Between my city's spring cleanup and just regular trash days, I made easy money just driving around, picking up curbside vacuums and giving them to a repair guy for $5-10. He generally likes the older metal models that last forever like Sanitaires and Kirbys. If the motor runs and the brushes sound okay he'll pay me for it. I've made $40-60 this way, I forget how many trips I've made. Then I sold for non-working for used replacement parts on ebay (burshes, cleaning cups). About $7-10 so far. and That excludes a trip to the scrap yard to get rid of cast aluminum and non-working motors. I should do that this morning. Short story: it may not be a gold mine, but vacuums are on the curb almost every week and I have a decent shot at getting $100 for 10 free vacuums that I don't have to fix.
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