Hello and welcome to my world of free stuff.
I only wound up making half of my circuit around a portion of my neighborhood because I found plenty very quickly and thought I'd go back to watching the crypto charts as I wait for the pullback to make my buys. (I didn't FOMO one bit.)
Let's take a look at some pics!
The overall haul...
The first find was a working vintage Italian coin sorting machine. It's missing a hand crank, but the only other one listed on eBay now has several watchers at $650. It can count up to 1,500 coins per minute and is in a lot of vending machines. It has some rust on it, but I'm in the process of removing it.
This was found on top of a vintage drum set I didn't take. The hardware was rusted and I didn't think it'd be worth taking up the space in my apartment for potentially $200.
I know, a drummer leaving drums behind...
Next, was a perfectly clean and working Kenmore vacuum in an ugly lime green color sitting in a bag. It's actually a cult classic for some reason that sells really well. It's literally almost in perfect condition. I'll sell it in four parts: the canister base ($65), hose ($60), wand ($30) and power nozzle ($60). I've actually found and sold the same model and color before.
I then found a Dyson DC24 vacuum, which is a super popular seller, but it's got motor issues. I'll be able to sell parts like the brushroll, canister, hose and handle for about $90 minimum. Not great, but they're popular. I literally JUST sold a DC24 motor to Guam of all places late last week...
Then we have the awesome find!!
I was walking and saw a huge library of books in clear bags outside of a large apartment building. This is common with elderly people, where most of the books are older and not worth much. However, I did spot this one circled and knew I hit a vein.
I went through only 3 main clear bags to get this haul with zero damage:
Besides the 3 Erte art books that'll easily sell for $90 as a set, these are 22 books from the Franklin Library/Easton Press' 100 Greatest Books set from the late 1970's and early 1980's. The kicker was that 15 of them were still truly and fully sealed new!!! The ones sold online as "new" aren't still in their plastic, so this is top shelf here.
The 7 others were in mint condition. All I had to do was blow a little dust off the top of their gold foil edges.
I'll probably sell these all individually. A lot of these sealed books will get $40-$50 a pop, or more given the better titles. The used ones will be $25-$35, with one at $60+. Shipping media mail is super cheap. This is going to be easy money. I've sold some of these before, a few sealed, and know the market well.
Here's a closer look at the titles.
Cool, right? I got to save all of these from being destroyed in a few hours, and can pass them on for a profit to avid collectors and readers all over the world!
While I took the coin counter and green vacuum home before, this was one rare occasion when I had to take a Lyft home a few blocks. I was carrying the books and the Dyson vacuum in a box, but it was really heavy. I could've done it for pride and exercise, but I didn't want to risk getting hurt for baseball.
As with the drums, I was also tempted to take this, but left it...
Hundred of brand new classical music CDs that were on eBay and Amazon, but not selling. I didn't want to get stuck with these for years.
Revenue is $ before shipping and fees.
P.S. - I sold 5 charms off the Sterling Silver bracelet I found last week for $60 cash today. They're going on the necklaces of two little girls the Mom bought them for. They were excited. The 14K gold charm I have left will sell any time for $65, and the rest of the 9 charms and bracelet will sell for about $90 combined. Not too shabby for finding it in a box on the curb.
Thanks for reading. Time for me to hammer out some more push-ups for the day, and then hit the curbs for another round of hunting.
Don't be shy to try to look around where you live on recycling nights if recyclables are left out on the curbs in plain sight.
