craigslist freebies... - Page 2

Well, you haven't seen the "pile" as the wifey calls it off to the side. Yes, it still needs to be cleaned and organized more. Then again, I suspect I probably have more garage space in total than you do (my side is the extra deep side of our triple).

The last 14 or so hours have been sort of interesting. I responded to 3 CL "free" listings in my home bedroom town. One was a curb alert, 1 a "i've moved and can't take the stuff in the garage/shed with me", and the last was a rental eviction (ended up I knew the family that got booted--I'm not surprised). Anyway some scrap and some CL/ebay listings.

The take included a 1930s-1940s Duncan Phyfe style drop leaf, 6 leg table. Its in pretty rough shape but either whole or parted out if should be worth more than "free". A piece of brown granite 4x49 inches that should be worth a few bucks, a mixed lot of mostly SD license plates that might have ebay value. Along with a couple of tvs, and assorted steel scrap. This morning after dropping the kids off at school, I took apart some big fiberglass/steel conduit industrial "waste pan" thingy (brought the fiberglass piece home even though it will probably get pitched or maybe the bro can use out at his place) and a small bed frame that I couldn't load into my car last night.

Now its off to the desk job...

Thanks!! I'll mention that use in the CL ad I'll start tomorrow.

Last Sat. am took a trunk load of light steel in on my way to the bro's to pick up eggs and cut up what was left of an old shell of a Al pickup camper. His friends had burned it so I was a little concerned about that especially a layer of melted styrene foam on most of the pieces that I rolled up and crunched down to fit into my trunk. I thought my non-ferrous guy would only give me Al breakage for it but was happy when he gave me 50 pounds of clean Al for it at over 8x the price of breakage. I also took in some brass and insulated lighter wire. Somehow he gave me credit for about twice as much brass (was training a new guy) so I'm going to send him a check for the overage. He may rip up the check and not take it but I think that should be his choice to make.

Last night got a call from a guy that was cleaning out a rental eviction where last Thurs. I had scored an old wooden dining room table and a couple of tvs. He said there was more stuff there so went over there after 9 pm last night. Brought back 2 more tvs, a couple of lamps, an ornate wooden dining room chair that looks older but was made in Vietnam so its not, artifical Xmas tree, and some other assorted stuff. The take also include 11 packets of what look like some sort of brackets. The bundle is about 7 inches long and 6 inch wide and weigh about 5+ pounds each. Nice heavy stuff that doesn't take up much room in the trunk. Don't know if these would have any value beyond scrap or not...

Hey Dakota . Have any pictures of this communist chair?

RCNJ- Here you go. Sort of nice looking "older" chair



The truth revealed. Probably still North American hardwood but assembled in Vietnam, although they have cut a lot of their forests for coffee plantations and such. I know tropical hardwoods besides mahogany and teak are now being used for U.S. furniture. I thought because it was a single chair someone might be interested in it as an art project that they can trick out (hahaha)!

Its amazing what they can do with cheap labor . Vietnam from what ive read is much worse then china. Laos is up there too. Irony we fought against communism but we import all there products now.

A colleague of mine at work spent a couple of weeks or so in VN looking at their forest land cover. He spent much of the time in the central highlands where a lot of the pitched battles were fought during the U.S. war. One of the things that sort of shocked him the most was that villagers would point at him and whisper openly because he was the first white guy that some had seen or it had been a long time. He's not exactly a giant but is about 6 feet and has blondish hair, probably a rarity for around there.

A couple of points here. 1) we forget that in many of the "developing" world countries young folks make up a majority of the population. Most of the people in these villages weren't alive 40+ years ago when the war was going on. 2) even though these people weren't living like "savages" they mostly were subsistence (aka peasants) farmers who worked their own land or in the export plantations. Going to the provincial capital typically would be a rarity. Going to Hanoi or old Saigon almost unheard of. Going on an international trip a mere dream.

We tend to forget, even for folks in the developed world who struggle, how "wealthy" and mobile we are compared to a majority of the world's population. I'm not trying to preach anything here. Just stating a fact...

I went out to the bro's and SiL's place today to get eggs and more traps and stopped at a small town on the way and picked up a Dish TV set-up off of CL's freebies. I wasn't too impressed with the dish, thought there would be a nice cable or something running down the middle but it was just light steel. There's a couple of electronic boxes and other stuff in the box that might have some value.



I picked through the bro's metal pile and dug out a bunch of golf clubs he had in there. I'll check these out on ebay first but I don't think they have much value. Only 2 of them had a head that wasn't magnetic (will cut those off of the shafts) but the rest will probably just go in the steel pile.



I picked this portable "welder" thingy out of his pile as well. He thought it had a lot of Cu inside. There was a big transformer but the windings were Al wire not copper. Still got other insulated wire, a couple switches, and some steel out of it.



I was going to take these motors out of their out busted down hot tub but I ran out of time because of some other errands to do. Probably do those next time I'm out there. But it certainly won't be tomorrow or Monday after work. The weather here is going to suck (we got a nice amount of snow today but tomorrow its going to blow and drift and then get cold).

Thanks M688. I knew there was more to them . I was going to knock off that piece on the end at a later date (sort of pressed for time yesterday).

Check those clubs on ebay dakota . Been selling a few lately

kevin

That piece was made for a backsplash. Gets glued to the wall and onto the counter. The variety is hard to tell in the pic, but it's somewhere on the Giallo family. Likely Giallo Veneziano, but it's hard to tell.

You might be able to just walk it into a granite shop and get a few bucks. With a shot f one is close by.

I've been doing granite counters for most of the last 15 years. I know a bit.

Thanks SE Metal! I've had it listed on Cl first for $10 (someone was interested but then it was a few inches too short) and now for $7. If it doesn't sell, I'll see if the bro wants it for something in their bath or kitchen. I appreciate your experience!!

Here's a little story of never know what to expect with things. I saw a CL "curb alert" about a month or so ago in my bedroom town and stopped by after work. Not much for scrap there but a small pile of older license plates and some sort of home-made giant "dust pan" with a steel conduit handle (the thing wouldn't fit into the car so came back the next day with a wrench and took it apart and then it fit). Anyway, the first stop I took the license plates. If nothing else 4 lbs. of light steel.

I tbhought I'd run the license plates by ebay first before they hit the tin pile. There were 9 total; 6 from SD (2 different styles) and 3 from AZ. Late 1990s through early 200os. There seemed to be some market for license plates so threw them up on ebay last week starting at $4.95 (one of my default prices for small stuff). Knew there might be interested when a border hugging Canuk (if this is insulting to those up further north, its not meant to be...) asked what they'd cost going to a friend of his in the states. Picked up 5 watchers before this past Sunday when they closed. That morning someone made the first bid. Cool. Better than 20 cents of steel. About 2 hours before the close it had risen to $17+. Right on!! An hour before the close it had gone to $34+. Fantastic!! And there it closed. Not bad for a quick freebie stop

Here's a pix of the plates. P.S. I wonder if SD plates with maybe a million vehicles tops being licensed are more difficult to find than say OH with probably 20 million plated vehicles for people building collections??

That's what I'm talking about . when I see things now I always look at there eBay value. Haven't been to scrap yard in three weeks . trying to build a name for myself on ebay lol

Originally Posted by DakotaRog

OK, didn't know that transformers could be pure Alum, always thought there was Cu involved unless that was "off-site" somewhere and the Al piece just hooked into it somehow. Then again, I don't know much about how electronics work, I just tear them apart...

would serve your profits better to learn how they worked though. Sometimes identifying a simple cheap fix can take something that was scrap to a resale level. A lot of times that winds up being 5-10x scrap value.