DD: The Official "Post What You've Found" Thread (pics!!)

Me and a friend went Dumpster Diving today. Greatest trip yet. Found a 27 inch TV and 2 stereo systems without speakers. I let my friend have the TV and i took the stereos. TV ended up being broken, stereos ended up working fine, so we took the speakers out of the TV, assembled them onto a cardboard box and saudered it to fit into the back of the stereo. It's beautiful, funny, and might i say rather sexy. The volume button got smashed in, but you can still adjust it. It works great, the speakers are actually decent, and for about 30 minutes of work i got myself a brand new stereo system. Here's a pic of my glorious find/build.

IMG_2897.jpg
 
asiancowboy said:
Me and a friend went Dumpster Diving today. Greatest trip yet. Found a 27 inch TV and 2 stereo systems without speakers. I let my friend have the TV and i took the stereos. TV ended up being broken, stereos ended up working fine, so we took the speakers out of the TV, assembled them onto a cardboard box and saudered it to fit into the back of the stereo. It's beautiful, funny, and might i say rather sexy. The volume button got smashed in, but you can still adjust it. It works great, the speakers are actually decent, and for about 30 minutes of work i got myself a brand new stereo system. Here's a pic of my glorious find/build.
Click to expand...


gotta love it! nice work
 
My local Wal-Mart had a "computer recycle day" (TOTAL BULLSHIT-- the workers there would not let me take a monitor, found out later that they sell everything they get to either recyclers or companies). After they turned me away from the semitruck-trailers I went back at 2am, when no one was there. The parking lot has cameras, so I drove in, headlights off, in my black car, at an angle the cameras were blocked from (by the trailers, there were at least 5 of them). The trailers were not fully loaded. I filled my car, with mostly old Dells and such, but I got a TON of decent stuff. Several working monitors, a bunch of P2/P3s and one P4. Also salvaged an AMD 2000 system and removed an AMD 1400+ from another computer. I threw away all the P2s and P3s, after taking all the parts worth anything (most of the computers had dead mobos, or were too old for me to care about). Now I have a shelf full of small hard drives, cd drives, TONS of floppy drives (threw out all but 10, no one needs like 50 floppy drives), fans, a few decent PSUs, etc from the whole incident. Since the AMD 1400+ system was entirely toasted, I will probably be ordering a new mobo for it to use with a GeForce4 TNT2 that I had lying around. Next time they have one of these, I am renting a van and parking nearby. I think I will also go sooner, as I think most of the good systems were already taken (or maybe locked up). It is amazing how many computers soccer moms in a rich area will throw away...
 
synaps3 said:
My local Wal-Mart had a "computer recycle day" (TOTAL BULLSHIT-- the workers there would not let me take a monitor, found out later that they sell everything they get to either recyclers or companies). After they turned me away from the semitruck-trailers I went back at 2am, when no one was there. The parking lot has cameras, so I drove in, headlights off, in my black car, at an angle the cameras were blocked from (by the trailers, there were at least 5 of them). The trailers were not fully loaded. I filled my car, with mostly old Dells and such, but I got a TON of decent stuff. Several working monitors, a bunch of P2/P3s and one P4. Also salvaged an AMD 2000 system and removed an AMD 1400+ from another computer. I threw away all the P2s and P3s, after taking all the parts worth anything (most of the computers had dead mobos, or were too old for me to care about). Now I have a shelf full of small hard drives, cd drives, TONS of floppy drives (threw out all but 10, no one needs like 50 floppy drives), fans, a few decent PSUs, etc from the whole incident. Since the AMD 1400+ system was entirely toasted, I will probably be ordering a new mobo for it to use with a GeForce4 TNT2 that I had lying around. Next time they have one of these, I am renting a van and parking nearby. I think I will also go sooner, as I think most of the good systems were already taken (or maybe locked up). It is amazing how many computers soccer moms in a rich area will throw away...
Click to expand...

wow great find!
 
i caint dumpster dive in our city :-( i called to police and they said it was illegal

im sad now
 
I've often browsed this forum but until recently didn't have a chance to post.
I've gotten two big hauls in my time.
1st I went to ABC warehouse and got probably 100 or so 25 foot RCA cables all brand new as well as a monitor. Next door at a gaming spot I tracked down several gameboys, cases and games as well as an old nintendo gameshark all in great condition. There was more but I had to stop when the cops were called... yikes.

Last week I had an amazing haul while diving at a local university's dumpsters. Behind the science building I found all sorts of nifty glassware, new glass vials (in an unopened box), brand new electronic pH meters (each had a connection broken inside which took seconds to fix), 2 electronic precision balances (worth several thousand each) and a 50 ft roll of metal screen (which replaced my broken window screen this afternoon).
 
First dive was tonight. Went to a small PC repair shop. There were about 8+ monitors out back, so we did what anyone would do - Grab the biggest one! :p 21" NEC Multisync 6FGp. Sucker is HUGE! Only thing, damn thing doesnt work :mad:

Also grabbed a nice HP printer, Photosmart 940 i think, its still in my car. There were quite a few PC's still lying around, but we couldnt fit any morein the car with that huge monitor. Not bad for a first dive, too bad the monitor doesnt work tho.
 
newest find.. Walking down lexington Ave in NYC and found this by a trash can on the street.

Compaq Deskpro ENM P667 128 MB Rambus, HP cd Burner, cd drive. Not in the best condition. No front bezel or side cover and power switch seems not to work. But seems pretty good to run linux on.
 
The office occasionally does massive tosses of old computer stuff.

I mostly stay away (wicked old servers, 15" monitors, other miscellaneous crap), but I do poke around and see if there are any gems hidden among the wreckage.

Besides the occasional small accessory (MS Intellimouse, Dell keyboards, USB Cables, etc.) here and there, sometimes I hit the motherload.

#1 best pickup was an Infocus LCD projector (800x600), only problem with it was the multi-input dongle that went to a little pod that allowed hookup of a PC, mouse/pointer, and audio was busted.

The other inputs (the non-multi) worked fine, (Audio, S-Video, Composite), and the projector bulb had plenty of life, so I just went to Infocus's website and ordered a $9 cable that was the multi-input on one end, and VGA on the other. Worked like a charm; up until I bought my 37" LCD and X360 this past winter, the projector served me well as a giant 480p setup for my original Xbox.

Now it's going to serve a new role as a D&D map projector.
 
So I came across this section of the site just a couple of hours ago and I thought, why not go diving - tonite! So i got my brother and we went to a bunch of stores. First place we hit up was Sports Authority. It a big find, for our first time. Peeked into the dumpster and whaddya know, A brand New Bike (still with tags and warranty :D), a slightly used Trampoline and a crap load of socks and some magnetic massage gloves. The other stores we went to (comper, staps, the city ) were either locked or were compacters. No luck there. So for the last place, we went to Peir Uno and found some very nice candle/speaker stands. I will post pictures below of the finds.
 
At Sears(where I work) they keep alot of bigger "trash" items that they can't compact outside until they can be taken to the junkyard. You can find tv's(can't compact due to some poisonous gas), appliances and some excercise equipment(just too big for the compactor). I picked myself up a 32" Sony Trinitron television w/ remote, made in 1995. This thing is a beast, 180lbs. It was missing a 3"x8" piece of plastic casing near the speaker, otherwise was in perfect shape. It has picture-in-picture, 2 tuner, and everything else that makes Sony the best in televisions.

I keep my eyes open for other items. I'm waiting for them to trash a 27" Sony Trinitron next. It's been sitting in their back room just collecting dust, so I'm sure they will get rid of it soon.

Many times they will trash water heaters and refrigerators if they are dented and in 1 case they trashed a returned side-by-side fridge with nothing wrong just because it stunk of rotting fish, lol.
 
Some of my friends in college actually make some money once or twice a year dumpster diving. Yo'd be amazed what students (especially freshmen) will throw out at the end of the semester, just because they don't want to take it home. For our yard sale this weekend, we have a small stack of tvs, half a dozen dvd players, a futon, three or four mini fridges, several tables, and a bunch of smaller stuff. Not counting stuff we're keeping ourselves, like a handful of window fans, a beer pong table, a couple table lamps, or my new 5.1 surround system. All of it in near-new condition. And all this is at a small school, maybe 3k students in the dorms.
Anyone with a college in the area letting out this week, it's worth a look.
 
today we found

hundreds of feet of light rope things
an OLD compaq
perfectly good rolling office chair
wireless optical logitech mouse (mx 700), good shape, works fine, a bit dirty
tons of brand-new good hardback books
2 cases of cds
decent epson photo printer
and some other random crap
 
modding_JunKy said:
i caint dumpster dive in our city :-( i called to police and they said it was illegal

im sad now
Click to expand...
If you are in the USA, it is legal. The law is called Public Domain," google it...
 
I've been dumpster diving the past few weeks and have been too lazy to post pics but here's some of the highlights

slot load pioneer dvd drive (works great)
40 gig seagate ide (works great)
60 gig ibm deathstar (works fine so far)
several floppy drives
4 assorted power supplies 250-320 watt (some working some not)
a MESS of Thermaltake heatsink/fan combos for 754 and 939 (I grabbed the copper ones, I have maybe 6-8 of the 40+ in the dumpster)
Windows XP w/sp2 OEM install cd
20 gig toshiba laptop drive (untested, rattles... not a good sign)
40 gig toshiba laptop drive (untested, rattles... not a good sign)


and some other stuff I can't remember right now.

All from local pc store dumpsters




 
soulman76 said:
I've been dumpster diving the past few weeks and have been too lazy to post pics but here's some of the highlights

slot load pioneer dvd drive (works great)
40 gig seagate ide (works great)
60 gig ibm deathstar (works fine so far)
several floppy drives
4 assorted power supplies 250-320 watt (some working some not)
a MESS of Thermaltake heatsink/fan combos for 754 and 939 (I grabbed the copper ones, I have maybe 6-8 of the 40+ in the dumpster)
Windows XP w/sp2 OEM install cd
20 gig toshiba laptop drive (untested, rattles... not a good sign)
40 gig toshiba laptop drive (untested, rattles... not a good sign)


and some other stuff I can't remember right now.

All from local pc store dumpsters




Click to expand...



...crikey, mate.

Where do you live/dive?
 
found these art posters

The Monet and Munch ones are framed and huge! They're probably about 3.5'x5' or so (can't find my tape measure). The MC Escheresque one is about 2'x3'.
Monet and Munch found by apt dumpster down the street; MC wannabe found 2 houses down at the curb.


Tramonto a Venezia by Claude Monet


The Scream (or The Cry) by Edvard Munch


not sure of the artist... looks like MC Escher, but i'm pretty sure it's not
 
one day couple of friends and i are walking around in out local mall. we started to walk towards the exit when the mall was about to close. on out way we passed this verizon cell phone dealership and they were giving out free frisbee the whole day. when we went past there, the dude just handed us the whole bag. it was literally a huge black trash full of frisbees. we counted about 150+ frisbees!!! the next day we had a really good time at the shooting range.
 
anyone live in central jersey? I dont wanna go alone. and my friends think there to good to go dumpster diving
 
hehe just went last night, might post pics later, got a bunch of books, a world map,giant bottle of protein powder(which I just found out is expired) cordless phone,some type of rubber band gun or something,ipod nano box, and a back massager :p
 
1GHZ PIII Dell Optiplex system sans Hard Drive. I guess somebody upgraded and decided to throw it out, poor thing.
 
The artist of that third print is: Irvine Peacock/Meiklejohn Graphics.
I have a poster of it, and this is what is says on the bottom under artist information.
 
Stale-ples throws out alot of stuff. Always see complete chair kits and file cabinets, sometimes full size bookcases (Don't need another one [yet]). Lately, I found a half size, stackable, foldable bookcase. Nice cherry red finish. No assemblly needed. Best part of all was that the thing was still SEALED IN ITS BOX. Looks like someone in the back spilt some coffee on it and out it went. Too bad they didn't spill coffee on both things. All in all a nice 49.99 (0.00) bookcase :D

Item: 502507
Situations Solid Wood Bookcases, 3-Shelf , Sonoma Cherry

bookcase.jpg
 
I guess u would call this a trash find. Decided to walk in another direction to the store and found a hp photosmart p1000 w/ black ink cartridge. The color cartridge was empty. And its still working. Find it earlier this yr and just gave to the kids. I already have a P1115 but stopped using it and used the P1000 instead. Also someone on craigslist mailed to me free 4 hp ink cartridges-2 blk/2 color. Now that is really a find considering how much the ink is costing now.
 
Not bad. Don't forget that Office Depot and Staples will give you $3 coupons for each ink cartridge.
 
Staples around me tend to throw those empty ink tanks you take to them other then use the free recycling program that is already postage paid for them... Find them along with the rest of their stuff in their dumpster, even in the recycling baggies.
 
Speaking of ink cartridges, has anyone heard anything on the HP ink cartridge lawsuit? or is it still in litigation?
 
i was at the local dump a while back throwing out construction debris with a friend and I see a 2x10 sub box sitting in the pile. I pulled it out. It's fine with the exception of some of the rug pealing off. I went back the next week and I see a samsung dvd/vcr sitting on the top and my friends like it's broken just leave it. Well I took it home and it plays both dvds and vhs tapes just fine. :cool: will add pics tonight
 
I found a bunch of brand new carpet remnents at a construction site, It is a neutral color and great for using to make my cats scratching posts and "jungle gyms".

My dad once found a socket set on the side of the road, it had apparently fallen off a truck and scatered all over the road, but he managed to gather up all the sockets and wrenches.

I also found a brand new air nailer, probably a finishing nailer once when i was going with my mom and uncle to buy my mom a new car. But my uncle claimed that, and I havn't seen it since then.
 
The guy I work for gave me a DVD-ROM (Phillips) a Apple DVD-RAM Drive, and a new in box Lite-on CDRW. No pics, the DVD-ROM is in my new Powermac, I sold the Liteon on ebay for $15 and the DVD-RAM I gave to my brother, I'll try to get some pics of the DVD-RAM
 
^^^^^^ Dude your sig is too long!^^^^^^
(22) No active links, graphics, code, profanity or advertising allowed in the SIGNATURE. Sig line is limited to 10 lines total as viewed @ 800 x 600 resolution or no more that 15 words per line.
And I dont think that someone giving you some stuff really counts as Dumpster Diving. :rolleyes:
 
I picked up a Pentium 1 (not sure of the speed yet) today, Would have scored 2 CD-ROM and 4 5 1/4 floppy drives if I had a screwdriver. Such is life.
 
synaps3 said:
If you are in the USA, it is legal. The law is called Public Domain," google it...
Click to expand...
Wrong.

Stores lease/own their dumpsters, which makes them private property.
 
All right, thanks for telling me Monsoon, and dude I already changed it, one of the mods sent me a PM. And sorry, I thought this thread could be just about anything you got for free, not just stuff you got out of a dumpster :D
 
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