Silver out the wazoo

garbagefinds10 Comments

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.

Part one in a million pt.13

garbagefinds8 Comments

Hope you all had a happy holiday season! This time of the year is usually not too exciting for trash, as most people are focused on other priorities. After my last post, I went a few weeks without finding much of anything. This week and last, I made up for some otherwise slim pickings with a couple of small silver & gold hauls, both from recently sold houses. This week I salvaged about 10 mismatched napkin rings, and four of them look to be solid silver. I think they are from France, as they each have a Minerva hallmark. In the same bag I found a lone gold band, a 14k gold clasp, and a Trifari brooch. I’ll be returning to that spot next week for sure.

Otherwise I’ve been pretty productive at creating order in my garage “office.” I don’t think I’ve ever been this organized. I’ll share some pictures of that once I have the chance. I’ve also been reading more, and writing (for a potential book) a bit, although I haven’t done much of that in the last few weeks. I find my inspiration is stronger when I’m actually finding fresh junk, but I don’t think there is a big rush regardless.

Anyways, I want to keep clearing out the last of my “old stock.” Here’s some cool old (mostly) Montreal postcards, and a few blanks dating as far back as 1897.

I found an envelope addressed to someone in the old Corn Exchange Building, containing some larger photos of what I assume is very old Montreal. It’d be cool to know where these were shot. The first word looks like Clarke, which is a road in Westmount (checks out), but I’m not sure what that second word is. It looks like Roy, but those roads don’t come close to intersecting (unless they did about 130 years ago, but I doubt it). Regardless, the fact that these fences were down was apparently very relevant in 1896.

On the topic of photos, these five were pretty cool. The first three were taken on Mount Royal during Easter of 1902, according to some writing on the back. The 4th was taken in Val Morin, and the 5th is unmarked. I think getting the three Mount Royal ones frames together would be pretty neat.

There’s not too much left from this spot. Mostly photos if I recall correctly, but harder formats to document than the ones I’ve shown here recently.

Part one in a million pt.12

garbagefinds4 Comments

Of all the “old stock” I had sitting on my shelves for years, all that’s left is one little box that fits under my bed. It’s mostly old photos and paper ephemera, which I find extra hard to document. I figured it might be a little less overwhelming if I dealt with in in small batches, so here’s some random bits that stood out.

I’m thinking these photos date from the 20s to 30s. I’ve found a lot of x-rays over the years, but these four dental shots are probably the oldest I’ve seen.

Otherwise, we have a car that looks to have belonged to a 1920s eccentric …

… a 23 year old begonia tuber (is that old for a begonia?);

… and a photo of a solar eclipse dated August 31 1932. Photos of eclipses from this era aren’t particularly common, so they seem to hold a bit of value. I think I’ll keep it in my collection though.

And then we have a few old paper things, like this Cox Gelatin(e) recipe book and Egyptian dream book …

… a piece of “Ozone Paper,” which looks to be some late 1800s quackery;

… a grocery flyer (apparently Montreal used “four letter two digit” phone numbers from 1925 to 1958 – I’d guess that this one is from the 40s);

… and for those who like potty humour, a stool sample summary from 1948. I am a fan myself, and plan on sticking this in an 8×10 frame once I find one that suits it. This would be great to put on the wall in a bathroom.

Winter has come early this year, or it at least feels that way. Trash picking is a bit less fun, but I still go out fairly regularly. It’s also a bit less bountiful, but I’ve had one particularly good run each of the last two weeks, which helped to make up for the other meh days. Otherwise I’m feeling inspired to write more often, so that bodes well for a potential book.

In business news, I decided to end my eBay store subscription. It just wasn’t worth the extra expense with sales so far down. The new link is here. With all the regulatory drama I’m not listing as much stuff now as I did in the past, but I still prefer to use it for certain items.