First let's talk Orchids.
Before I 'Dive' into a first-time subject about unordinary finds .. let me start with something a little more familiar—my Coconut Orchid in full bloom! While it might not be the showiest orchid in my collection, its deep burgundy flowers with a speckled lip are still a treat to see. But the real magic? The scent! It smells just like coconut or coconut oil, intensely fragrant to the point where I can catch its aroma from over six feet away. It’s one of those orchids that surprises you—not with size or color, but with its ability to transport you to a tropical beach with just a single breath.
The Coconut Orchid is also a bit of a trickster when it comes to looks. If you didn’t know better, you might mistake it for a clump of grass. But despite its humble appearance, it’s a diva when it comes to care. This plant demands water, and if you neglect it, it will let you know loud and clear—probably by turning into a crispy shadow of its former self. Thankfully, I’ve figured out the sweet spot in my watering routine, and she’s loving me for it right now, putting on a fragrant show as a reward. A little high-maintenance, sure, but totally worth it!
Now, let’s talk Dumpster Diving.
The meat of today’s post is a little out of the ordinary.
Maybe even a bit strange and possibly out of character for me. But hey, sometimes you stumble across something so wild you just have to share it.
Now, before you get the wrong idea .. I’m not out there randomly stopping at dumpsters, scaling the side, and diving headfirst into unknown horrors. Nope. I have no desire to run into a raccoon, or worse, a dead body. (Yeah, no thanks.) My ‘dumpster diving’ is far more selective .. and honestly, it kind of just happens as part of the job.
See, at work, we occasionally have to clean out attics, basements, and other storage areas before we can actually get to the job at hand. That means our guys return to the shop with truckloads of stuff that gets tossed into the company dumpster. Sometimes I help unload, and sometimes I don’t have the time, so if I’m curious, I check later. And let me tell you, it is fascinating what people accumulate over the years and then suddenly decide to throw out. I could probably write a book on it.
But today, I’ll stick to the kind of discovery that gets the Silver Gold Stackers Community fired up.
Last summer .. after one such haul, I took a few minutes before heading home to rummage through what had been dumped. Most of it smelled like a musty basement, but one box in particular caught my attention—filled with what looked like jewelry boxes.
After further investigation .. They weren’t actually jewelry boxes. They were gift boxes containing various items such as knives, clocks, stick pins, tie tacks, money clips, pens, watch straps, bracelets, and a couple of necklaces. All were awards from a company called Burns Security and given out for years of service on the job. Nothing that seemed particularly valuable at first, and obviously whoever tossed them thought the same. But something told me to look a little closer.
That’s when I saw it. A tag on each item that read: “10Kt Gold Emblem.”
Oh yeah. Now we’re talking.
Each piece had a shield-like emblem attached to it made of 10-karat gold. I counted 30 items in total. Thirty! So, naturally, I had to do some quick math. I weighed one of the tie tack emblems—it came in at 1.8 grams. At the time of writing this, 10Kt gold scrap price sits around $39.34 per gram. You do the math. (Or fine, I’ll do it for you—that’s about $80 per emblem!) And I had found 30 of them.
Here is a selection of the various items
Now that’s a dumpster dive worth talking about.
A Sample of the other things I found that day...
I found a few other interesting things that day (an old Vietnam War helmet and the largest collection of Willie Nelson vinyl I have ever seen - told you there was some weird stuff in there), but nothing came close to that gold haul.
And before anyone says anything .. NOPE, I feel zero embarrassment about it. In fact, I just went digging again recently and found some more ‘trash’ that might turn into treasure. If people want to toss out things without checking them first, I’ll gladly sift through and turn their trash into precious metals for the stack.
The lesson of the day?
Always check before you toss! You never know what hidden value you might be throwing away. And if someone else is careless enough to do it… well, I’ll be there to scoop it up. Hehehehe.
