No, I am not kidding!
Dumpsters are a treasure-house of discarded stuff. They often contain 100’s of dollars of things that you can sell at a flea market.
Check out dumpsters in rich neighborhoods.
Check on which days they pick-up at street side or dump boxes. It’s handy to have a pole with some sort of hook or grabber on the end. For the really big boxes…
well, somebody has to climb down inside and be able to get back out!
Of course, there is always the possibility of stumbling on a dead cat or dog, a corpse or a drunk! Just look at it as an adventure!
Case examples:
A vendor that I know gets all of his used merchandise at street-side pick-up
locations. He drives around and loads up his van real early in the morning. He goes to the best neighborhoods to get the best stuff.
There is a funny thing about this. Almost always, the people place equipment (TV’s, VCR’s , radios or other appliances that work okay) to the side of the rest of the trash. This lets someone else know that the stuff is still working.
How thoughtful!!
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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Another vendor friend from out West says that a gal he knows in LA makes 35-50
thousand a year dumpster diving.
What’s her secret? Well, first - she dresses real nice and has an old but well kept Mercedes. She drives around in the rich sections of town and blends in fine.
Whenever she sees some goodies, she parks way down the street and casually
collects the stuff. All of the things she gets during the week go to the flea market on Saturday and Sunday!
You see rich people are rarely satisfied and often bored. So they throw good things away just so they can go out and buy whatever is the fad at the moment! If the color is outdated by a few months, out it goes to the street side pick up or nearby dumpster!
Note: Check up on local policies about picking up discarded street-side stuff.
Some areas may not allow it and actually enforce the ordinance.
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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