My last post of 20 free items sold for $3,460.
I'm all about actions to prove how I help the environment and combat unnecessary waste with my own hands.
All of these items were found by walking around my city neighborhood's curbs on recycling nights (usually 3x a week for 90 mins 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.
$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:
Mint condition G-Shock watch sold for $44 cash.
Stationary indoor bike trainer weighing 18 pounds sold for $80 cash.
A unicycle weighing almost 11 pounds sold for $60 cash.
135 Magna-Tiles building toys weighing 8 pounds sold for $100 cash.
Found in two separate batches and combined.
Kitchen mixer motor tested and sold online for $68.
Bose speaker cable sold online for $38.
Scanner weighing over 9 pounds tested and sold online for $110.
A total of 9 sealed boxes of homeopathic medicine sold online for $87.
I sold these in sets of 3, interestingly all being sold to Puerto Rico.
I also found 7 sealed boxes of another homeopathic medicine (in front of a doctor's office and all expiring in 2024. I also found lots of coupons for OTC meds and tons of free samples. What a wasteful P.O.S. doctor.
Sealed new leather book from the early 1980's sold online for $35.
Sealed new Sony remote sold online for $30.
Graphing calculator tested and sold online for $34.
Discounted from the standard $45 due to a light patch on screen.
Kitchen mixer control board tested and sold online for $43.
Wowee robot dog sold online for $29.
Epson printer printhead sold online for parts/repair for $40.
3 vacuum dust bin caps sold online for $16 x 3 = $48.
I find these regularly and they typically sell within a day or two each time.
Vacuum floor attachment set sold online for $25.
Not much, but it's a shame to let this go to waste.
Coffee machine capsule tank sold online for $26.
I constantly find this and its corresponding water tank and drip tray, netting over $70 for the trio.
Air purifier top screen cover sold online for $35.
I have two more of these from the same find spot.
Get creative.
Psych book sold online for $30.
Vintage fitness instruction DVDs sold online for $25.
^$987 in free revenue for having fun.
New Development:
Two friends who are hurting financially with the pandemic approached me to have me teach them how to find stuff on the curbs, which they'll give to me to sell, and we'll split the profit.
This is the first time I've had people legitimately keen on doing this and one is starting their 2-3 nights of hunting on their own next week.
This will be a win-win as long as they remain patient and consistent. It's going to generate more pressure on my side to list quickly so I don't get buried with too much inventory, and so I can reward and motivate them quickly.
General:
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.
I need to make a big push to list these new items to keep up (key priority).
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 and am preparing for a short 9 week isolated baseball season starting in July.
I had my first scrimmage game last week and pitched 2 innings with no hits, walks or runs. I also hit the ball sharply several times without any strikeouts (a good sign given it's the first live pitching I've seen since October).
Thanks for following,
@steemmatt
It's great to see how many items you've been able to salvage. It's also interesting to see how irresponsible people are, throwing away goods in very good condition. Well done again!
Great work Matt! Re-using is the coolest and most eco friendly form of recycling - a great business and directly helping nature and the environment!
upvoted and resteemed =D
I wanna be like @steemmatt when I grow up! :D
Man you are a hero, do you realize that? <3
The key is to never grow up and to always be a treasure-hunting kid.
I guess you are right. :)
That's not what the ''grown ups'' do nowadays. They are busy consuming!
Those prices are amazing, it's almost shop prices.
For the medecine in front of doctor house, you sure it was "waste"and not a delivery awaiting the doctor ? ;)
I have a good knack at pricing in my local market and do research online to be competitive for what I sell on the internet. Check out the other post linked at the top for some larger items.
As for the meds, it was certainly in the recycling bundled together as a sample/promo pack from the manufacturer. I've found several medical devices in front of their office before, as well as un-shredded medical records.
Will do, and wil ltry to mimic as not only it's good for mother earth, but it could bring some nice and needed cash ;)
Have you ever shipped item to Nigeria? I've actually never bought an item from someone internationally, so I don't know how it works.
I have not. The only thing I've shipped to Africa was to Tanzania. If you have an eBay account, you can buy internationally through their Global Shipping program. This allows sellers who opt to sell their item with the program to make their products available to most countries abroad. eBay charges the shipping /customs fees to the end buyer, and I just ship the item to the US shipping and handling center where eBay does the logistics for the rest of the trip.
I'll create an ebay account then. It would make me happy to patronise you.
Nice haul. The doctor could have been leaving those out for someone walking by to pick up and not just throwing them away. There could also be the chance that they were switching to a new med they were recommending and couldnt use them any longer but didnt want them to go to waste so they left them out for someone to find. They could also be a pos. Idk. Just saying.
The meds were in a tied up clear bag of random recyclables from the office in a box from the producer. I frequent this spot and know their tendencies. Thanks for dropping by.
How cool is that 😁. I wish I could do that in my country as well, but we don't have such recycling points... Keep on cleaning the planet and making money!