What is your best dumpster find?

bigcaddy64

Hero Member
Apr 20, 2013
813
1,145
Fullerton, CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I never considered myself much of dumpster diver but i live in a rental currently and out my back gate is a dumpster. Most tenants are forward thinking enough to put "trash" in the can and possible useful items next to it. Since i've lived there ive picked up:

2) television sound bars, both in near perfect working condition
1) Pioneer CS-99 floor speaker (sold for 250.00)
1) complete Xbox system with 30 games and 4 controllers (sold for 120.00)
1) Brother photo capable printer/scanner, like new condition
random canvas toolbags/totes and other random useful items like shop rags, latex gloves.

all of this and i've only been there a few months. I hope the trend continues!
 

billjustbill

Bronze Member
Feb 23, 2008
1,089
659
Texas
Detector(s) used
Minelab SN/XS
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Two best finds

Saw a sealed white envelope marked "2007 Payments". Tore open the end and found two private checks; in between them was a $20.00 dollar bill.

Another day the dumpster was filled and the only way I could go through it was to drive my pickup within a foot of the front of the dumpster so I could stand the rear bed to start looking. The top layer was filled with large flattened cardboard boxes. I saw a bike wheel and tire sticking out the left side of the stacked layers. As I got to the wide spacing between the layers I saw a whole blue bicycle. Lifted it out and on to the pickup bed. It is a 21 speed Mongoose!!
 

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zombieraccoon

Sr. Member
Dec 30, 2017
307
464
Mesa AZ / Naselle WA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Have not dumpster dived in a long time. Used to hit 2 places pretty regular, a local cell phone store, which back in the early to mid 90s would just trash all phones they got on trade in. I would clean them up and resell quite a few. Never found any worth a lot, but found a lot of $20-$30 phones. Second place was a video store. They were always throwing out promo materials for movies and the first couple days of the month would throw out movies. Sometumes they were messed up, but usually it was because they had a bunch for a popular movie and as it declined in popularity they would purge a few copies.

Other than that I would also get the bulk trash collection schedules from the cities, and drive by the curb trash looking for treasures. Mostly found furniture, nothing super valuable, but did find some nice older pieces.
 

billjustbill

Bronze Member
Feb 23, 2008
1,089
659
Texas
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Minelab SN/XS
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
As you may remember, my wife and I rented a storage bay for the winter to store our "inventory" of things for this spring's coming garage sale. There is a single dumpster at the facility in which people toss their stuff when they decide to leave their space. While there may be a single bag or two of house hold garbage from the onsite manager's apartment, 98% of what's inside is dry and dusty. When we tossed in some of our stuff, I found some interesting things. It's continued and each month the "free" things have been rather profitable..... From the Mongoose 21 speed adult bicycle, to a taser, to 1930's box cameras to jewelry to old letters, 1955 Income Tax forms, wedding notices, marriage and driver licenses, and old B/W pictures, it spawns a live hands-on trip back through time. Two weeks ago, I came home from the same "Never Ending Treasure Chest" with two reels and half a dozen 3 inch diameter and 4ft. long bundles of different color and diameter of heat shrink tubing..... This weekend I found a shoe box full of letters of a 1951 high school girl and her family growing up on a farm in the panhandle of Texas.

At the end of an already surprising treasure hunt inside this special dumpster, while looking for some matching earrings that fell out the bottom of an old cardboard box, my eyes caught a glimpse of something oddly familiar. I knew I had told of finding the twenty dollar bill in between two personal checks dated 2007 a month ago....but no pics..... So, I walked over to the pickup to get my phone and took this picture before going any farther.

Do you see anything next to the white envelope?



thumbnail



Along with a dental appointment receipt, dated 1983, in a small bank envelope from Clyde, Texas, there were 3 ones, 1 five, and 3 ten dollar bills......What got me in the heart was the handwritten note paper clipped to the group of $5 and two $10 dollar bills: "From Ma Ma and Pa Pa"......

When I get more time I'll send pics of what else I just found in this dumpster after coming back from garage sales Friday morning and then the return second visit, Friday afternoon:

A small Sterling Silver baby cup still in its original gift box, costume jewelry, a folding straight razor, a ring box with a (2.3gr) thin 14kt gold band inside, a narrow sterling silver bracelet, a wide nickel-silver and turquoise band bracelet, a Shirley Temple doll pin, and some foreign coins and tokens..... With the $20 bill find, and an old purse with just over $2 in loose change inside, and not the $38.00, I've found cash totaling $60.00 in that one dumpster....:tongue3:

Bill
 

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billjustbill

Bronze Member
Feb 23, 2008
1,089
659
Texas
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Minelab SN/XS
Primary Interest:
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Dumpster finds get bigger....

I know my finds from various sales and this dumpster are rather odd and unique, but it takes some hustle and initiative to get up and go out to find them. This weekend's hunt reminds me of a saying I heard thirty years ago:


"Some people go down to the dock and wait for their ship to come in. What they seldom realize is that they never sent one out."



Below are the wheelbarrow's "Before and After Pics" found late Sunday afternoon standing next to the "Treasure Chest" dumpster. It's been a long time since I've seen one with curved Oak handles. I used about half a can of Armor-All tire foam on it, so I've got about a $1.50 tied up in it....
emo7.gif




Someone mixed cement in it, so the inside is a bit crusty & rusty. Even though the tire still had enough air in it not to flatten as it rolled, I filled the tire with pumps of "Berryman's" Tire Stop Leak found for free last summer....

Any idea how vintage it is?

Bill
 

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billjustbill

Bronze Member
Feb 23, 2008
1,089
659
Texas
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Minelab SN/XS
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Here is the Pic that disappeared in the Text...

As you may remember, my wife and I rented a storage bay for the winter to store our "inventory" of things for this spring's coming garage sale. There is a single dumpster at the facility in which people toss their stuff when they decide to leave their space. While there may be a single bag or two of house hold garbage from the onsite manager's apartment, 98% of what's inside is dry and dusty. When we tossed in some of our stuff, I found some interesting things. It's continued and each month the "free" things have been rather profitable..... From the Mongoose 21 speed adult bicycle, to a taser, to 1930's box cameras to jewelry to old letters, 1955 Income Tax forms, wedding notices, marriage and driver licenses, and old B/W pictures, it spawns a live hands-on trip back through time. Two weeks ago, I came home from the same "Never Ending Treasure Chest" with two reels and half a dozen 3 inch diameter and 4ft. long bundles of different color and diameter of heat shrink tubing..... This weekend I found a shoe box full of letters of a 1951 high school girl and her family growing up on a farm in the panhandle of Texas.

At the end of an already surprising treasure hunt inside this special dumpster, while looking for some matching earrings that fell out the bottom of an old cardboard box, my eyes caught a glimpse of something oddly familiar. I knew I had told of finding the twenty dollar bill in between two personal checks dated 2007 a month ago....but no pics..... So, I walked over to the pickup to get my phone and took this picture before going any farther.

Do you see anything next to the white envelope?



thumbnail



Along with a dental appointment receipt, dated 1983, in a small bank envelope from Clyde, Texas, there were 3 ones, 1 five, and 3 ten dollar bills......What got me in the heart was the handwritten note paper clipped to the group of $5 and two $10 dollar bills: "From Ma Ma and Pa Pa"......

When I get more time I'll send pics of what else I just found in this dumpster after coming back from garage sales Friday morning and then the return second visit, Friday afternoon:

A small Sterling Silver baby cup still in its original gift box, costume jewelry, a folding straight razor, a ring box with a (2.3gr) thin 14kt gold band inside, a narrow sterling silver bracelet, a wide nickel-silver and turquoise band bracelet, a Shirley Temple doll pin, and some foreign coins and tokens..... With the $20 bill find, and an old purse with just over $2 in loose change inside, and not the $38.00, I've found cash totaling $60.00 in that one dumpster....:tongue3:

Bill

How the cash was found...
 

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Urmonga

Newbie
May 14, 2018
2
0
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All Treasure Hunting
I have a whole channel dedicated to my findings! feel free to check it out. I upload once a week currently and my videos tend to be straight to the point.
 

Aug 13, 2018
6
5
Long Beach, CA
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Minelab Equinox 600, Fisher 1280-X Aquanaut, Fisher F2, Fisher 1220-X Pro, Fisher F-Pulse pinpointer
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
In the late 1990s, my wife and I lived in some townhomes in Virginia. Every couple of days, I would take the household trash over to the dumpster and nearly always saw something amazing in there. Over the years, I grabbed books, magazines, furniture, camping equipment, tools, you name it. Best ever was a Honda CX-500 motorcycle, just laying on its side in the dumpster on top of a pile of trash bags. I was late for work and couldn't imagine how I would get the damned thing out of there anyway, so I left it and have been kicking myself for about 20 years. It looked like it was in good shape. Maybe it was stolen, maybe someone just got tired of it. Who knows?
 

cyberdan

Silver Member
Dec 12, 2006
4,596
2,220
Very Northern Left Coast
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I have a whole channel dedicated to my findings! feel free to check it out. I upload once a week currently and my videos tend to be straight to the point.

If you are going to come on here and push your youtube videos at least keep coming back and post many more here. You did this hit and run 3 months ago.
 

ProspectorALEX

Sr. Member
Apr 14, 2013
292
184
Clam Gulch, AK
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Whites GMT E-series
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yeah, but they could catch a cold or other type of bug. lol

quote, (No Grand kids to drag along to do the heavy lifting? Get them out there helping you, It will do them some good learning how we made ends meet at all costs! They can't catch the gold bug if they don't know what it is or how to do it! IMO )
 

billjustbill

Bronze Member
Feb 23, 2008
1,089
659
Texas
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Minelab SN/XS
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Other photo of dumpster found dollars.

Here's another photo of the dollars found with the heartfelt note attached....

Bill

As you may remember, my wife and I rented a storage bay for the winter to store our "inventory" of things for this spring's coming garage sale. There is a single dumpster at the facility in which people toss their stuff when they decide to leave their space. While there may be a single bag or two of house hold garbage from the onsite manager's apartment, 98% of what's inside is dry and dusty. When we tossed in some of our stuff, I found some interesting things. It's continued and each month the "free" things have been rather profitable..... From the Mongoose 21 speed adult bicycle, to a taser, to 1930's box cameras to jewelry to old letters, 1955 Income Tax forms, wedding notices, marriage and driver licenses, and old B/W pictures, it spawns a live hands-on trip back through time. Two weeks ago, I came home from the same "Never Ending Treasure Chest" with two reels and half a dozen 3 inch diameter and 4ft. long bundles of different color and diameter of heat shrink tubing..... This weekend I found a shoe box full of letters of a 1951 high school girl and her family growing up on a farm in the panhandle of Texas.

At the end of an already surprising treasure hunt inside this special dumpster, while looking for some matching earrings that fell out the bottom of an old cardboard box, my eyes caught a glimpse of something oddly familiar. I knew I had told of finding the twenty dollar bill in between two personal checks dated 2007 a month ago....but no pics..... So, I walked over to the pickup to get my phone and took this picture before going any farther.

Do you see anything next to the white envelope?



thumbnail



Along with a dental appointment receipt, dated 1983, in a small bank envelope from Clyde, Texas, there were 3 ones, 1 five, and 3 ten dollar bills......What got me in the heart was the handwritten note paper clipped to the group of $5 and two $10 dollar bills: "From Ma Ma and Pa Pa"......

When I get more time I'll send pics of what else I just found in this dumpster after coming back from garage sales Friday morning and then the return second visit, Friday afternoon:

A small Sterling Silver baby cup still in its original gift box, costume jewelry, a folding straight razor, a ring box with a (2.3gr) thin 14kt gold band inside, a narrow sterling silver bracelet, a wide nickel-silver and turquoise band bracelet, a Shirley Temple doll pin, and some foreign coins and tokens..... With the $20 bill find, and an old purse with just over $2 in loose change inside, and not the $38.00, I've found cash totaling $60.00 in that one dumpster....:tongue3:

Bill
 

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MRBeyer

Sr. Member
Apr 25, 2007
430
219
Moses Lake, WA
Detector(s) used
White's Coinmaster and MXT, sluice
What I wish I had grabbed was a backpack leaf blower. Went back later and it was gone.

What I did grab was a brand new unused G5 kirby vacuum cleaner. Gave it to my daughter. Have also picked a vintage telephone desk, folding lawn and camp chairs, paintings, and more. Nothing quite as nice as what you all find. Keep the stories coming, keeps me motivated.
 

yakker

Bronze Member
Jan 20, 2012
1,663
1,238
Down East
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spec enhanced eyeballs
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And that channel... is quite the doozy.
 

yakker

Bronze Member
Jan 20, 2012
1,663
1,238
Down East
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spec enhanced eyeballs
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Living in a university town has been quite the boon- especially at graduation time. From electronics to gaming equip. to text books and barely worn high-end clothing--- I've been floored by what kids toss out (although I do realize many fly home to distant countries). Still. Major$$$$$
 

Aug 20, 2009
12,824
7,899
New Hampshire
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Garret Master hunter Cx Plus
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Kids toss the stuff because they're not the ones that paid for it.They figure mommy and daddy will replace what they tossed when they get home.
 

craig82

Jr. Member
Jan 22, 2018
25
37
az
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Just found one of those HF 9 function metal detectors in the dumpster behind my harbor freight. Even had brand new duracell batteries in it so i guess someone bought it to use to find something then returned it an HF threw it out. Super excited cause I've always wanted to try out detecting! Afraid I'm going to like it and soon be coughing up 600 hundred bucks or so on a proper detector. Oh well :)

Oh also pulled the 1 drawer US general tool cart new in box out of that dumpster same day. Just put it together an there's nothing wrong with it!


edit: Actually the tool cart was missing the set of keys to lock the drawer with. If that's why they threw it out lol.
 

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A2coins

Gold Member
Dec 20, 2015
33,807
42,606
Ann Arbor
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Equinox 800
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I found a jewelry box with gold necklaces 18k
 

cyberdan

Silver Member
Dec 12, 2006
4,596
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Very Northern Left Coast
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XLT & Bigfoot
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I love this thread, it was made for my DNA. I have been dumpster diving, flea marketing, yard saleing, bartering, roll up the sleeves and just plain work like a dog to make a buck since I could ride a bicycle. I grew up in a rough part of town, my father was a design engineer for Aerospace, a burst can ignition specialist, and made great money but... I was one of 11 children so this neighborhood was what my Dad could afford and still feed all of us. It was near an industrial park.

I know you posted this a while ago but just noticed where you live. Up until two years ago I lived in Brea and did 40-50 yardsales every Saturday. I am sure our path probably passed quite a few times.

What town did you grow up in? (I was also one of 11 kids)
 

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