People will throw anything away...

[Retired LTC USAR]

While it may not be "the garbage", I love looking through the used holster bins at my LGS. Stuff in there is priced practically free. Even if I don't find something that I want or need, I am always amused by what I find in there.

Did that a few weeks ago and found a 2 magazine paddle holder and got it for $5.

 

[Grayfox]

I've mentioned before that I was a mechanic for my city for 25 years. Yes, we fixed garbage trucks. In fact, they made up the majority of our work.
Never ceased to amaze me the stuff people will throw away. Now mind you, what we got was the left overs found in trucks after the workers had already picked over the best stuff.
I put together a nice 10 speed bicycle from parts I found over a couple of years. All kinds of electronics. TVs, vcrs, microwaves, games. Fishing tackle, rods, reels, tackle boxes and tons of lures. I've had a number of BB and pellet guns that only needed a drop of oil in the right places to work just fine.
I once paid a driver 5 bucks for a guitar he found. Looked almost new. I took it down the the local music shop to get some new strings. The guy there looked it up in his references and it turned out to be a somewhat collectable old Yamaha worth $400 or more.
One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

[DeadAye]

....
One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Or:
One man's treasure is his wife's idea of trash.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I was cleaning out the shed from hell, wife won't go anywhere near it. 5 gal buckets from pool chemicals, messed up hedge trimmer, ancient chain saw, and a bunch of other assorted junk. All down by the road. I had called up the parish barn and told them everything was down by the road. OK we'll be there tomorrow. Well tomorrow comes and everything was gone. Had to call the barn and cancel their road trip. Works for me. Only thing I ever found was a WWII shovel that the shovel was locked in place with a knurled ring. Frank

Same thing here in Jeanerette. Put it out on the curb and it's guaranteed to be gone by morning. But in all fairness, I must confess to stopping and picking up some neat stuff myself
I'm surprised Dick Burg hasn't chimed in as he is a grand master at picking up useful trash along the roads and byways of KY.

 

[jack the toad]

So if you want to get rid of something just put a price on it and someone will think they are stealing it!

Kinda reminds me of an old-timer saying around here; if you can't give it away, sell it.

 

[JohnSW]

next welfare check

Breaking news: The middle-class and rich throw away things too. As a practical matter, they own more things, so they have more things to throw away.

 

[NYlakesider]

Back about 15 years ago my BIL was ranking foreman of the night shift of a city of about a 100,000..

That put him in control of snow plowing and trash collecting. Basically he drove around most of his shift in a PU truck. The stuff he found at the curb! He was also into antiques so he knew what he was looking at and many nights lots of good stuff came back to his garage. What he did not keep he sold and made some decent money as it’s positively amazing what people just throw out.

Among things he found was lots of decent shaped furniture, fishing equipment a couple outboard motors with tank, one on a stand even, old tools.

Of course he also found or his men called him if they found suspicious items. Found lots of discarded purses, wallets and other stolen stuff, a few handguns which of course he safeguarded till the police showed up.

 

[snubbyfan]

A few decades ago, I lived in one of those suburban communities. Twice a year you could put large items out on the curb for pickup.
My buddies and I'd go "junkin." I'd look for old electronics that I'd fix up and sell. Back then you could still go to the local hardware store, test the tubes and get replacements.
Solder in some new wires, clean the contacts and it'd work great. Then sell it for a profit.

 

[BAM-BAM]

When I was about 10 my Dad was working 12-8 ........while patrolling the most upscale neighborhood in our hometown (think CEO of US Steel; the Clark Candy/Clark Bar family).........he sees what looks like a brand new Lawn-Boy mower sitting at the curb with the garbage..........

Threw it in the patrol car's trunk and brought it home......

Next day he tried it and it wouldn't start ....... fooled with it for about 30 minutes........ started right up

I used that "Yellow" Lawn-Boy for the next 25 or 30 years until the aluminum deck cracked and broke..... including several years of a teenage grass cutting business.

 

[GatorFarmer]

The best dumpster pickings are said to be had at and around apartments filled with college students when it is time to go home for the summer.

 

[labworm]

A friend of mine worked for the DPW for over 20 years.

The things he found were unbelievable, fur coats, antique lamps, radios, leather jackets, new boots still in the box, etc.

Opened up a little store, made some money, and and never needed to pay for any of his stock.

How can you beat that?

 

[arjay]

Vail used to be notorious in the spring.New skies,boots,$500 parkas, etc [emoji15]

 

[revolvergeek]

I love driving around on the night before trash pickup; particularly around Christmas or right before the Superbowl. At one point we had 5 TVs in the house, all of the them HD, and every one had been thrown away by someone.

 

[the ringo kid]

Someone told me a story once they had an old TV they no longer wanted, worked fine. So they put it at the curb with a FREE sign on it. No takers, after a few day they changed the sign to $25.00. Less than one day it was gone and no money was left. He didn't care just wanted it gone.

So if you want to get rid of something just put a price on it and someone will think they are stealing it!

Ive got a Tv set that blew out a couple years ago and I use it as a TV stand.I wonder if I ought to do the same thing? I mean, place a price on it? Anyway,if it were taken? It would teach them not to steal and would serve them right.

 

[Bekeart]

A bit off topic but if you really want to mess with people try this sometime. I used to set up at gun shows now and again and a buddy told me take an item worth five bucks or so and tag it as free. I was amazed how long it took for it to be taken, people would pick it up and look at it and look a bit puzzled and put it back. If I remember right it was a Uncle Mikes nylon holster for a mid frame revolver.

Long long ago a coin dealer (at gun show) told me about what he did for humor.

All his coins were in what I would call a 35mm slide mount.

He would put a Susan B Anthony One Dollar coin somewhere in his assortment. Marked 75 CENTS

Potential buyers would sort through his coins - without paying attention such a common coin.

He had never sold more than two at any show. ALL sales were to younger persons. (children)

He viewed this as CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT - watching to see how many adults overlooked the bargain.

Bekeart

 

[jarhead1178]

Worked at a rental car turn in lot at the airport after I retired. Was amazed at the things people left in the cars, not by mistake but on purpose.

 

[billwill]

Worked at a rental car turn in lot at the airport after I retired. Was amazed at the things people left in the cars, not by mistake but on purpose.

I don't think we want to know any more about this one .....do we?

 

[gaf]

Once as a young patrol officer I was driving down a street in a very upscale neighborhood very early in the morning. I passed a garbage truck making his collection. About 10 houses later I see a large tool box, one of those red two level kind on wheels sitting at the curb. As I slowed down I saw a lady wheeling one of those golf bags on wheels full of golf clubs with the fancy covers on each club down next to the tool box.

I had my windows down and as I pulled up even with the lady at the curb we made eye contact. She loudly said to me "I caught the *** cheating and he is out with his girlfriend right now. He is really going to be surprised when he gets home."

 

[Mcwsky09]

After asking around if anyone wanted it, I put out an old tv with remote.everything but the built in DVD player worked. The next day someone smashed in the screen.

 

[rburg]

I'm surprised Dick Burg hasn't chimed in as he is a grand master at picking up useful trash along the roads and byways of KY.

I'm be-un slandered again! Lots of fun with the trash. Every time my wife wants a new couch or chair, the old one goes to the curb. But my son and his best friend come over with a 12 pack. Stuff doesn't last long here. We're on a state road right next to the river. Everyone comes furniture shopping here on trash day.

One of the best I've seen was 2 houses down. The guy had a real blow out party there. The next morning was trash day. Convenient. So his barely dressed GF is runing around the yard picking up empties and stuff. She did have a clear shirt on, but you could see she didn't have the normal suspension garment under it. Nice view. So they had out maybe a dozen bags of empties and stuff. She begged them to give her just another minute. They didn't mind, they were watching too. So as a last favor, she ran up on the porch and got them each a couple of beers. They were polite and thanked her. Still watching.

They were doing a remodel down the road a piece. Just throwing out the old windows into a dumpster. Foolishly I told my wife they even tossed the opaque bathroom window. Yep, I was dumpster diving for it 5 minutes later. Seems that glass costs big bucks at the stained glass store my wife frequented.