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

Just had the luck of finding treasure at our apartment complex's dumpster... I didn't even have to get in my car!

1x Black (fake) leather rolling chair
1x Vacuum Cleaner
NIB Cranium board game

A ton of textbooks for some financial related degree... May post pics up later.
 
Anyone, I know a few of you in the Montville CT area talking, if you want to go hit me up sometime. I'm in the Montville area, can drive.
 
Long time since anyone has posted here, but I found what seems to be (after testing) a fully-working Jawbone ii Bluetooth Headset w/ charger next to the dumpster outside my apartment complex. Only problem is that it only had one of the rubber earpieces, and it's the large one so it doesn't fit in my ear. But I can get smaller replacement ones for way less than the cost of the headset. :cool:

I've also found stuff like perfectly good metal folding chairs, wooden computer desks, stools, and coffee tables. All of which, besides being dirty, were in great condition. Some people throw out some really nice stuff. :D
 
Latest find for us was a cheap metal futon frame + mattress... unforunately the rain got to them before us, so we just stripped the frame down and took the bolts/springs/etc...
 
IceWeasel said:
Latest find for us was a cheap metal futon frame + mattress... unforunately the rain got to them before us, so we just stripped the frame down and took the bolts/springs/etc...
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that sucks, but you could always clean it up and buy a new foam pad.
 
Read this thread and immediately wandered out to my complex's trash bins to have a look. Found a non functioning on first boot up attempt Compaq Presario v5000 laptop. I donated it to a local computer nonprofit (www.computersforclassrooms.com). I'm sure they will at least be able to strip it for components, it seemed flawless other than not turning on.
 
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A few weeks ago I found a fully working pentium 4 2.8ghz w/ 1g of ram in the trash on my way to school. Sold it the other week on craigslist and got 50$
 
I scored a busted and parted out Thinkpad T41p and screen lying around in a local college. The screen was positioned to look like it's on the laptop, but it's separate. Needs processor, RAM, optical drive, hard disk, keyboard, several exterior bezels, and a power adapter before it's working again. ATI FireGL graphics though :D

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Most of the stuff in the background are my sister's and mother's...
 
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Just did my first dumpster dive ever tonight. Had a couple friends from work with me. We found a business with an open dumpster that had 6 NIB dell docking stations, an 8-port KVM switch, 8-port 10/100 hub, about 20 optical mice, countless ethernet cables of different colors and lengths, and a cingular branded palm treo 650. as luck would have it im the only one with cingular service :) yea its an older model but it was an upgrade from my other phone so i was happy :) i wish bestbuy/target/etc didnt compact everything before they trashed it :(
 
Pylon said:
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Most of the stuff in the background are my sister's and mother's...
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No need to explain..................we believe you..........really(NOT)


I haven't been DD in a long time except for watching curbside - but usually there's nothing around with all the "self employed" scrappers/ yardsalers roaming the city. The last time I visited one of the mom-and-pop computer shops around here, all I got was six 80mm fans I scavenged from blown power supply's.
 
Seems like dumpster diving for fun is really starting to fade. With the HUGE increase in scrap prices and the recession. There is a great deal of folks who do little more than drive trucks around collecting things.

Also it seems everyone has a compactor now. Again please note the EXTREME danger of being anywhere near a compactor looking for stuff. It is not worth it PERIOD.
 
yeah i could stand to lose a bit of weight but not that much ha ha. im up for some dd in houston i have a truck to.......if anyone knows some good places to check for stuff.
 
@pylon : we understand.. johnson & johnson lotion near the laptop at all times! Though a non working one brings questions to mind. Ah if only this was genmay I'd go on
 
Most of the stuff I've found.



Yes, those are Itaniums:
 
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Found a Dell GX270 lying on the sidewalk in the rain today...motherboard has a lot of blown caps, but might be fixable with a little soldering.
 
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Oh boy. Dumpster diving.

3 desk chairs, one really nice leather one

dozens of workstations from 600mhz to 3ghz p4s

HDD's last week got a 500 sata. Other large drives in the past few months : 500 ide 640 sata 300 ide x3 320 sata 750 sata

Some bad sectors, most are system pulls it seems.

phones

mp3 players

7 lcds in the last 4 months, 3 15", 1 17", 2 19", 1 19" WS

about 6 months ago got a nice size lcd picture frame.

for the gardnerI got 4 displays FULL of veggie and flower seeds from big slots.

random furniture from big box stores.

software, now there is the booty. I get tons of old software that goes for 30-70 bucks a pop on ebay. Makes for a nice cyber monday fund.

software as of late

nero 9
norton 360s
some home design crap
peachtree stuff
random games
hallmark card studio
randon photo editing stuff

Its really a lucrative thing. I spend about 2 hours a week hitting 4 cans, and always have a trunk and back seat full.
 
Other than a desk that I found walking home from work. There is very little stuff of value being thrown out around here these days. A far cry from 2-3 years ago when trash day brought astounding amounts of TVs and computers being thrown out. I remember a friend scoring a 50 inch rear projection TV the people were throwing out because they were getting a 16:9 LCD. He got it for helping them move it out of the house.

Ive gotten an apple II dead but I wish I had kept it to modify its case for use with an Athlon or something.

It was GREAT run tho! People saved ALOT of stuff from ending up in landfills or other dangerous situations such in illegal e-waste disposal. Old consoles that will be museum material in a few decades saved... Broken computers repaired and given to charity.

However today is an age of value and people dont have limitless credit anymore so holding on to that TV a bit longer is more of the norm. Sure there will be another bout of people throwing out lots of stuff when the economy improves further, However dont expect as much fully working stuff to be thrown out. Learning to solder helps.
 
First time going out with a buddy and we pulled a pretty decent haul. Only one that we could find that wasn't a compactor was gamestop and we found multiple xbox live download cards for the beatles rockband, guitar hero 5, need for speed shift, dead space, and halo ODST Also got the big boxes that they use as display that are cardboard versions of the game caae for Halo ODST, need for speed shift, halo wars, and Left 4 dead.
 
the stuff from gamestop is supposed to be destroyed. Fail on the management for not doing so LOL.
 
Compactors are getting so cheap and site landlords are starting to demand them more and people because they fear liability from people poking about in trash cans and dumpsters.

The term "Dumpster Diving" needs to be retired. There are hardly any dumpsters anymore and saying NOT to try to get into compactors cant be said enough.

Sorry to keep saying it over and over tho but still. People I work in grocery. And while nobody is going to try to get into our compactor. Its DARK out there at night and we cant see jack before we hit the on button. DON'T RISK IT. NOTHING in it is worth the risk of extreme injury or death if someone does not stop that compactor in time.

Now the economy is starting to pick up steam again. And people are going to start throwing things out again to the street. However, I am not seeing many things that are worth dedicated trips for.

And there is another issue. Places like goodwill will not accept computers anymore. Traditionally getting even an old computer was worth it if you could fix it up for goodwill or whatever. It was a good way to give back to the community until people started dropping off machines full of viruses and not working. There might be some charities that can make use of it however it's a mess because a 486 just wont cut it even for text anymore.
 
You want old computers, just go to your local landfill. I went to drop off something, and saw a ton of them sitting in a cargo container. The guy said I could have whatever I wanted, so I grabbed a P4 Dell with the oem license still on it for XP, and refurbed it for my mom. The rest of them were P2 era, so I guess I lucked out.
 
Monkey34 said:
You want old computers, just go to your local landfill. I went to drop off something, and saw a ton of them sitting in a cargo container. The guy said I could have whatever I wanted, so I grabbed a P4 Dell with the oem license still on it for XP, and refurbed it for my mom. The rest of them were P2 era, so I guess I lucked out.
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Most landfills have businesses around them that help them collect such parts mainly for their metal content that can be recycled.

You lucked out.


The streets are still mostly devoid of anything useful. People are holding onto their TVs and Computers as long as they can in this recession.
 
i found a working intellimouse 3.0 in a skip. Perfect replacement when my mx518 dies :)

also multiple WMO mice (the plain old 2 button ones) and a cherry keyboard(!!) in another skip
 
Sagan said:
An Apple Macintosh from 85.

Hey it still works...
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Who on earth would just throw one of those away. They sell like hotcakes on Ebay! Nice find man!

Looks like things are slowly picking up. People buying new stuff and throwing out old. But still nothing compared to what it used to be.
 
We've been recycling all kinds of old electronics at school. I got to go through a whole room of old card reader/pos stuff and sort it out for the guy to haul away. I got a bunch of phone stuff, cords, etc from what was in there :)
 
I watched the owner of this chuck it very hard into a dumpster, I went over and asked him if he wants it, he said no there is something wrong with the hard drive. I pulled it out of the dumpster took it home. Works just fine. Pentium 4, 256 ram.



 
Zachstar said:
Who on earth would just throw one of those away. They sell like hotcakes on Ebay! Nice find man!

Looks like things are slowly picking up. People buying new stuff and throwing out old. But still nothing compared to what it used to be.
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I found one too, circa '88 Macintosh SE. Also working, but no kb/mouse and I have no use for it. It's a nice decoration, though.

I also have three Power Mac G3s and find a ton of potentially useful computers on the street in NYC. I usually open them up and see if there's anything worthwhile in them, but they're often raided on the sidewalk, and if not they're old'n'busted and not worth taking. Hard drives are either 5gb or gone.
 
Recently We hauled

72 Lbs of wolfgang puck ground coffee (expired a week ago)

an entire display of wireless mice (some without receivers *ebay for those*)


a $279 leather chair missing a wheel. new in box.

We always find usefull stuff, spools of dvd/r/rws cd/r/rws chairs, desks, furniture, shelving, etc etc. Just got some awesome 3m adhesive squares, from a uncompleted store display
Holds a brick to my fridge with a 1" sq piece.

I <3 staples.

I have purchased 6 1.5tb drives (6 months ago)
two roombas
a new projector
and various small things

From dumpster diving money.

Check book stores, behind computer shops for recycling, staples, office max, lowes, home depot, ANY place.

The amount of things we toss is insane
 
A load of dreamcast/older sega games that hadn't been sold from the back of a game shop. (Soul Calibur and a driving one etc.) Ebayed.

Oh and near my house I found a master system covered in Dog water. I couldn't...
 
I just found what looks to be a nearly-mint Amiga 2000 with its original Commodore monitor. It's missing cables and input devices, but after a bit of careful questioning I found out it was working when it was taken apart. The only physical problem I see is that the 3.5" floppy drive lost its front bezel. I saw it broken apart near the computer, too damaged to bother with. It was probably knocked loose and stepped on.

Now to figure out what to do with this thing (pics later maybe)
 
erebus it is nothing I mean NOTHING compared to what was thrown out between 2000 and the recession. I distinctly remember walking around the neighborhood to find almost every few houses throwing away a computer old TVs and appliances and woodwork out the rear end.

Today you have two things going against the fun walks to gather stuff.

First and foremost is the surge of junk collectors. The MASSIVE scrap price jump of the last half decade have caused people to turn to it in force. Computers are grabbed not for their history or their potential use. but to be stripped for metal. Or sold at whatever off market they can find. Streets are these days picked clean from people who roam around areas all night intending to make profit. I guess I would rather it end up in places other than landfills but for those who want to find historical items... Better hope goodwill has some.

And the recession isn't leaving us fast enough so people are holding onto their stuff as long as possible.
 
I just got a 19 inch Dell lcd monitor and 4GB of PC2-4200 ram from a bunch of stuff my school was getting rid of. They just pile it up outside one of the computer labs :)
 
jeffmoss26 said:
I just got a 19 inch Dell lcd monitor and 4GB of PC2-4200 ram from a bunch of stuff my school was getting rid of. They just pile it up outside one of the computer labs :)
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Got to be careful when it comes to schools man. Many state laws require all equipment to go through a process after it fails or retired. Few schools just throw out computer stuff these days. Tho if you had permission I have to say.

Nice find!
 
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