. I went for a walk around my old neighbourhood in early January, and came across these bags.

Inside was mostly kid’s toys and junk, but for some reason a couple of doctor’s tools were mixed in. Maybe a retired doctor gave their grandkids their old devices to play with, who knows. Regardless, they were in pretty good cosmetic condition, and weren’t all that old either. The otoscope (above) battery was shot, but it held power for long enough to test the lights on the components. These things retail for over 1k new, and I was able to sell this one pretty quickly for 200$.

I also found and listed this sphygmomanometer. It’s not worth as much, but should fetch 50-100$.

I found another little jewelry stash that probably belonged to someone’s teenage years. Mostly junk, but there was one nice 14k gold butterfly necklace that made my trip worthwhile.

I mentioned one particular spot being notable for one other thing in my last post. That one thing was a big collection of perfume. Pretty nice stuff, and mostly fairly recent and fresh. I gave first dibs to someone who helps me sell things on Facebook, 2nd to a regular perfume buyer, and sold one on eBay for a total profit of around 400$. But I’ve still got a bunch left – selling used perfume on eBay is a pain after recent policy changes. If anyone knows any alternative selling platforms for perfume, let me know! Apparently Marketplace isn’t all that great for perfumes either, with lots of companies using algorithms to flag anyone trying to sell their used product. (To be fair, if they didn’t MP would be filled with fake Chanel #5 and whatnot).

Otherwise, I’ve done well this winter re-organizing and decluttering my garage. That includes listing some items that had been sitting around for years, and also processing some new arrivals quickly. The Breitling watch box and knife sharpener were recent finds that sold quickly (80 & 100$ respectively). The same applies to the otoscope above, which quickly listed then sold. Of the things that had been collecting dust for at least a year, my relatively quick sales included optometry paraphernalia, a stamp collection featuring a lot of vintage big blocks from Iraq, Pokemon-themed “Mighty Beanz”, an emergency beacon thing for avalanche safety, and an old projector lens. The lens felt like the dustiest of the bunch, but sold within an hour or so of listing for 100$. I still have some work to do, but am more organized than I’ve been in a very long time.

There was a death in my family recently. It wasn’t a surprise really, but regardless it sucks when that time comes. My next post will be dedicated to him.

 

Silver out the wazoo

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Here’s the jewelry finds from back when I mentioned having “one particularly good run each of the last two weeks” (December 5th post). This is all the silver, plus the charm chain which is marked 925 but appears to be not, a Coach watch, and the necklace/pendant on the right which is 14k white gold. My favorites from this batch are the charms, which are pretty hefty and feature marcasite stones, as well as the matching bracelets in the back. Those are marked as T&C – not Tiffany and Co, but Town and Country. They’re very pretty regardless and seem to sell for around 150$ each on eBay.

This spot was notable for one other thing, which maybe I’ll mention in my next post.

I’m not super happy with this photo, but it’s the only one I have of the jewelry I found the week before that (or after, I forget). Again, this is all the silver separated from the costume stuff, with the only gold being that bracelet on the left. It’s 10k and quite small, it was probably made for a kid. I went back to this spot this week and found another 20 grams or so of silver, this time in the form of a chunky pendant. The house is sold, so if I’m lucky I might get some more treasures in the coming weeks or months.

I saved this batch more recently, a couple weeks ago in NDG. A few nice Italian pieces here, and another recently sold house that I’ll be keeping my eye on.

And then last week, some former teenager put their old junk on the curb, including some jewelry bits. A lot of it was the usual crap that kids end up with, but I managed to fish out close to 27 grams of silver.

A few years ago this would have been worth 20-some dollars. At current prices, it’s worth closer to 100$. Even if the rapidly increasing gold prices make people a little more careful about throwing it away, I expect people will continue to be careless about their silver. And sometimes, I’ll be there to find it.

Otherwise, I’m thinking about my old stash of silver. I’ve been stashing some of my silver finds for years, the stuff that seems nicer than scrap but not special enough to stand out on eBay or get a friend to list on Marketplace. I was thinking I might try to sell these pieces at some kind of relatively fancy market, but I don’t think I’ll ever actually get around to doing that. I’m getting older and I realize I don’t like selling all that much. I like yard sales because I’m not that worried about any of the prices, and eBay because I don’t have to do much in the way of customer service. But the whole thing where you organize all your junk, bring it somewhere, display it nicely and then have to ask a price that justifies all that effort (which will disappoint most people) … it’s not for me.

Anyways, my plan is to divest myself of this silver. I have about a pound of it, maybe a bit more. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, but over the last year I’ve been trying to get rid of as much stale crap as possible. I was thinking of doing an eBay listing, but I could also just say to hell with it and bring it to the scrap man. If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments. I’m not sure if people will pay much of a premium for this kind of stuff at the current metal price.

One last thing. I found this photo in a collection of damp, sometimes moldy photos that had clearly spent too long in a basement. This one wasn’t too bad though, a little smelly but that seems to have dissipated, and appears to be signed by Jean Beliveau. I doubt it’s super valuable, but I figure if one of those kids ended up being in the NHL, it could increase the value. I’m guessing I have some followers who know a lot more about hockey history than I do, so let me know if you have any ideas. For some reason I think the team might be from Dorval, but I don’t know if that’s based on some actual info I saw while sorting through the pictures, or something I just guessed. Anyways, I would be happy to figure this out, as it’s been bothering me for a while and I’d like to pass on this photo to someone who loves it.