Reading this stuff here makes me sick

In a big house cleaning several years ago:
I tossed out a dozen empty cans of IMR 4198 in yellow labeled metal cans with a retail price sticker of $2. on them.

Probably 20 empty metal cans of IMR from the 70-80s.

And 5-6 of 1/2 pound empty metal cans of a Norma powder with a paper label for loads
to go in .38 S&W on them.

And a empty 4 lb. cardboard Unique can with the top cut off I used for a waste basket.

I had no idea anybody would ever want them for a 'vintage' collection.
At the time, they were about as valuable as last week's empty candy bar wrappers.


The empty cans sell on eBay for more than I paid for most of them when they were full.

You are not alone in throwing away "collector" pieces from days gone by. At the time it was empty and of no further use, or at least that is what those of us thought. Oh well! live and learn. One mans junk is another mans treasure.

"We" picked up pickup truck loads of telephone pole cross bars, with insulators (glass and ceramic) on. We broke the wooden pegs off and trashed the insulators. Several trash cans full. The cross bars made decent fence posts and a new bridge decking. Trash crew picked up the trash. A couple of months later glass insulators were selling for $5 each at the flea market. sigh.

Insulators are going for a lot more than that on evilbay now. Some over a hundred dollars, go figure. We use to shoot them as targets when the phone company replaced them, the workers usually just threw them on the ground for us young boys to pick up.. Who would have thought that they would one day be worth that kind of money.

I know at least two people that had either a comic book collection or baseball card collection discarded by parents when cleaning closets in the kids old room. Why they wouldn't ask first is beyond me, like my wife sometimes says. "I didn't think it was valuable" when I'm like yes it is an irreplaceable part for a vintage.... which is why I had it in that closet with my stuff. Your cleaning the closet doesn't trump my ownership is a concept. it is out in the trash is a reality.

Heck just firearms some of us have sold or traded that are high dollar now. Or lead how much printers lead did we NOT buy at 10 cents a pound? Or our childhood toys? OMG those things are worth big bucks now. Real Tonka trucks? We used to test firecrackers on our old ones that we had "outgrown".

I missed the boat on some really early computers, there was a period of time they were really collectable. Price they sold for was several hundred dollars, close to $1,000 but then a whole bunch came on the market, and interest dropped off and now I would be lucky to get $100 - $200 for them. Should have struck while the iron was hot....

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Originally Posted by RogerDat

I know at least two people that had either a comic book collection or baseball card collection discarded by parents when cleaning closets in the kids old room. Why they wouldn't ask first is beyond me, like my wife sometimes says. "I didn't think it was valuable" when I'm like yes it is an irreplaceable part for a vintage.... which is why I had it in that closet with my stuff. Your cleaning the closet doesn't trump my ownership is a concept. it is out in the trash is a reality.

Heck just firearms some of us have sold or traded that are high dollar now. Or lead how much printers lead did we NOT buy at 10 cents a pound? Or our childhood toys? OMG those things are worth big bucks now. Real Tonka trucks? We used to test firecrackers on our old ones that we had "outgrown".

I missed the boat on some really early computers, there was a period of time they were really collectable. Price they sold for was several hundred dollars, close to $1,000 but then a whole bunch came on the market, and interest dropped off and now I would be lucky to get $100 - $200 for them. Should have struck while the iron was hot....

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Years ago, my Mom threw out a whole box of my old mags and books. She said that when she saw a Playboy mag. in there, that was all it took for her to toss out the whole box. Original 1896 Winchester gun catalog, early 1920's Outdoor magazines, all gone. We all think of those old empty shotshell boxes etc. left in duck blinds. Anyone want to buy a few memories?

Too soon old, too late smart.

One man's trash is another's treasure...

Years ago when my wife and I were in financially dire straits, we decided to take our old books to the used bookstore to see what we could get for them. Years earlier, I had thrown out the dust jackets of most of them because they were a pain in the hiney to deal with them when reading the books. In many cases, the dust jackets went into the trash even before I read the book for the first time.

When we arrived at the book store, the first question out of the lady's mouth was, "Where are the dust jackets?"

I replied, "I threw them all out."

She hung her head with sadness.

Apparently, several of the books were first edition Steven King novels and were highly collectible. But only if you have the dust jackets with them. With the dust jackets, the whole box of books would have been worth over $10,000. Thirty years ago, we were lucky to be making ten bucks an hour and that would have kept us going for a VERY long time, including getting a better car.

The bookstore lady claimed she would have given us a check on the spot for the money but without the dust covers, we only got $400. That was still a great help, but I've never forgotten the sting of the ignorant mistake I made with those books. Years later, I wanted to know if I'd gotten ripped off regardless of the missing dust covers but in fact, she had treated us fairly.

What a bitter pill, eh?

--Wag--

I understand... "Hind sight is 20/20", is another saying that applies to these situations.

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Originally Posted by dbosman

"We" picked up pickup truck loads of telephone pole cross bars, with insulators (glass and ceramic) on. We broke the wooden pegs off and trashed the insulators. Several trash cans full. The cross bars made decent fence posts and a new bridge decking. Trash crew picked up the trash. A couple of months later glass insulators were selling for $5 each at the flea market. sigh.

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Back in the early to mid '60's , Grandpa bought 8 miles of telephone crossarms from the phone company. Spent most of the summer and the next processing the crossarms. We took the metal of them, for sale at the auction house. The insulators were taken off (at least those that came off) and through into a two wheel trailer. The ones that wouldn't come off, we used a hog slapper to try to twist it off. If we still couldn't twist it off, Grandpa built a device out of a 3 pound coffee can. It didn't have a top or bottom, and a handle. You put it over a insulator about took a hammer to the insulator. It came off in a pile of glass. when a pile got big enough we scoped it into the cart. when the cart got full, it was taken out to the ditch on his farm, called 'Hells Hollow' and dumped. There must have been about 6 or 7 loads dumped down the ditch. The mud later covered it up and there is no trace of them left. Grandpa built the new house out of the crossarms with enough left over to build a garage when he moved to town. In addition he built a pen and loading chute and still had some left.

Rob

I have a theory about stuff that ends up being collectible. If someone doesn't throw away 98 percent of stuff over the years, the other 2 percent will never be valuable.

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Originally Posted by Wag

Years ago when my wife and I were in financially dire straits, we decided to take our old books to the used bookstore to see what we could get for them. Years earlier, I had thrown out the dust jackets of most of them because they were a pain in the hiney to deal with them when reading the books. In many cases, the dust jackets went into the trash even before I read the book for the first time.

When we arrived at the book store, the first question out of the lady's mouth was, "Where are the dust jackets?"

I replied, "I threw them all out."

She hung her head with sadness.

Apparently, several of the books were first edition Steven King novels and were highly collectible. But only if you have the dust jackets with them. With the dust jackets, the whole box of books would have been worth over $10,000. Thirty years ago, we were lucky to be making ten bucks an hour and that would have kept us going for a VERY long time, including getting a better car.

The bookstore lady claimed she would have given us a check on the spot for the money but without the dust covers, we only got $400. That was still a great help, but I've never forgotten the sting of the ignorant mistake I made with those books. Years later, I wanted to know if I'd gotten ripped off regardless of the missing dust covers but in fact, she had treated us fairly.

What a bitter pill, eh?

--Wag--

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Old matchbox car might go for 30 or 40 bucks but with the original box might go for a couple hundred. The original box by itself would go for a hundred. Most kids throw away the box even if they don't scratch the paint.

Tim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dbosman

"We" picked up pickup truck loads of telephone pole cross bars, with insulators (glass and ceramic) on. We broke the wooden pegs off and trashed the insulators. Several trash cans full. The cross bars made decent fence posts and a new bridge decking. Trash crew picked up the trash. A couple of months later glass insulators were selling for $5 each at the flea market. sigh.

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you failed to mention the god awful splinters those old weathered cross poles generated. Giving me flashbacks to the mid to late 60s.

Yep, when I worked at scout camp the Ranger and I were instructed to gather all the brass/copper fire extinguishers and shoot each of them several times due to some safety issue. It was fun but I wish I had them now!