It's been a month since my last post. I chose to reallocate my usual blogging time to attack the gym almost every day with my baseball season approaching. It's amazing how quickly your body responds when you challenge it and treat it well afterwards.
Nothing motivates me more than the combination of somebody unnecessarily criticizing my appearance along with baseball approaching. It's the perfect storm. The last time I was this motivated two years ago, I won the league MVP by a landslide. That baseball trophy in front of me definitely has room for another next to it.
On the environmental front, I've been salvaging and selling all along. I don't quit and have some nice finds to share in upcoming posts. I reached out to network with an environmentalist who does much of what I do, albeit chasing fame with canned social media pics/posts/tiktoks. To my surprise, they've ignored me three times since connecting on LinkedIn. I wrote nice messages simply hoping that we could talk to trade ideas and expand our impact, but learned that they act one way for the 'gram, and another in private. If someone doesn't want to act like they're on the same team, I love competition.
Crypto has taken a lot of time as I'm researching macro trends, engaged in other communities, managing staking and liquidity pool rewards, and tuning my long term plans. I've fully embraced the DeFi space and am doing my best to educate several friends. In short, IBC-enabled cross-chain solutions are AMAZING. Hive is in a bubble, so I generally hope that people can explore benefits of the Tendermint protocol. I've also invested more in Splinterlands to get my owned Collection Power over 1,042,000. I'll post about this soon.
I ramble, but please see below for some notable items I've saved by plucking them from on or within piles of bags on my city's curbs just before being crushed on a truck.
Money:
This vintage silver-plated ice bucket was sold for $50 cash to a new friend I've made who keeps buying smaller items for her apartment to support my cause. Its recycled weight was 4 pounds and 11 ounces. I'll post on some other things they've bought soon. They've also introduced me to their friend who's also looking for vintage items for her own apartment.
^ How it looked before I saved it and brought it back to life.
One person's trash is another person's treasure.
This brand new complete Respironics CPAP machine set from 2012 was sold for $300 cash to a guy who picked it up urgently since his broke while on vacation. Its recycled weight was 7 pounds and 3 ounces.
I found unscathed in its travel case by feeling the outside of a black garbage bag filled with mostly empty Apple product boxes. The accessories were factory sealed. It was like a time capsule.
The buyer messaged me the next day to thank me again for the unexpected Craigslist solution to his problem. He has a hard time sleeping at night due to a car accident, so this was a big deal to him.
Proud of this one.
This working vintage coin sorting machine from Italy was sold for $215. Its weight with recycled packaging was 16 pounds and 4 ounces. It took a few years to sell this after gradually lowering the price, but it now resides in Maryland.
This luxury vehicle dual trunk cover and pet cargo net divider was sold for $325. Its weight with recycled packaging was 23 pounds and 4 ounces. It took about 1.5 months to sell once I listed it.
I find a few of these a year and have a few left. I distinctly remember being at the post office shipping a Land Rover one when Covid first arrived... feeling my very first symptoms while standing on line to scan my package in. I went right home and got hit by a freight train for a month. This is a nice bookend to that memory as my city has gotten through the worst of it.
Knock on wood.
This working coffee machine grinder motor was removed from an expensive machine and sold for $109. Its weight with recycled packaging was 2 pounds. The machine had a broken hose to make it leak, but most of the parts were confirmed as operational before disassembly. The items that I couldn't verify have been listed as for parts/repair.
The result of 1.5 hours of careful disassembly. I've parted one machine just like this one out before and used that experience to extract more value this time.
....A broken luxury coffee machine in a clear bag on the curbs to most, but not to me. The doorman watched me with a wary eye as I found it and carried it away. He kept starting at me all the way down the street. That pissed me off, but the joke is on him.
Summary:
- 5 items sold for $999 revenue = $199.80 revenue each.
- 35% received as cash.
- No repair or parts costs. All free money.
- Total weight of recycled items = 53+ pounds.
- 100% recycled boxes/package materials used on all shipments above (minus tape).
If you're seeing my recycling post for the first time, the value in it isn't in the entertainment from the handful of items I show as saved/sold. It's from the passion and hustle I consistently exhibit off-chain to produce the items for posts, and my goal of motivating others to address our global waste problem.
Thanks as always for your interest and support.
Please reuse, repurpose and recycle. If you aren't able, then donate them to shelters, churches, or thrift stores.
Have you saved anything in the last month? If not, change that now. My goal is to motivate, not entertain.
That’s totally awesome that you actually turned junk into ready cash, WoW 😮
The ice bucket, though, would’ve been hard for me to let go of, you did a really good job on it.
I think that your sentiments are very worthy of respect because if more people had your mindset there’d be a lot less junk in the world. Kudos to you🤗💕❤️
Glad you liked it. I have a few more ice buckets, including another I shined for the buyer just recently. Sadly, shipping may be too expensive to the Southern Hemisphere...
My favorite ice bucket is by Christofle. It was verified by its stamped serial number by the company as being from 1898 for the Hotel Ritz's grand opening in Paris. It's in great shape and has Grand Marnier etched on its side. It's sort of priceless to me, but I'm going to eventually contact the hotel to see if they'd ever want it back. I found a whole batch at the same time from a collector who may have passed away. With it was also a sterling silver serving tray from a cafe in Austria from the 1860-1880 era that's quite heavy. I believe the silver value alone was about $400+ before even considering the heritage and stamping.
I also have lots of other sterling silver and silver plate items like these from over the years, and .925/gold jewelry of course. I've found some nice pure silver intricately decorated Tibetan offering bowls too. I've posted on these and others in the past, but feel free to stay tuned for more.
Of course you just encouraged me to not throw away things but to recycle and if possible reuse or sell it off. I love how you turned those junks to a new one and by placing them for sale. This has actually made some cash for you.
It's always creative when we try to revive what has been condemned and reuse for our own purpose.
That sounds great! If any of the encouragement turns into any success, definitely share it. I'd love to see what you came up with.
But what if you do entertain?
The shine on that brand new ice bucket is incredible!
It's like a second ability on the next monster behind your self-heal tank. Perhaps the Reach ability.
I think it was from the 1970's but it surely did look new after taking off years of tarnish. Not an easy job, but it's fun.
We can call it the Clout ability.
The ability to entertain immediately after inspiring.
Thought about you these last weeks. I did some decluttering and cheerfully thought I'd sell all this cool stuff at a market. Suffice it to say, I sold A BIT and the rest came back home with me and has been sitting in the entry way these last 3 weeks while I have been sick with Covid.
Urgh. I thought, "where is @steemmatt when you need him?"
NO IDEA if I have the energy to list things online but gonna try... cos throwing things away that might have use for others doesn't sit easy. Gonna list a few and see - after that, it's the Buy Nothing group on facebook, I think. 😆
Ha. I'm on the other side of the world, but I'm thrilled that I have a little bit of reach there by hearing this.
Thankfully it seems like you're handling being sick well and are on the mend. What type of market was it? Was it a "flea market" as we call it here in the States?
Even if you get stuck with some stuff or have extra that's not worth the effort, putting them on the street with a sign saying "Free" could be a last resort to reduce clutter for some Spring cleaning.
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