Picking from Verge Collection - Have You Done It? What's Your Trophy Item?

spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 11:15

It's that time of the year from where I live where people put out their stuff (broken appliances, old toys, dirty sofas, beds with pee stains, etc.) on the verge to be collected by the council. I see some people stop on their way and have a peek if there are any items worth picking up for themselves.

I've done a couple of picks years ago - two CRT TV's - but will never do it again, as the 27" CRT TV almost broke my back, only to find out it doesn't work. And both TV's got ditched the same day. My best pick is a miniature wheelbarrow I use as a pot holder at the backyard.

Once, I saw an old lady, nicely dressed, on a fairly newish Civic stop on the side of the road to look at on some verge items. Wow! This lady must be doing it hard.

Share your tips as well. No pun intended.

Poll Options

  • 120
    Yes! Recycling is best!
  • 18
    No way! Too proud to be seen picking!
  • 5
    I would, but it's illegal
Home & Garden

Comments

  • froggym on 20/02/2016 - 11:47
    +6

    We got a free fridge. We just moved into our apartment and were on our way to get our friend's 20 year old fridge that they were replacing when we found one on the side of the road. Had a chat to the owners and it's only problem was that it was too cold. Turns out it is about half as old and costs half as much to run as the other one we were being given. We cleaned it up and it works great.

    • maxwellian on 04/03/2016 - 15:31

      How can a fridge be too cold?! Were they trying to cook in it?

      • froggym on 04/03/2016 - 16:44

        I've had trouble in the past where an old fridge would freeze things. You just had to be careful with what you put at the back.

  • Katie2014 on 20/02/2016 - 11:56

    I haven't taken anything myself but most of my friends and family do - mainly furniture. A friend got a vintage chair and did it up and found that they're worth a fair bit through ebay/second-hand dealers.

    I remember when I was living in a share house, every now and then my housemates used to come home after a night out with chairs, couches, mattresses (eek!) and various other random stuff.

    The council area that we are now living in doesn't provide a hard rubbish collection, unfortunately :(

  • silverrat23 on 20/02/2016 - 12:17

    Not quite the same, but I picked up an old Brother Electric Typewriter from a library last year. It still worked, even though it was last tagged in 2009. Heck, a heap of refills were attached as well!

  • try2bhelpful on 20/02/2016 - 12:27

    If you are looking for stuff then try the back alley ways. For some reason people near us leave stuff out in the street all the time.

    • Flying Ace on 23/02/2016 - 12:21

      Normally the back alley just has heaps of crap

      • [Deactivated] on 24/02/2016 - 12:00
        +1

        That usually washes right off.

  • Euphemistic on 20/02/2016 - 12:55
    +1

    My hobby is cycling, so I grab bikes when I can. I used to grab everything, now I'm more discerning, and don't grab junk. Usually for a quick clean, repair and sell on gumtree. Also picked up all sorts of other thing pts from time to time. Some of them I'll strip out a part I need and put them back out straight away, other times I've repaired the item and kept it. Why not pick it up when someone else has thrown away a perfectly good item, only goes to landfill otherwise.

    Our area the bulk waste cleanup guys are well behind schedule at the moment because scrap prices have fallen and there isn't any scrappies picking up the steel etc. it's not worth their while so it all goes to landfill too, which is a complete waste of an otherwise easily recycled product.

    • spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 13:27

      Would like to grab a bike but no space in the small car I use

      • WatchNerd on 20/02/2016 - 17:24
        +11

        Carry a bike lock with you in the car, then when you see one you want, wheel it away from the clean up junk and chain it to a pole. Then you can come back later to pick it up.

        • Euphemistic on 21/02/2016 - 07:35
          +2

          I carry a spanner, it's usually easy enough to pull the wheels off, then the frame can fit across the back seat of most small cars, or knock the back seats down and into the boot space. (But I've got a wagon :))

        • 0p on 22/02/2016 - 20:55
          +1

          @Euphemistic:
          Nice double chin you got there…

          :))

        • [Deactivated] on 23/02/2016 - 01:41

          @Euphemistic:
          No problem in a 2dr getz hatch with front wheel taken off (of bike).

  • RandomNinja on 20/02/2016 - 13:19
    +6

    We were on our usual evening walk during pickup week and my 4yo was so happy he found a ukelele lol Have also found plenty of ride on toys and a set of Ikea table/chair set for kids. Most exciting find was a box of MTG cards, had visions of finding rare and collectable cards, but sadly was only full of commons.

    When I put stuff out, I hope that other people pick them up and find a use. In general, I don't mind that scroungers come by; better they make a buck or two out of it and minimise landfill. Well, except the scroungers that leave a great big mess after they dig through… they can f right off

    • spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 13:26

      Said TV I picked up and put back on the verge was gone the same night. That was years ago, now you must be really desperate or clueless to pick up a CRT TV.

      • SimbaGirl on 20/02/2016 - 15:03
        +2

        Our councll no longer holds bulk collections, which I'm glad about in a way as although it was a convenient way to get rid of stuff, the mess that the "scavengers" would leave behind had to be seen to be believed, they'd trawl through everything, pull things apart, pull out anything that was in a box or a bag and then just dump it and left stuff scattered everywhere. You would also get people from other suburbs that weren't due for their bulk collection yet or had already had theirs, who would come round with full trailers, utes - even a Budget rental truck on one occasion - and dump literally tonnes of stuff on other people's junk piles and on park verges and so on.

        The CRT TVs seem to still be very popular to scavenge here, I assume either for parts or maybe they're after copper or gold components or something, but they wouldn't take the TV - they'd rip the back off and break off or smash the bits they didn't need to get to the bits they wanted - used to see that all the time. We put out a very large CRT last year (it had been sitting in our shed for ages, and it was our last chance to get rid of it) only to find it the next day with some parts removed and the remainder of the innards smashed to smithereens and scattered all over the verge and the edge of the road - it was a hell of a mess, and took ages to clear up.

        • spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 15:14

          Wow! That's messed up. Pun intended

        • Euphemistic on 21/02/2016 - 07:42
          +2

          @downero:
          I don't get why people save up stuff and put out bags or boxes of little bits and pieces that could easily fit in the normal rubbish bin. I've seen plenty of houses where they'll have maybe two small items out the front, eg a kettle and a saucepan. Easily pop it in the bin. Even if it takes a week or three to get rid of your stuff, they seem to save it up for the bulk waste pickup, why not toss it out straight away.

          I hate that the scavengers make a mess of my pile of stuff, so I don't leave anything out that is easy to make too much mess with

        • PVA on 21/02/2016 - 19:34

          @Euphemistic:
          some people dont like throwing things out and putting it out on Hard rubbish day means someone else has a chance to pick it up.

        • Gravy on 22/02/2016 - 14:07

          Yeah, Ive seen the aftermath of copper collectors as well… bad news. Personally I leave the pile as I found it, minus the things I want to grab. There was a big pile of rubbish at the top of our drive at last pickup and I think people from out of the area were adding to it as it was huge, I suppose that's better than fly tipping out in the bush though.

  • JoFord63 on 20/02/2016 - 13:29
    +1

    I usually don't stop and look because I don't want my inner scavenger to get out of its cage.

    But I am tempted to steal the bright yellow tape marked "illegal dumping - under investigation" that appeared yesterday on a huge pile of junk outside my block of units.

    Last week, my partner (also a scavenger at heart) found two full sets of Disney Pixar Dominoes. (The folders had gotten wet but the dominoes were fine. When these dominoes first came out, I turned them into keyrings and sold quite a few at the markets and online. I'll make some more with these ones and see if I have any luck.

    • spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 13:32
      +1

      So you're that eBay seller. Nice stuff

      • JoFord63 on 20/02/2016 - 13:34
        +1

        Thanks! But are you sure it's me LOL?

  • Davo1111 on 20/02/2016 - 14:48

    circular saw. still with the original 1979 reciept.

    • nocure on 20/02/2016 - 15:07

      Green or orange Black and Decker?

      • Davo1111 on 20/02/2016 - 15:54
        +1

        I suppose you'd call it an orange, but it's more of a creme.

        this but plastic shroud.

        I pulled it apart and cleaned it up myself, works fine :)

        • dealman on 25/02/2016 - 17:30

          They don't make em like these anymore,,, This will become a heir loom.

  • mskeggs on 20/02/2016 - 14:55

    Petrol blower, needed a slight adjustment to the carby. Clothes dryer, needed the drive belt slipped back on. Materials for several cubby houses and chook sheds.

  • mskeggs on 20/02/2016 - 14:57
    +6

    If I dispose of an electrical item I stick some tape on and write "works" or "doesn't work" to give my local recyclers some help.

    • spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 15:16
      +1

      This is what I like with some of the people who have stuff on the verge. If it's not working, say so, otherwise item will be like a fruitcake that will be passed on from one house to the next

    • BanannaMan on 24/02/2016 - 09:00

      Great idea, I'll do this in the future

  • pointless martyr on 20/02/2016 - 17:35

    Got a bunch of stuff - trampolines, basketball hoops, swingsets , cubby houses

    When kids who live in the nearby houses tell me its theirs, i inform them that their parents must have put it on the verge for collection

  • Meconium on 20/02/2016 - 18:02

    Got a sweet couch from the nature strip outside a house down the road in my suburb. Paid a pro $100 to wash and vacuum it. Sprayed it with fabric protector, good as new.

    • spychiatrist on 20/02/2016 - 18:09

      Can't see myself using old furniture. Who knows what's beneath?

      • Meconium on 20/02/2016 - 22:47
        +45

        Friend of mine once bought a quality granite bench top second hand when they redid their kitchen, it had come cheaply from some pub that had been renovated. They installed it to prepare food on, and all was good. After a few weeks they started to notice an acrid smell coming from somewhere in their new kitchen - they thought a mouse was trapped somewhere and pissing in the area where it was trapped. It was only then that they realised where the smell was coming from. The granite slab they bought had not been used as a counter in the bar - it was the gents' urinal.

        Compared to that, the couch we got for free was an excellent find!

        • bathuu on 24/02/2016 - 08:31
          +6

          Haha, this is the best post ever, can't stop laughing.

  • sharkyoz on 21/02/2016 - 08:22
    +11

    I found an old art deco style train and tender made of tin, in really good condition, and it still worked. Ended up selling 2 yrs later to a specialist collector for $1300. Woo hoo !!

  • peterlong1952 on 21/02/2016 - 09:01

    Over the years we have picked up many wooden chairs, a few tables etc. but the best find was a mini juke box. CD doesn't work but Tape, Radio and aux input does. Many of our friends know we collect junk and now give us first pick before they put stuff out. We are starting a B&B soon so it has come in handy.

  • Showmethebargains on 21/02/2016 - 10:20
    +2

    My husband found a vintage Mitchell fishing reel in perfect condition. It would be worth a couple of hundred dollars if he sold it.

  • Speckled Jim on 21/02/2016 - 10:58
    +10

    1996:
    - A full set of 14" Nissan alloys. I believe they were originally from an Exa. Cleaned up and sold for $100.
    - An Amiga 500 with 1080 monitor with all cables left outside a Primary school. Yoink!
    - A rowing machine. Worked fine, but I ended up using the frame for a gaming steering wheel and pedal rig. I still have the fasteners and rollers from it, and just used two nylon bushes for another project yesterday.

    1998:
    - A 20-ish litre Sharp microwave. All it needed was a new fuse. Pretty sure my uncle still uses it.
    - Simpson 5kg top-loader was out two doors up from us. Since our Simpson had a leak from the bottom-corner water pump, I removed the pump from the discarded machine and replaced ours. Cheap fix.

    2004:
    - A smallish roller case that I found at North Ryde. Zippers, wheels and handle were all fine. A quick clean was all it needed.
    - A tenant moved out of our building, and they dumped a load of CDs and smaller PC and phone hardware by the bins. A few original music CDs, and some of a…personal nature. A crappy Logitech webcam, Sony headset, that sort of tat.
    - A two bar radiant heater. The cord was frayed so I used an earthed extension cord to replace it. Still in use today (well, not today but as of four months ago).

    Last week:
    - A full-size traffic cone. It was put out with the rubbish next door. It now lives in my garage.

    • spychiatrist on 21/02/2016 - 12:04
      +1

      A witch's hat, you mean. Lol. Nice hauls.

    • stonkered on 22/02/2016 - 20:56

      What was the personal stuff? Like bills and stuff with adreesses on it?

      • Speckled Jim on 23/02/2016 - 23:35

        Erm, digital photos. There were also some dodgy screen-printed VCD/DVDs. About half of those were R-rated.
        A few PC games too.

        He'd completed his studies and flew home, so he didn't care.

  • Tech5 on 21/02/2016 - 19:08

    Marble chess board :) No pieces though

  • PVA on 21/02/2016 - 19:33

    I have seen old CRT tvs out on the nature-strip (not called verge) and after a day people have broken the plastic back off and smashed the coil off the tube end for the copper to sell (must be desperate).

    Same with our rusty old BBQ, pulled to pieces just to get one item then all the leftover junk is just spread around.

  • xuqi on 21/02/2016 - 21:46
    +5

    Generally don't look/bother with anything on the verge. The one time I did bother to stop and look, I had a decent score.

    Whilst driving somewhere in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide a few years back, I caught a glimpse of a couple of older Dell precision towers sitting on the verge next time some CRT monitors, and other parts.

    I drove back and picked up the towers. When I got home I unloaded them in the garage and somewhat forgot about them. A few weeks later whilst on annual leave I decided to check them, and whilst they would not power up, I was surprised to find each equipped with a Nvidia Quadro FX4600 GPU.

    Didn't bother with the rest of the parts, but tested the cards and found them working fine. A quick clean and off they went to E-Bay. They sold for $340 and $405 respectively, so not a bad score for what was very little effort.

  • Euphemistic on 21/02/2016 - 21:53

    Just remembered I scored a Dyson upright. Was sitting in the rain, but I was going to mod it to make my old vacuum for the workshop bag less. Plugged it in to a separate protected circuit and it went. it's been working hard on my renovations since, just needed a good clean of the filters coz it kept overheating.

  • b-radicool on 22/02/2016 - 00:22
    +8

    Picked up a broken 60" LG plasma tv….googled how to fix it on YouTube…$5 of parts later and a couple of hours of soldering and BAM, free 60" tv!!

  • Hirolol on 22/02/2016 - 01:04
    +1

    Picked up a 3 burner BBQ with a hood just as mine was about to shit itself.
    The bbq i got was in amazing condition and this guy looked after it very nicely.

    To be completely honest i have not used it at all but it still sits in my backyard waiting for that day.

  • altomic on 22/02/2016 - 02:00
    +7

    A few years ago on the verge i found a virtually new mototcycle.

    • Gravy on 22/02/2016 - 11:40
      +19

      "I assumed it was rubbish your honour."

  • DarwinBoy on 22/02/2016 - 02:32

    Complete Dunlop golf set, ditched the putter for a new one and it's a great set. Mate offered me $50 for the 3 wood after we both put shots on the green(a very short hole)

  • slow on 22/02/2016 - 10:11
    +2

    In my area it works a bit different, you put out stuff whenever you want, and phone the council and they come and collect it (I think we get 3 collections a year). So there is always stuff lying on people’s verges waiting to be picked upuncil

    Some of my best finds
    - Asko washing machine in excellent condition – saw the guy putting it out and asked and he said there was nothing wrong with it (he was renovating and replacing all appliances)– mine was playing up at the time. Got 7 years good use out of it before it packed up
    - New condition Electra Bicycle, value $800
    - New looking Kids playpen – used it for a few years and then sold it on ebay for $150
    - Lots of good quality and vintage bicycle parts stripped off whole bikes.
    - Really nice wardrobe and dining table. The ones replaced went on my verge and got picked up by someone else

    I also amazed at how much stuff that I put out gets taken, the worst being a tatty old couch that sat in the rain for a week…. and then someone took it

  • [Deactivated] on 22/02/2016 - 10:20

    picked up a few shelves here and there and a computer tower, don't mind scroungers as long as they are neat

  • No ONE on 22/02/2016 - 10:21

    Used to do years ago, Pickup desktops, clean & fix and then sell on gumtree.

  • captobvious on 22/02/2016 - 10:55
    +2

    I was driving through the burbs picked up 2 exact 55inch lcd tvs from different houses. took them home. One powered up but had a busted screen the other didn't power up. Swapped the power and presto 1 working TV. Chuck the dud back on the verge.

    Still going and lives in the man cave. Saved me almost 1k at the time.

  • TailsK on 22/02/2016 - 11:12
    +10

    "Verge"? Who calls a nature strip a verge? "Hey mate, I'll meet you on the verge between my house and the road!"

    • Gravy on 22/02/2016 - 12:01
      +4

      Probably quite a lot of people actually, Australia actually has quite a diverse language when it comes to some words/phrases and it depends a lot on what state you are in.

      Verge, Council strip, nature strip etc.

    • roadsign on 22/02/2016 - 17:09
      +3

      According to Wikipedia, australians use nature strip, road verge and roadside. West Australians (along with the English and New Zealanders) use verge.

      The more you know!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_verge

      • BBQChip on 24/02/2016 - 12:04
        +3

        Perthie here - can confirm we say verge!

      • lawrencium on 24/02/2016 - 16:41
        -1

        From SA; I often hear median strip.

    • pufffdragon on 23/02/2016 - 10:49
      +1

      I've never heard of verge. I'm in Brisbane. It's either "on the street" or "out near the road". The more posh term is "road side" up here.

    • [Deactivated] on 24/02/2016 - 12:04

      I'd never heard of it referred to as that I just inferred it meant nature strip from the context.

      I'm in the S.E. suburbs of Melbourne for what it's worth.

    • TailsK on 24/02/2016 - 12:25

      Guess you learn something new everyday!

    • ScottEh on 24/02/2016 - 12:29

      Footpath has always been what I've known it as coming from North QLD, the entire council owned portion of the front yard. Every couple of years the council organises footpath collection before cyclone season to get rid of any potential debris.

    • Sage on 24/02/2016 - 21:38
      +1

      I notice OP is from Western Australia.

  • djprima on 22/02/2016 - 11:39
    +2

    A tip when you dump your electronics, stick a paper with words "STILL WORKING" if it is so someone could make use of it.

    We did throw out a working handheld vacuum one day, and forgot the charger upstairs. When I came back with the charger it's already gone (poor taker, should have wait 1 min :/)

  • Gravy on 22/02/2016 - 11:57
    +1

    Hmmm… well lots of stuff over the years but this last rubbish round I picked up a couple of dual core towers, both the same motherboard, both of which had faulty RAM (both worked after pulling one stick from each).Both missing drives though, but I had a few spare, one of the towers had a windows 7 license which was handy.

    2x 17 inch 4:3 monitors, both working.

    Emachines 2010 win7 model laptop, screen had obviously been punched and broken but works ok with HDMI output.

    A Beyonwiz 360GB Dual HD recorder, Remote was stuffed so bought a new Universal one for $6, works fine.

    Topfield 500GB dual HD recorder, works fine even came with remote and manual.

    Sony DVD Recorder with Hard drive, no remote or power cable but seems to work ok with Universal remote.

    Dell 20 inch LCD, has 2 vertical lines 1 pixel wide, took it apart to see if it was contact related but not fixable, still using it as a secondary spare though.

    2 kids bikes (could have got plenty of other bikes if I wanted to do some tidy up on them but decided not worth the effort).

    My method is usually to ride around on my pushy, spot stuff then come back with car. I could probably get lots of plasma and LCD TVs and attempt to repair them but they take a fair bit of time to pull apart and are heavy.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/02/2016 - 12:40
    +5

    Once found cardboard box inside was retro video games and 3 consoles and controllers.. Sold all on eBay got almost $600

    Am retro collector myself so my eye spotted it straight away but sold and used the money to buy other items I wanted

    • j4ck on 24/02/2016 - 08:47

      I've always dreamed of this happening…What did you find exactly?

      • [Deactivated] on 24/02/2016 - 09:34

        I found Sega Dreamcast complete with 1 game and 1 controller. Sega mega drive with 2 controllers 2 games. Nes with a busted 72pin (which I replaced for 20bux) 2 controllers and handful of nes games. One was championship rally with manual which is fairly rare game for pal nes

        Funny thing is ever since I always now when I walk past hard rubbish have a casual look but have never found anything again video game related …

        • j4ck on 24/02/2016 - 10:04

          That's a damn nice haul! Good stuff :D

  • Gravy on 22/02/2016 - 13:22
    +1

    Gotta say also that I think that people from all walks of life will pick up stuff from roadside rubbish collection, I dont consider myself rich or poor, but I have friends who are doctors, teachers etc who all feel no shame in roadside collection, in fact for me personally I get a bit of a kick out of repairing stuff I find or just finding a new home for something useful.

  • altomic on 22/02/2016 - 13:33
    +5

    when I lived in Tokyo there was a group of 7 high rise apartment buidlings a kilometre away.

    every tuesday they would have a hard rubbish collection at the designated spot.

    I furnished my entire apartment with quality stuff. brought some of the best pieces back to Oz. vintage chest of drawers, Koto (120 cm long stringed instrument, vintage ceramic umbrella stand, piles of kimonos + yukatas, sitting cushions, framed art, etc.

    it was crazy what was being thrown out at time - e.g. new near full Zildjian drum set, computers, appliances, snowboards, piles of manga comics, etc.

    • carwashhair on 22/02/2016 - 16:00
      +1

      Brilliant! What year was this? Maybe it was during the height of Marie Kondo-mania?

  • tardisx on 22/02/2016 - 13:40

    Couple of 15" LCD monitors. Wife was not impressed about me carting them home on foot (found them on my street while out walking), but they both worked perfectly.

    One was a rather spiffy Samsung with a swivel mount to let you rotate it to portrait mode.

    Both still in use today :-)

    • tonyjzx on 23/02/2016 - 18:06

      I used to work for a construction company (actually a few) and often the people onsite would need a basic PC to access company mail and office apps and print etc.

      At the end of the project we would look at what we should keep for the next job or what we can throw out. We were often asked to just remove the hdd and toss out the PC and 17" LCD monitor and the printer.

      We would buy new stuff for the next project as its too painful to clean out the old equipment (ie, full of concrete dust).

      So my garage has a few 17-19 LCDs that I dont have a use for.

  • Tripnfelt on 22/02/2016 - 13:47

    My neighbor put out a steam mop the other day which is now mine and I grabbed a cute teacup, some records and comics from a pile a few weeks back but I saw it advertised in a Facebook trading group and was on my street, I take plant pots & seedling trays all the time though that people leave out after putting in plants and landscaping, often lots outside new builds.

    There's always lots in my area but all stuff like furniture, ironing boards, kids bikes etc I don't want. There was a cool a 80's Fluro wetsuit recently but by the time I decided I could probably rock the look it was gone. If I drove I would probably stop and look at hard rubbish.

    I have never heard it called the verge and have lived in many states and territories over 30 years, only nature strip.

  • dannyeei on 22/02/2016 - 14:19
    +1

    I managed to find a working portable air con! That was definitely the highlight but have also picked up numerous couches, a light, a bedside table, an armchair, and a really nice office chair!

    • Azn310 on 24/02/2016 - 00:33

      Portable aircon here as well.. I was surprise why it was thrown out.. Maybe too noisy?

  • figarow on 22/02/2016 - 14:57
    +1

    Verge?

  • Kempe on 22/02/2016 - 15:32
    +20

    Not picked items up so I guess this is the opposite..
    Put a TV out but the collection was a month away so hung a "for sale- $100" sign on it and it got stolen through the night
    Thats what I call a result

  • carwashhair on 22/02/2016 - 15:58
    +2

    Just in our laneway the past couple of years I've picked up 4x 1973 Chiswell mid century style dining chairs, vinyl records, a Pignose amplifier and akai reel-to-reel tape, among other (lesser) things. Found a pair of RM Williams Boots that I gave a good clean and polish to and ended up selling for $65 on feebay. Sold some of the records above, too. People even stuck out around 30-40sq metres of italian terracotta bathroom tiles boxed and unused (a bit dated style-wise, but a cheap option for a second bathroom/wet area). It's incredible what people throw out!

  • captobvious on 22/02/2016 - 16:43
    +3

    Picked up a box of porn too. No sticky pages. I should have kept them some were early editions where muff was acceptable

    • pointless martyr on 22/02/2016 - 17:16

      Genuine lol

    • sparkles on 22/02/2016 - 20:19

      Oh, those were the days. LOLOLOL

    • bargaino on 24/02/2016 - 00:29

      I should have kept them some were early editions where muff was acceptable

      Google images is your friend. Just add the right magic keyword to turn off filtering.

      • captobvious on 24/02/2016 - 17:27

        Paper is easier to hold in one hand when the other is pre occupied.

  • Hahuh on 22/02/2016 - 16:46

    I don't really go on a organized hunt. My biggest find would have to be a dell 2005fpw monitor.

  • Cave Fire on 22/02/2016 - 17:40

    My best items would be: Rebel Sports weight bench, basically the ones that sell for $250. Nothing wrong with it that I could see. Bully Prowler bmx bike reissue, would end up selling for $65 but was worth more. Lastly, a punching bag stand that I sold for $90.

  • dealbreaker on 22/02/2016 - 19:37
    +2

    Best one was a 9ft slate pool table, saw it, went home grabbed a mate and trailer, was the heaviest thing you could imagine! Almost couldnt lift it. felt was ripped but eBay to the rescue I bought a nice light grey felt and fixed it. It even had the cue's and balls.

  • sparkles on 22/02/2016 - 20:17

    I'm partial to picking up the odd thing, have picked up plants pots and a solid wood coffee table set to restain. Don't think of it as being cheap and I'd never judge anyone on it, it's simply reusing stuff. But I do that a lot, I buy 99% of my books from the op shop, some clothes, and household items like crockery or ovenware.

    We even put out cut wood from fallen trees which always disappears provided you put a FREE sign and even bags of horse poo which people take for their garden. The random stuff we put out always appears to get dug through and/or nabbed - old bikes and salvagable furniture mainly.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/02/2016 - 21:05
    +9

    I used to park on the side street when i was going to uni.
    I would often see lots of mens clothes being chucked away and i emailed the council to see if they would recycle or landfill
    the lady told me they didnt recycle clothing so i collected clothing for a while and either donated it to Vinnes if they stuff was good condition or would drive down to sydney fish markets and give it to the homeless guys live opposite in the park.
    they did appreciate the pants and jackets and i would try to buy some socks because its one of the more important items.

    Moral of the story Verge collection is amazing.

  • Gravy on 22/02/2016 - 22:12
    +4

    About a year ago I found an old reel to reel portable tape recorder from 60's (Philips), at the same place I also snagged a 8mm movie projector which turned out to be probably my most useful find. The lens was milky but I took all the lens elements apart and polished them (ended up using JIF eventually, as I had nothing to lose and that did the job well enough).

    I took the projector to a family reunion last year and we showed a bunch of old 8mm films my parents had made in the 70's, hadnt seen them projected since the 80's. Almost had a tear in my eye as I watched myself literally taking my first steps as a toddler, which was even more amazing because there are hardly any photos of me as a baby that I know of.

    There was even some old footage my Dad took from Mt Wellington, and he zoomed towards the river and filmed a big gaping gap in the Tasman bridge on the Derwent River (Hobart)… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster

    Edit: the really "funny" thing was, I had the projector set up on a coffee table the first time I used it and my daughter rushed past and kicked the power cable, pulling the whole thing off the table and breaking the pick up reel. Managed to glue it back together though…. damn thing was in perfect condition for probably 30 years or more, then my daughter comes along. It was even in its original box.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/02/2016 - 23:22
    +1

    I got a bedside table once. Then about 6 months later the matching chest of draws!

    • [Deactivated] on 22/02/2016 - 23:25
      +2

      Though IKEA is killing the verge collect :/

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