Faith and patience. Dedication and effort.
I keep my head down and continue to salvage items from my curbs, while asset appreciation really makes it tough to have the same excitement for cash income as I used to.
Thank you to each and every one of you for following my activity and supporting me along the way. I pay attention to all of the names and and glad that my passion appeals to others around the world.
Here’s another set of curb-salvaged items I’ve personally found in the recycling and resold:
Vintage Electronic Pad Drum Set:
- Sold for $80 cash.
- The man bought this to use in his church, so I discounted it $40 off. It was clear that this was a stretch for him to buy, or I got played.
- This was fun to test as a drummer, but I had no practical need for it with my full electronic drum set here.
- Found at the very end of my walk, literally the last pile. It pays to finish the job.
- Recycled weight of 9 lbs 12 oz.
Graphing Calculator:
- Sold for $50 cash.
- These sell like water.
- Found in a clear bag with a few other small electronic items.
- Sold to a happy Dad buying it for his kid in school.
- Recycled weight of 6 oz.
Miele Vacuum:
- Sold for $160 cash.
- Found on a quick walk after the gym before meeting a friend. I told myself “it’d be nice to find a Miele and head back...”
- ...I found this in a crate underneath a sideways cabinet within just one block. Manifested!!
- A floor attachment and replacement hose handle were supplemented from previous finds I’ve stocked up. The original handle was damaged.
- Put in a brand new bag that I naturally found outside a while back.
- Replaced a filter with a better one from another unit I had here which was broken.
- Sold within 2 days.
- Recycled weight of 13 lbs 9 oz.
New Luxury Luggage Tag:
- Sold online for $48.
- Found in its original factory packaging.
- I really had to discover this one since it’s not an obvious thing to identify in its nondescript white folder.
- Popular name brand meant a guaranteed sale over time. It was a slow seller.
- Recycled shipping weight of 11 oz.
Ugg Boots:
- Sold for $40 cash.
- Found with a dozen other pairs of shoes/boots but I only took these and one other pair.
- They were spotless and barely worn.
- I don’t usually take footwear, but these needed to be saved, and Uggs sell quickly.
- Recycled weight of 1 lb 7 oz.
Jura Capresso Coffee Grinder:
- Sold for $40 cash.
- I usually don’t take these as well, but this was a popular model that retails for $100+ new, and it was small.
- Cleaned it up and sold with ease.
- Recycled weight of 3 lbs 8 oz.
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Summary:
- 6 sales / $418 revenue = $70 per find.
- 88.5% of revenue received as cash.
- No costs outside of one cheap shipping label built into the sale price.
- 29+ pounds salvaged and reused!
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While the $ sum for the 6 here isn’t mega millions, keep in mind that the revenue of $70 per find is from free household items I pull out of the curbside recycling. Maybe my expectations are skewed from cherry-picking all these years, but I guess that’s still strong in practical terms.
Either way, the environmental impact is worth its weight to me, literally. At no cost, I select what I want to take, what’s practical to store if it’ll take a while to sell, and what I know will be easy to carry on my walks.
If you missed it, here’s my last post showing 10 items I found and gave away to my friends for free:
Thanks for your interest and check back soon for more,
Matt
Hey mate, love your efforts. I havent caught up with you for ages so glad to see you're still around and recycling trash for treasure! Not really a 'naturalmedicine' post, don't mean to be picky or pedantic, but..... :)
Hi. Thanks for dropping by. Trying to get kicking around here again one post at a time.
Sorry for the mis-tag. My thought was that it was natural medicine to have some faith in humanity restored, but you’re the boss, and I’ll only tag it again if I find a bunch of aloe plants.
Oh no I knew you'd read it wrong, I totally get it - it's not just about aloe haha xxx Don't take it to heart, I do love your work, just you know, then we'll get a bunch of shitposts from other people trying to emulate what you do and doing it badly haha and totally missing the point. Fine line I guess. xx
All good. I was just playing around here. I knew it was a stretch. Your community has grown so much. I’m very impressed.
There's been a lotta love going on in NM - thanks! Like little seeds, watered and nurtured. Stoked with our efforts!
Question because I got mixed signals...Was this Lotus feature of my recycling post a fluke? I hadn’t tagged NM, but they scouted my post out and reblogged it. Then after I made a new post with NM as a tag, it was also reblogged. I’m assuming that wasn’t you then? That’s why I started using the tag!
with the pedals and everything on that drum machine!
Yep, it was all in a plastic bag by itself. Maintenance people sometimes put larger things out that way, so it’s really easy to salvage.
The vacuum is back!! Great it sold so fast too. But as you say they’re a highly sought after item.
This is a diverse set of finds. Loving the vintage electric drum pad!
I have infinite smaller funds in the $30-$50 range I haven’t posted since they’re not too exciting, but if you appreciate the creativity behind them, I can try to tack some on to keep some suspense.
Whenever I sell a vacuum and make much-needed space, I find two more. It’s a blessing and a curse.
I find myself unusual stuff interesting for sure!
Obviously the big selling number are super exciting but more unusual bits are interesting too 👍🏻
Wow I'm impressed! Its amazing the amount of useful things that are thrown out in the West. You're probably quite alone on your search for secret treasures. Over here in Asia you'd have loads of competition... especially in these times. However, they tend to take the items apart and sell whatever they can salvage. Inspiring! I always try to use things as long as they will go and then do my best to fix them. A friend of mine in SF used to find loads of computer equipment on the street, fix and sell same as you. Keep up the good work and best of luck with finding some aloe plants ;)
Nice items. I've sold a few Ti calculators back in the day. Kids still need them for school, and there isn't anything wrong with one that has been used