# Best thing you found dumpster diving **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 10, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683 "2001-11-10T22:05:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/21 "2001-11-11T23:27:17Z")
My former roommate brought home several non-functional computer CPUs, real antiques, that we stacked up and used as a TV table. Fun ‘n’ funky. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/22 "2001-11-11T23:32:36Z")
Oh! And once I found an earlier edition of one of my favourite textbooks ever (not joking), _Contemporary Linguistic Analysis_ by O’Grady and Dobrovolsky. Since I already had the later edition, I gave the one I found away to a friend who was intrigued by linguistics. ---
**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/23 "2001-11-11T23:41:56Z")
Some photos that somebody threw out accidentally (they were mine and the lorry had taken away the refuse and i followed the truck to the local depot and searched thru a big pile of crap and found the photos) ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/24 "2001-11-12T00:09:31Z")
Every Spring and Autumn my city sponsers a “Clean Up Week”: basically you put anything (other than appliances and hazardous materials) out on the curb during your normal garbage pick-up and it gets hauled away. In theory. A real cottage industry has sprung up from determining refuse pick-up schedules then hunting: the streets are alive with wily scavengers. Pretty neat, actually. An amazing amount ends up being reused. By a fluke I noticed a neighbor had put out an antique metal floor lamp: not too ornate, abalone-looking base for a night light. So I scarfed it up. Hit it with some stripper to remove old paint, had it rewired, bought an ivory silk shade on sale. Total investment: about $30 bucks and some elbow grease. Best joke: the neighbor who discarded it later noticed it in my house and said, “I had one that looked like that but it was a mess.” Then I told her it WAS her old lamp. (Great gal; she cracked up.) Veb ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/25 "2001-11-12T15:46:57Z")
Ironically the computers I got out of the rhino lunchboxes eventually went back to the box some months later. Someone got into the police trash & sent me a photo of a woman with a number under her, one of those arrest pictures. Weird, have no idea who sent it either. ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/26 "2001-11-12T19:23:21Z")
-A slightly broken expensive executive office chair (one hour of welding the leg and it worked fine) -A box full of zip disks -a stack of Playboys and the best thing I found while I dived Passwords ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@The\_Mick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mick)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/27 "2001-11-13T02:53:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Heath Doolin \* > \*\*-A slightly broken expensive executive office chair (one hour of welding the leg and it worked fine) > > -A box full of zip disks > > -a stack of Playboys > and the best thing I found while I dived > Passwords \*\* Not quite the same intentions as the rest of the divers have, eh? I don’t suppose you were searching your local telco? ---
**Author:** ![Searching\_For\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Searching\_For\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Searching_For_Truth)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/28 "2001-11-13T03:28:44Z")
Can you get in any legal trouble for fishing through dumpsters? I have to say, I’m impressed with the turnout. Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend… ---
**Author:** ![shawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@shawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shawa)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/29 "2001-11-13T06:41:14Z")
Art and Science of Dumpster Diving-John Hoffman All you nee to know on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/30 "2001-11-13T07:14:39Z")
I forgot about the reclining nice office chair my dad and I hauled out of the dumpster at church. For my birthday soon after he put in new bolts so that the back didn’t just flop all the way back. I used that for years. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/31 "2001-11-13T14:54:48Z")
“Can you get in any legal trouble for fishing through dumpsters?” If they are on private property I would assume yes. ---
**Author:** ![Dilbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58f4c7/32.png) [@Dilbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dilbert)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/32 "2001-11-13T15:39:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*“Can you get in any legal trouble for fishing through dumpsters?” > > If they are on private property I would assume yes. \*\* Aren’t most if not all dumpsters on private property? And the company the owns the dumpsters posts warnings on the outside not to enter the dumpster, that is is illegal? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/33 "2001-11-13T15:45:58Z")
Two big bags of CDS nobody ever heard of or could want. I took them home and kept the plastic cases. I once found a bank deposit ticket with a lot of checks and some cash. I called the business it belonged to, and they gave me a $50 reward. ---
**Author:** ![scotth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/34 "2001-11-13T21:20:57Z")
mmmmmmmmhhhhh… long cigarette butts… yummy. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/35 "2001-11-13T23:54:27Z")
" Aren’t most if not all dumpsters on private property?" Not around here. They put them in the streets alot. Our lumber yard has one on their private property, they let me take things from it only if I do not get into it. ---
**Author:** ![MarsDragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@MarsDragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarsDragon)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/36 "2001-11-14T01:18:32Z")
A fully functional _Centipide_ arcade machine. It was kinda broken, (you didn’t have to put money in to play; and the back was missing.) but it was good enough. We also found an _Asteroids_ game, but the screen was broken. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/37 "2001-11-14T12:53:57Z")
Some of the good stuff I found is posted in the thread, [“What’s the best thing you’ve picked out of the trash?”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85563) from a couple months ago. Just a couple weeks ago, though, we were shopping at the curb just before the neighborhood’s bulk trash pickup. We got a pair of 80-year-old, 18-pane beveled glass French doors, with all the hardware and no broken panes. Approximate retail value $800 for the pair (on the low end). I can’t _believe_ someone threw those away. ---
**Author:** ![Infectious\_Lass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e56c9b/32.png) [@Infectious\_Lass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infectious_Lass)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/38 "2001-11-14T13:31:11Z")
I never got anything out of a dumpster (or skip, as we call them in England). My boyfriend got a fully functional printer from one though! Oh I wish I had, as my printer has never done anything but collect dust as I assembled it wrong (didn’t know what I was doing!)and it has never worked, ever! Apparantly in the UK, fishing stuff out of a skip/dumpster is technically stealing, even though the other party clearly doesn’t want what they are throwing away, but who would prosecute you for it? No one I should think. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/39 "2001-11-14T21:23:18Z")
The coolest thing I found was a long time ago–my great grandmother died, and she was a major packrat so there was a lot of stuff that needed to be gone through in her house. I was only ten so I didn’t get dibs on any of the good stuff, but when I went outside to check what they were throwing away, I found a big white leather-bound Bible that looked like a family heirloom. I couldn’t believe they’d thrown it away! I hid it in the car and when we left I showed it to my parents, who were equally amazed. It still sits in my parents’ living room more than 20 years later. ---
**Author:** ![tisiphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tisiphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tisiphone)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683/40 "2001-11-15T00:46:19Z")
A GTD-5 telco switch. With extra cards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-thing-you-found-dumpster-diving/92683.md?page=1)