The city where I live has a recycling service, they pick it up every week, there are people who raid the cans before the truck arrives and then sell them. The competition is fierce. Some guys will push two shopping carts at once full of cans It's getting to where you have to guard your trash.

we've recycled for years. it's very rewarding in more ways than one.

a joke made just for my husband:

how do you know a redneck?

he comes home from the recyclers with more than he took!

one of the three times i've gone with him, we were waiting in line in our truck and he said, "HEY! do you see what that guy's throwing away over there?" i responded, "no, i do not covet other people's garbage." as i was sinking down in my seat, swearing never to go with him again, he got out of the truck (before ours was even unloaded) and went over to where the guy unloaded his "junk" and brought back an entire set of antique-like sears craftsman tap and die tools in a wooden box.

since then, he's brought home an antique upright piano and a few other "great finds". our son has inherited this affliction and was looking for an english to french dictionary and found one for a dime the last time he went.

buying out storage buildings people don't pay on is also a great business.

Nanc-
You'll appreciate your husband's resourcefulness more once years of Republican rule have completely wrecked the economy. He will have more competition at the dump, though.

betelg - we've always been very fortunate in our dealings.

Nanc-
I wish you and yours the best of luck and blessings.
BTW, thanks for voting Hoover in twice.

Here in California a lot of the manhole covers on our streets are being stolen for
the metal even though they weigh about 100 pounds.

since then, he's brought home an antique upright piano and a few other "great finds". our son has inherited this affliction and was looking for an english to french dictionary and found one for a dime the last time he went.

-- nanc

Hey, don't laugh at your husband's "great finds" at the local dump.

As the old saying goes: "One man's junk is another man's treasure."

Maybe one day we'll see the two of you on "Antiques Roadshow" where they'll tell you some item you found at the dump is worth about $150,000. lol

CHRIS

Remember the guy who found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence on the back of a painting?

He found it in Nashville. Lucky duck. Got over a million at auction for it if my memory serves me correctly.

chris - we've found some great antique jewelry buys in the past few years at tag sales and junk stores. our son bought an upright grand piano, custom made in the late 1800's for $20.00 at a junk store - they needed more room for other things.

i've been collecting "hoosier" glass for a few years when one of my favorite storeowners was clearing out and told me that since i was one of his best customers, he'd placed a bunch of clear-out stuff on two tables and i could have whatever i wanted for FREE! he had two cases of "hoosier" vases - different colors - i love them as i grow loads of flowers throughout the year. they also have "griswold" cast iron cookware at great prices.

life is good! as long as you know where to find it.

a.u. - my father, before he died, left our children his extensive coin collection - we have no idea what's in there - it's in a strongbox and weighs about 20 pounds - has everything from pennies to silver dollars and collector edition coins. our son is sentimental and says he'd NEVER get rid of any of them - of course, he's the one who's been hip to euros in the past couple of years also!

life is good! as long as you know where to find it.

True, nanc.

I LOVE garage sales and swapmeets.

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA has a huge swapmeet every month. Can't buy any more of anything right right now, though, until after I move since the last thing I need when I move out of state is to have to pack anymore stuff!

In fact, I went to Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago and paid $20 for "eBay - Quick Steps" on how to go about selling items on eBay. I'm going to try and get rid of some stuff around here and at least make a buck or two off of selling it rather than just giving it away. I hear they have people you can pay who will sell it for you on eBat but for now I'm going to try to do it myself first and see how I do. Will spend part of tomorrow reading thru the book.

why on earth would you leave Cali? I grew up in Santa Cruz and it is heaven on earth. Soon as I get my finances in order I am moving back.

NANC

That's really cool. I have my dad's coin collection, mostly Indian Head pennies, Mercury dimes, Buffalo nickels, etc. I've never valued them, but with the internet I'm sure your son could get a ballpark value for insurance purposes. If you're near a metropolitan area I'm sure there is someone who could write it up.

I just gave away the collection of foreign coins I'd built up since I was 5 years old. I started collecting them from missionaries who visited our church when I was a kid. A friend's 7 year old got really interested in them, and the way his face lit up when he saw the first few I gave him for Christmas last year told me he'd be a good keeper of them for years to come. The most interesting ones were from Victorian times. Many of the countries no longer exist.

CHRIS

Remember the guy who found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence on the back of a painting?

He found it in Nashville. Lucky duck. Got over a million at auction for it if my memory serves me correctly.

#8 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2008-10-05 01:19

I believe I do remember seeing that episode of "Antiques Roadshow" -- one of their classics! You can only dream of making a find like that one. Normally the rarest (and most expensive) finds turn out to be some masterpiece painting hidden under another old painting and no one even noticed. I love that show.

CHRIS

The most important thing about selling stuff on eBay is finding the right category.

When you're signed up for eBay you can do a search of recently sold items to get an idea where they'd placed them. It can make a big difference in what you get.

My wife sold a few sweaters recently. You wouldn't believe how much she got for them! One sold for over $300. She had no idea.

The guy on Antique Roadshow who had a menu from the Titanic from the day it sunk was another great find. One of a kind...

I love that show!!

why on earth would you leave Cali? I grew up in Santa Cruz and it is heaven on earth. Soon as I get my finances in order I am moving back.

#12 | Posted by rastaninja at 2008-10-05 01:34 AM

My Mom passed away recently and I'll have to sell the house. California's cost of living (and to buy another house here) is way too high anymore. Even with the prices for the sale of some homes now being lowered 20% it's still pretty expensive to live here -- at least for one person to make it. Where are you living now, Rastaninja?

When you're signed up for eBay you can do a search of recently sold items to get an idea where they'd placed them. It can make a big difference in what you get.

My wife sold a few sweaters recently. You wouldn't believe how much she got for them! One sold for over $300. She had no idea.

#15 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2008-10

Cool! Now you've got me all gung ho on reading my new "eBay" book tomorrow. lol

CHRIS

Thought I'd give you the heads up on that, because I doubt your book will mention it.

It's one of the key things to getting the maximum price for an item.

CHRIS

My wife has bought or sold over 1000 items on eBay over the years.

If you need any help just holler

a.u. - did i ever tell you of the "grateful dead" find i got at a yard sale a little over a year ago?

ORIGINAL RECORDINGS - OVER 100 DATING BACK INTO THE MID SIXTIES! they're all on cassettes, dated, cities, for - get this - THIRTY BUCKS!

i did a piece at my blog on it. here is an excerpt:

"okay, so today in town i happened upon this yard sale with all sorts of great "stuff" but i was drawn to two wooden crates, each with approximately 100 live "grateful dead" recordings, dating from 1966 through 1994. i'm not lyin'!

the man asked me if i'd ever heard of them - well, duh! asked if i'd ever seen them live and i told him, "yes, from what i can remember..." all the people there were rolling out their seats!

this nice old man said i could have a crate each (in excellent condition i might add) for $150. i told him, "no thank you." so then he tried the old, "okay - two for a hundred and fifty." once again, i told him, "no thank you." as i was rifling through them reminiscing about the times i'd seen "the dead".

he could sense my longing and said, "what the hey? you can have both boxes (200+) for thirty bucks!" i said, "sold!"

for those of you that don't know - at dead concerts anything went and usually did - no cops - plenty of private vendors and you were allowed to tape their concerts if you could get close enough to the stage and had good equipment. these are what i've purchased, along with some professionally recorded.

i've listened to a quite a few and they sound just like the ones i've purchased at the record store - honestly - this is the buy of a lifetime!"

of course if i want to listen to them, i fire up the suburban or borrow a cassette player from one of our children. i want to get them transferred onto cd's.

I believe I do remember seeing that episode of "Antiques Roadshow" -- one of their classics! You can only dream of making a find like that one. Normally the rarest (and most expensive) finds turn out to be some masterpiece painting hidden under another old painting and no one even noticed. I love that show.

#14 | Posted by CalifChris

The best episode I ever saw was an early one.
Some guy showed up with an odd looking little helmet he'd found in the attic of a house they'd rented when he was a kid. He played with it a lot-but never damaged it.
Turned out-It was a Ceremonial Imperial Guard Helmet from the Ottoman Empire-from sometime in 16-or 1700s.
The estimate on it's value hit something like a half-mil. For something he'd found shoved in a corner in an attic as a kid.......

You have a treasure trove there, NANC

You could get a pretty penny for them from a collector no doubt.

a.u. - i would settle for having them on c.d. and making my money back with a little profit. the person who made them went to all the trouble of making the labels with all the dead logo on them and denoting every song within the concert - each tape within the concert is 60-90 minute high quality and there are two to three in every concert series - they're all live!

i loved jerry garcia - saw him at csuc back in the day and the grateful dead on a few occasions. i told my husband shortly after we married, "you and i need to see the dead before jerry kicks the bucket." two weeks later he was dead. sickened. phil and mickey have to be two of the best drummers on the planet.

i want to get them transferred onto cd's.

NANC

That would be a very good idea. Tapes degenerate over time if not stored properly.

If you want them professionally done I could give you a quote. I also have software that takes the 'hiss' out of cassette recordings. If you want to do it yourself you should buy a top of the line direct drive cassette player like a Denon (which I have). If you want to do it yourself, email me and I'll tell you what you should get as far as cassette player, sound card for your computer, external drive (digital audio files are big), and software to edit them.

I wouldn't play them too much. The oxide coating on the tapes wears off over time, as well as the problem I mentioned above. Be very careful with them. You just might have something that could bring some top money to the right collector if they're really good recordings.

NANC

Another option would be to have them digitized, cleaned up, and sell them as complete sets of CD's to Deadheads.

a.u. - thank you for the helpful advice. it's almost as though they've never been played before - i could send you a set and have you listen to them. they're stored properly in their cases within two wooden crates that look to be made especially for them - there are also about a hundred oddball live recording tapes of other bands with them - who knows - maybe they're collectible also?

our suburban has a sound system like you wouldn't believe - it's surround and the tapes i've listened to in there are like being in the midst of a dead concert.

i will email you when the dust settles around here tomorrow - it's my day to cook.

a.u - you want to go into business?

ha!

goodnight.

"why on earth would you leave Cali? I grew up in Santa Cruz and it is heaven on earth. Soon as I get my finances in order I am moving back.

#12 | Posted by rastaninja at 2008-10-05 01:34 AM"

I forgot to mention (besides the other stuff I mentioned in my post #17 above) another reason I want to leave here is I'm really ready now for a change of scenery. Except for about three years back East (and a year or so in Hawaii) I've mostly lived in California. But I've got a touch of wanderlust and want to try out some other places and live somewhere new besides here. Now's as good a time as any since I'll need to leave anyway. I'm ready to go.

FRANK55

Turned out-It was a Ceremonial Imperial Guard Helmet from the Ottoman Empire-from sometime in 16-or 1700s.

The estimate on it's value hit something like a half-mil. For something he'd found shoved in a corner in an attic as a kid.......

I think remember that show. Wasn't it a steel helmet coming to sort of a point on the top --
similar in looks to the kind the Spanish Conquistadors wore? And yes, it was worth a small fortune!

All this talk makes me want to go thru the garage and closets tomorrow. lol

CHRIS

Mail truck.....

CHRIS

I got a 'Failure Notice' at the address I had for you.

email me at:

If you want to hear it that is ....

"Turning trash into treasure"

YEAH!

Except most Americans Turn Treasure into Trash, just look at that shit stain named Bush!

He had a "mandate" and Capitol to spend!

Four More Years!

Cali i live in GA. This place is hell on earth. Full of rednecks. You will regret leaving Cali every second of every day. You can get an apt for under a 1000 a month in cali.

Another option would be to have them digitized, cleaned up, and sell them as complete sets of CD's to Deadheads.

#27 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2008-10-05 02:07 AM

WRONG!!! That music was given by the band freely. I have over 600 hours of live Dead on tape going back to 1963.
The band allowed hobbyists with good equipment to tape the shows and the tapes were then traded, FREE< among Deadheads. Everyone would exchange lists of the shows they had, then someone might want for shows you have, so you would copy the shows, and he would copy 4 that you wanted and you would mail the tapes to each other.

Charging for them would not be cool, nor would the remainder of the Grateful Dead be on board. Trade the music, play the music, give it away, but never charge for it.

"As the old saying goes: "One man's junk is another man's treasure.""

Are you kidding? I think all men consider their junk to be treasure, they don't call it family jewels for nothig. That's why the guy who had his family jewels mistaken removed is suing you know?

So no one has blamed this on the Bush economy?

My best two finds ever were;

1. A hand made book on making tools from the mid 17th century, bound in deer hide, written on hand made a paper, and inked in deer blood. I bought it at a library sale in a blind auction for $75. I have had it appraised for around $4000-$7000.

2. I bougth two framed photos, one from Cathy Archuletta and the other from Thomas Mayberry at a St. Vincent De Pauls for $20. They were still in the bubble wrap and the people at St. Vincent de Pauls had never even looked at them. They are worth around $1750-$2000 for the pair.

briwo - wish i cared about being cool. every material thing is for sale, dude.

did i just say "dude"?

Book dealer friend of mine found a 17th Century German book at a garage sale. Paid $1. Turned out to be worth $1,000.

Briwo is right, if they are live bootlegs, than they are free to the public domain. Anything off the soundboard does qualify as protected content, and the people who have the rights to the Dead are VERY protective of the content.

If you want to browse more concerts, go here...

perhaps i'll sell it to the people who have rights to the dead...

i would've asked bill graham the last i spoke with him, but it slipped my mind and then he died.

Great link Dxlinger....i found 6 concerts from my favorite band nobody ever heard of.....

Massachusetts.....That COMMIE haven!

Another great show for that is Cash in the Attic on BBC America (Saturday mornings in my market) it is fascinating to see what things are worth, things that people have sitting around under beds, in garages, stuffed in closets. I love that show.

As far as actual garbage goes, I have always been disappointed that the plan did not go thru where New York City was going to send giant barges of refuse that would be dumped in Africa in the Sahara Desert. That seemed like a sensible solution.