My posts are all about actions to prove how I help the environment and combat unnecessary waste with my bare hands.
All of these items were found by walking around my city neighborhood's curbs on recycling nights (usually 3x a week for 90 minutes per route), where they're sitting in clear plastic bags, loose on top of them, or sometimes in cardboard boxes.
I see the value everyone else misses or doesn't care about, and I consistently do something about. It's never work. It's all fun, like a treasure hunt.
Speaking of treasure, I recently found an antique 3-tooth solid GOLD dental bridge. It's worth about $250-$300. Solid gold!!
$0 cost = 100% environmentally-friendly profit and complete freedom.
For those who know me, I've been doing/posting on this for years, and make more than enough to support myself and continue investing, as I quit my corporate career over 5 years ago to do this.
I sell on eBay, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I've saved and sold thousands of pounds of household/commercial items, and use curb-recycled packaging for nearly all shipments.
Recent recycled finds/sales:
Nikon film scanner sold online for parts/repair for $1,500. If it had the $300 film loading tray to fully test it, I could've gotten $2,500 since its basic diagnostics checked out.
The building maintenance man came out to brag that he overhead smashed the unit on the sidewalk as "old garbage," and didn't understand my advice not to. The front face had popped off, but I collected most of the broken clips and super-glued them back on just fine. I got lucky that it survived the hard fall.
Proof:
Printer printhead taken from picture above sold online for parts/repair for $80. The printer was also foolishly smashed, so I efficiently removed the part with a screwdriver on the spot.
$1,580 for "old garbage" in one spot... Not bad. I also got a nice desk lamp and an easy-to-sell camera light stand from there.
Miele vacuum power nozzle tested and sold online for $80. Found with a complete working Miele vacuum that I'll sell separately for cash.
Brand new DVD/CD drive sold online for parts/repair for $115 since I couldn't break the factory seal to test it. It was worth much more if I sold it as "new," but I always play it safe for a discount to avoid issues.
Dyson power nozzle tested and sold online for $55. Found with the complete handheld stick vacuum that I'll sell in parts (a common find and instant seller).
7 sealed new sequential panoramic puzzles of Asian landscapes sold online for $130.
When I was in the process of finding these in a bag, a snooty woman came over and accused me of stealing identities. In a F-Off tone, I told her I was recycling and saving new puzzles.
Neat Desk scanner tested and sold online for $75.
Network adapter sold online for $66. Sold immediately for super easy money.
TWO of these printheads tested and sold online for $90 each ($180 total).
Sealed new medical ortho back brace sold online for $74. I found a second one in the same spot that I need to list (reminder-to-self).
Vintage food processor base tested and sold online for $115. Required a little cleaning, but can't complain.
Author-signed Illustrated Dhammapada book sold online for $170. This was a really nice book to skim, which the monk autographed.
Dishwasher motor sold online for parts/repair for $67. I gave the buyer about 33% off as a favor.
Coffee machine solenoid valve sold online for parts/repair for $72.
I found a super expensive coffee machine that retailed for $3,000, but a gust of wind caused the box I had it balancing on (while hunting for stuff) to fall, cosmetically damage it. I've still been making great profit off of the parts.
Paper binding/punch sold online for $75.
Study book sold online for $105.
Complete vacuum sold in-person for $100 cash.
Complete Miele vacuum sold for $120 cash.
Luxury stroller carry-cot sold for $160 cash.
Baby stroller sold for $120 cash. Got to meet the little fella who will be cruising around in it - a nice emotional reward.
Tons more saved, sold and/or will be sold. Many people are leaving my city, so I'm finding way too much outside... more than I can handle.
As always, recycled packaging used for all, except when free USPS flat-rate boxes are not more cost effective.
After the virus had me sick/recovering for all of April, I'm back in top shape, have continued to invest wisely, and am preparing for a short 9 week baseball season starting in July.
**I haven't posted much lately, but I wanted to write this on Father's Day to prove my Dad who unapologetically disowned me (just before dying of brain cancer) WRONG. Five years have now passed without a corporate job, with more money now than I had from working for someone else, investment goals reached, and still going strong... living free on my terms.
Thanks for reading.
I still cannot believe the stuff you find, and the "value" others have in it. Kudos to you, five years on. :D
*Grrrr. Every day I want to relax, it's a comment like this on "I should stay in and list days" that tell me to get heck outside and find more. *Thanks for the kick.
Those puzzles! How can anyone throw those away! Brand new! You go and hand them out to poor kids on the street, make their day, put a smile on their face at least.
I'm a puzzle addict, although don't have time for it anymore, except on my phone sometimes.
You did a great job again, congratulations! 👍
great to see you back on HIVE!
Maybe a fly-by, or maybe some more posting. The coin flip hasn't landed yet. Hope all is well.
Thank you for posting to the ecoTrain community! Your post has been featured in our What's Up! Curation. You can check it out and maybe discover some new like minded people at:
https://peakd.com/hive-123046/@ecotrain/what-s-up-from-the-ecotrain-community-on-hive-11-amazing-people-and-posts-here
Amazing people are still chucking out shit in this climate. More money than sense. Lucky for your cash flow. Jamie's starting a repair shop when we get home so we can stop stuff getting chucked. Mind you we get nothing like this in our area..
There will be much more as people flee the city. I wish I had more hands and space to get more. I try to recruit friends, but many don't grasp the opportunity or aren't attracted to a little manual labor.
Nice sales and post. So we'll written
Glad to see you back and posting.
I'm about to jump back into Ebay myself, although most of what I have will ship media mail and there have been a lot of complaints about it taking weeks longer than it should. I wish we had curbs here like you do there. Most of the auctions here have still not started back up, but thinking they should soon.
Love these posts. You've made me see money in things I would have thrown away in the past.
Thanks for catching this. I can't promise that I'll be posting often, but this is a step forward.
Add an extra shipping/handling day to your listings to weed out the "must get it ASAP" buyers, but still ship it same day or within 1 business day. This keeps the pressure off, but also lets you wow the buyers with faster turnaround.
The curbs aren't to far away if you have family/friends near here... just a car trip away for some fun/ROI.
I think it may be only a 5-6 hour drive (without giving away where I live, lol). Not sure about it though. If its like they show in movies, driving and parking there is ridiculous.
Driving and parking is much more sane these days anywhere with lockdowns and businesses limited. As Michael Jordan said to close his Hall Of Fame speech, “Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Done. Sorry about that, I thought I remembered that from reading your blog some time back. Awhile back I almost bought something from you so I could send you a communication outside of here, but opted against it as I didn't want to assume that would be cool with you.
I remember reading and seeing a lot about lots of people in large cities don't have cars due to traffic and nowhere to park. I've never lived anywhere like that, can't imagine it really. Years ago I was urged by a company to move from Tucson to Pheonix for a significant jump in pay, but opted not to as I didn't want the hassle of living in the nations 8th largest city. I drove there a couple times and uhgg.
Still very intrigued by your model. Where I live now its actually against the law to look into dumpsters or drive around curbs for large trash pickups days. I was shocked as in Tucson they seem to encourage it enough they actually have a map online where it shows you what neighborhoods in what weeks they will be coming through. Of course, the competition is fierce there. When I first started doing the swap meet there (no swap meet like they have there anywhere else I've been) I would cruise through apartment complexes at the end of the month. People moving would throw away so much perfectly good stuff it was unreal. Nothing like what you post, but it was easy to make hundreds of dollars a month off of just that aspect of the business.
The signed book - sheesh!
Nice finds :-)
Love these posts. Keep up the great work.
The book had lots of nice perspective on life. It's one of those things that's nice to have, but I can find the digital version online to save space/get $ the for the find.
Thank you.
When I lived downtown, https://joannawhitney.weebly.com/spiritual-icons.html my friend and I collaborated on 300 pieces of art that we dumpsterdived the materials for...
You get some great profits tho lol when I sell my old junk it gets a lot less hahahah love what your doing tho
Your cat might like this post: https://hive.blog/hive-120078/@steemmatt/i-saved-a-tiny-life-last-night-giving-second-chances
When it's all free, it's all a win. I've sold thousands of recycled items like these, sometimes I forget how crazy it can be to others.
P.S. - Don't call your stuff "junk" and it'll sell for more. Think of them as discontinued hard-to-find items someone in the world really wants.
Wow I haven’t sold on but I’ve taken a lot of second hand furniture dumped in my block including this amaxing shelf I love
https://hive.blog/hive-123046/@ultravioletmag/upcycling
I have a lot of free shelves and household stuff too, but none are as cool and stylish as your shelf. Nice find and setup.