I just picked up absolutely free one of these it is very similar to this one. I asked the lady who curbsided it why she was getting rid of it. 1) it was too big 2) her son already had one 3) it needed a few things…which looks like a gear shift knob and a new battery.c 4) she had curbsided specialed it herself a few weeks ago.
It also came with a pull behind cart thingie.
I am surfing for the gear shift thing incase I can’t get the one that is disconnected to work.
Wow, Shirley. THAT is cool. I bet your kids thing you are the Best Mom Ever.
I haven’t found much lately–big item dropoff is coming up, though!–but the other morning my son found a very nice heavy-duty jack. It needs a handle but that’s it.
On the thrift-store side, I just bought a beautiful old…I dunno, I think it’s a buffet. It’s a little rough, so I’m going to paint it shabby-chic style for the Hopefully-New House. It is COOOOOOL.
I also hit a thrift store sale that was doing a $2/bag thing, and bought two bags worth of goodies to sale on eBay.
OH! And the other day, at yet another thrift store, someone had put an awesome, VINTAGE hand-pieced, knotted quilt in the “Dog Bedding” pile. I got it for FIFTY CENTS!!! It’s in better shape than many of my other quilts!
I’ve gotta stop shopping for a while. My house is getting full, and I can’t keep up with my eBay stuff.
I once found this bottle that a neighbor was pitching out. A blue glass George Washington-shaped bottle. It is so incredibly weird/cool- I love it.
As for thrift-store stuff? All my fabric comes from thrift stores. Ugly 80’s clothing was lots of nice fabric in it, once cannibalized. I have yards upon yards of forest-green velvet that I got from a plus-size dress for 2 dollars.
I once found this bottle that a neighbor was pitching out. A blue glass George Washington-shaped bottle. It is so incredibly weird/cool- I love it.
As for thrift-store stuff? All my fabric comes from thrift stores. Ugly 80’s clothing has lots of nice fabric in it, once cannibalized. I have yards upon yards of forest-green velvet that I got from a plus-size dress for 2 dollars.
Hey, I’ve discovered a new way to find freebies. Go to craigslist.org and click on the city nearest you. Among the other interesting ad catagories is one for free stuff people want to get rid of. There’s also a barter catagory where you may be able to trade for something you want. Check it out!
That link is kinda cook, Tiki.
I think with the electric jeep I got, the only problem that we can see so far is that the thing that is use to charge it up is not generating enough ooomph to do so in the usual 6 hour turn around time. However, the lady pitching it put two in the jeep along with two batteries.
I work in a used textbook warehouse. When students return books for whatever reason, they often use very strange things for packing material. One of the rules at work is anything we find in a box or in a book that does not go with that book is fair game… one guy found 7 $50 bills in a book. Jewelry, drugs, porn, lots of stamps. Steak knives are common and are generally thrown away.
Credit cards, blank checks, social security cards have been found and are returned.
A month ago somebody found a brand new halter. For a horse.
In late september, 2001, I graded a book that contained, as a bookmark, a flight-school picture ID belonging to someone of middle-eastern descent.
Anyway, back to the point –
Just last week I got a very nice near-new IZOD golf shirt in great condition (no stains, rips, tears, not faded at all). A couple of years ago I got two brand-spanking-new Eddie Bauer sweaters, still in their shipping bags.
Unbeleivable what people use for packing. The IZOD shirt came with a few other shirts, we theorize that the sender was throwing out her ex-BF’s stuff for revenge.
Anyway, that’s definately the best thing about working there…
I’ve done temprary work at Nintendo sending their magazine. One day, they didn’t have the line set up yet so they had us do other work until it was ready. I helped unpackage video game players people had sent in to be repaired. I never saw anything as interesting as you have, Alcatraz, but they did use weird packing materials. The one I remember most was wrapped in several Pampers. At least they weren’t used.
I work for a construction company that buys and makes upscale malls. They just bough 3 run down malls and are upscaling them. But before that happens, we go in as Demolition and strip the places out. There’s everything a packrat could possibly dream about. Wood, carpet, fire doors, counters, mirrors, window, ballists, track lighting, framing, etc… My best grabs were a garage heater, 2 heavy firedoors, 2 Fire Extinguishers, and a stainless steel countertop and range from one of the eateries. We can take anything we want as long as we do not resell it.
I once did a temp job for a commercial real estate outfit and they had us clean out a big building that was a boat dealer/repair shop, I was told “everything inside the building is junk, toss it or keep it, we don’t care” I left with a Wellcraft 6 or 8" dash mounted compass (new in the box) and 2 outboard engine stands (which I sold on the way home to another boat repair place), I rigged up a power supply to the compass (it was backlit a cool red color) and used it for a nightlight for years.
Burrido, my husband does home repair and remodeling - and it never ceases to amaze me some of the stuff he brings home! Homeowners get rid of perfectly good appliances, cabinets, light fixtures (and some of these puppies are EXPENSIVE) just to name a couple of things. Actually, we have a brand new, never been used range hood in our garage - the homeowner who just bought the house wanted one with a microwave included, so she had him rip out a perfectly good one. We’ve gotten sinks, chandeliers (my dining room one is from a house he redid), kitchen light fixtures (from a house in Mundelein he worked on) - it never ends! This is also why we park in the driveway and in the street - the garage is packed.
One of my friends just acquired an SVGA digital projector. It’s a few years old and the focus button is shot (he thinks he can repair it), but, hey…you don’t need a sharp focus to play Atari on the side of a barn.
Jeez, it’s spring cleaning time, and that’s always good. My friend Em and I rode around the East Side last Sunday night and got all kinds of loot off the curb. The prize for her was a heavy, fifty-something-inch curtain rod still in the box from Pottery Barn, never opened and with a price tag of $58.00. Me, I’m collecting lumber scraps to whip up a bunch of Adirondack chairs based on the design of a beat-up 40’s one I found in the trash a couple weeks ago. I’ve taken it apart and I’m using the old parts as templates for new ones. There’s plenty free lumber in these parts now, with spring renovations going on.
Also last week I found a wood garden bench that I’d guess (from the look of it) may have been designed by someone at Rhode Island School of Design in the late 60’s/early 70’s. It’s a great, architectural design with interesting angles, and it just needs new paint.
I guess my favorite thing I’ve copped from the trash recently is a 40’s/50’s pond sailboat, with stand. It’s about two and a half feet long, and fully rigged it stands about six feet tall. The sails and spars were wrapped alongside it on the curb in dusty, crumbling 1955 newspaper. Sweet!
My house is getting full, and I can’t keep up with my eBay stuff.