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Went to the grocery store tonight around nine o'clock and spotted something interesting in the dark by someone's rubbish bins. Finished my errand and on my way back home found a nice vintage Evinrude Lightwin outboard motor on a stand! I took the motor off the stand and leaned it carefully in my hatchback. It still had gasoline in the tank. The stand took some effort to wedge it securely in the back. I drove home with my hatch door open and my hazard lights on. I think the motor is from the 1960's. In the morning, I will look for the serial number on the side of the engine. Did some initial research, and it should be worth at least $150! Hopefully it still looks great in the daylight.
We found an abandon travel van on my commute. It was in a bad condition though. Asked locals and found it's been there for like 4 years. Husband is working on it to get it running again for road travels :P
We had a flood in my neighborhood in 2004, I live on the banks of the Delaware River, ...my house was spared water damage but some people got their basements flooded when the Power Company (PSEG) decided they needed to cut the power.
Peoples sump pumps had no electricity and their basements flooded.
next week there was lots of sodden stuff curbside.
I was on my way to a Dr.'s visit when I spotted a 1969 Fender Silverface Bandmaster amp.
The amplifier head was not touched by the water the stand alone speaker cab was wet about 1/3 of the way up.
This was quite a find...all original, even the RCA tubes.
I dried out the speaker cab slowly in the sun, and had a professional put on new tolex on the cabinet grill. had to replace one speaker.
I had the amp head serviced and the original 2 prong 'suicide' plug replaced with a grounded one.
It has served me well over the years, and is a much sought after music collectible that grows in value.
My Evinrude motor was produced between 1952-54! I hope that my husband will enjoy tinkering with it. We'll either sell it or maybe buy a dinghy to put it on. There are many lakes in our area.
My Evinrude motor was produced between 1952-54! I hope that my husband will enjoy tinkering with it. We'll either sell it or maybe buy a dinghy to put it on. There are many lakes in our area.
Nice score!
I love when old treasures like that get a second life.
A friend of mine picks form dumpsters nearly as his living. He once found a WWII bomber jacket and traded it for a Chrysler convertible. Another time he found a box full of vintage airplane gauges, altimeters, etc. I paid him a couple hundred for the box and sold them individually on Ebay for a couple grand. The best one brought $500.
I've mentioned this on another thread, but will repeat it here,
my brother and I have been dealing in antiques mostly wooden furniture for over 40 years..our hey-day or is it 'hay-day'? was the 1970s when people were crazy about the old Golden Oak and Walnut furniture.
We placed an Ad in our two local newspapers, requesting to buy 'anything old'
The response was amazing..we were buying single pieces to an entire household every weekend.
We were constantly picking things up and reselling at a South Jersey Antique auction.
Sometimes if a chest of drawers etc. was full of stuff we would appraise the owners there might be some value of the contents..most were only interested in cleaning out the house and would tell us 'please take everything'
One Victorian walnut Eastlake woman's desk that we bought for ( not sure) maybe 200-250 USD we sold for 325 USD..but the contents of the desk, 1836 NYC leather bound travel street map sold for USD 200, along with a childrens illustrated 'Chap book' 'the house that jack built '1824 sold for 224USD..Sterling Silver serving Victorian ladle, etc. entire contents of the desk sold for over a 3 year period for 1,867 USD...
This was our best buy, ever.. but over the years we have had many others just as profitable.
Things have leveled off over the years, most of our profitable dealings now are restorations, and consulting.
Fine with us..don't have to lug that heavy old stuff around anymore, :-)
I was on my way to a Dr.'s visit when I spotted a 1969 Fender Silverface Bandmaster amp.
The amplifier head was not touched by the water the stand alone speaker cab was wet about 1/3 of the way up.
This was quite a find...all original, even the RCA tubes.
I dried out the speaker cab slowly in the sun, and had a professional put on new tolex on the cabinet grill. had to replace one speaker.
I had the amp head serviced and the original 2 prong 'suicide' plug replaced with a grounded one.
It has served me well over the years, and is a much sought after music collectible that grows in value.
I've gotten some good trash/treasure hauls here in NY. I pulled a few guitar amps from the trash. My best amplifier find was a Mesa Boogie ".50 Caliber" 50 watt tube amp. The speaker was slightly torn which I fixed, and the "pots" were scratchy so I cleaned them with deoxit. She sounds awesome!! Lol
Another time I saw a homeless guy carrying a fender acousticsonic amp. I asked him where he was going with it. His reply was "$5 and it's yours" lol, best $5 I ever spent, it was super clean and an apartmen. Holding by was throwing it out. Lol. People throw away the craziest things.
Once I came across a small pile of boxes of household goods on the sidewalk by an apartment house in a quiet neighborhood. I parked nearby and waited for a while. Just to make sure there wasn't an owner moving into the building or going to get their car.
Eventually, I walked over and discretely rummaged. I recognized some green cloth bags being the type to store silver in. I took those. There were eight sterling silver bread and butter plates inside of them.
Another time on a trash day, I found boxes full of things that might have been from someone's home office. There was a small box with a pair of 14 kt gold cuff links.
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