Dumpster Diving!

About the game displays you can usually get those for free when they are done with them if you just go and ask them to put your name down. Remember that employees usually get first choice.
 
thanks kirkthebeast and Komataguri,
The dumpster was a regular sized one with 2 plastic lids, wasent locked or anything, I guess I lucked out anyhow I have a new spot, the sports authority moved :p and for the displays maybe so if you ask they will give them away but I think they do have some rarity to them expesially the Halo2 collectors edition games, it says "FOR DISPLAY ONLY" right on the bottom of the case, anyhow I dont think if you asked them they would give you the keys to the "Display" case and the front door either :D ;)
-Appatula
 
Are those just the boxes or the actual games cuz I see at least 4 copies of Halo2!!! Diving here absolutely SUCKS. I have been all over Birmingham in about a 15 mile radius and all I get are compactors, locked dumpsters and stinky garbage. I am wasting so much gas that I figure I'll have to give up soon.
 
yes games are in most of the boxes, sorry to hear about the dumpster diving were u live sucks, my area will probly start to lock stuff up soon expesially gamestop im shure. but bolt cutters are only 20bux so hey. anyhow good luck.
-Appatula
 
me and my friend looked in a dumpster by my friend's apartment, and we found a bob the builder and a spongebob umbrella, LOL. we then beat the crap out of them, and threw them back.
 
appatula said:
yes games are in most of the boxes, sorry to hear about the dumpster diving were u live sucks, my area will probly start to lock stuff up soon expesially gamestop im shure. but bolt cutters are only 20bux so hey. anyhow good luck.
-Appatula
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Bolt cutting would make you a criminal, lol
 
Would anyone know some good places around the North County area to DD?
 
I cant say that I have ever been "dumpster diving". Sounds like fun? ;)
 
i went dd'ing for the first time yesterday and found a working 19" color TV, just one of the channel buttons was stcukl but that was an easy fix. the pictrue on it is great! :D
 
DD in the garbage room of a corporate building is the best... my coworker and I were dumping 3 monitors in a bin when I noticed it was packed to the top with the contents of some company that went tits up.

We pulled out 2 projectors that only needed new light bulbs (just so happened to have them)... USB keyboards still in original boxes, 2 bar fridges, and 2 Dell D600 laptops.

Nearly all the items were in mint condition. We've seen rack mount (insert part here) everything but we can't be bothered since we both got our fill already.

So if you are IT and ever need to get rid of something take it down to the buildings dumpster yourself and you may come back up with more then you expected.
 
I was diving with some friends 4 nights ago and we found a display model for a Lexmark all in one printer which was in perfect conditon, still had foam protecting it. Haven't tested it out yet though but I'm hoping it works.
 
spacemonKey said:
I was diving with some friends 4 nights ago and we found a display model for a Lexmark all in one printer which was in perfect conditon, still had foam protecting it. Haven't tested it out yet though but I'm hoping it works.
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I found a display of different USB hubs I was siked got into the car and realized it was a non working display model :p .

Good luck with it.
 
HUGE movie poster behind an AMC theater!!

movieposter.jpg
 
^^ wow, you have the same hair as me. i just got mine cut, so its a little shorter, but yesterday, it looked exactly like that.
 
I'm in Norwitch New London area of connecticut, I need some weekday divers.
This weekend my first dive I hit up rentacenter staples and a little one byte computer place

100 watt powered subwoofer, brand new a few of the sideing stripps coming up, missing fuse and fuse cap, easy fix

a Belkin USB card with 2 usb ports, just a little scratched on the connector pins but works fine.

a USB to Mini USB wire, Perfect

2 Belkin KMV's with wires cut, easy fix

2 Pioneer 30w max speakers w/ sony xplode face plates and boxes for car door
and 2 pioneer oval speakers 30w max w/ sony xplode face plates and boxes.

We left a 17" CRT monitor and a office light. Monitor was out in the rain and light had broken bulbed lamp *powerful office lamp* had no room for it tho with the size of the sub I had to carry.
 
cmstar said:
I'm in Lex KY. Only looked at a few places close to my way to work. But have found some useful things USB cables, CD cases, etc. Need to expand my route.

If I were in Murray, I'd dive with you. Once you hall some nice stuff home, your college friends will no longer think your crazy. And even if they do, they're the ones missing out.
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where did you go diving at in lexvagas???? i got ran off behind CompUSA after I went to Tony Romas one night. Where do you live in lex...i live on appian...just off Tates Creek.
 
Anyone doing diving in the Louisville metro area want some company? I've never tried it before but am interested to see what can be found.
 
So me and my FAMILY went again last night and man was it great

odd job
found a 2 piece glass picture frame that just needs to have the backing put back on, no damage to it

found a perfect office chair with plastic covering coushins, but was too heavy to pull out so left it

peir 1
ceramic coffe mug part of a set where one broke, no damage otherwise
copper garden frog no damage present to my mother
wooden based copper leaf decoration nothing wrong given to aunt as a present
fogless mirror with light and digital time display, nothing wrong
george forman mini grill/bun warmer, little plastic nub was broken off but didnt hinder it useless, they taped the nub on it and cut the wire I fixed the wire and a little gorilla glue and its brand new works fine

a friend of my aunts came with us and she was into it, mind you shes about 60+ years old while my family was in the van she ran things i found inside the van for me. I have to say that grill is a gift from the gods.
 
Had a nice CC haul the other day.


Pentium 1 server, Unknown condition of the mobo...but the 2.13gig harddrive and the 3x64meg ram works :D Not bad, but good enough to fix up my 'rents computer.

Unknown Comp with a 800meg harddrive and EDO RAM. Harddrive s about the only thing I kept out of it.
 
I am just curious, is dumpster diving legal? I have an Office Max about a mile down the road but don't want to get lectured for too long on the legality of looking through a store's dumpster.

Cheers!
 
You have to check local laws, Generally unlocked, uncaged dumpsters are open game.


Compactors, locked dumpsters, and caged dumpsters are off limits...thats breaking and entering.
 
Owner of the house down the road died and when the house is finally sold all there stuff (I guess what nobody wanted) was put by the side of the road for anyone. I got:

broken computer:
2x16MB of Ram put to good use in my 1994 Mac
2x copies of Norton Antivirus verison 1.0 still in their original plastic
1x pentium cpu I use as a stress toy

I also found:
Waterbed mattress in perfect condition
2x trouble lights
1x extention cord
a metric ton of old records
1x old painting
1x pole position for the atari 2600 (whatever it was called)
 
I do most of my DDing at the hospital where I work in security. The official word straight from the heads of both IT&S and Engineering is that anything in the dumpsters is fair game, because only things that are broken are thrown away; everything else is put in storage. Of course, experience tells me that any time IT&S gets new toys, the old toys get thrown away, and Engineering routinely tosses anything they remove when renovating.

I've been out of work the last couple of months and haven't been able to do any diving. Lousy cubital tunnel syndrome! I've glanced in a few dumpsters around town during daylight hours but have avoided nighttime raids as a professional courtesy.

In the past year I've snagged a dozen or so 13"-17" monitors, several keyboards, multiple mice, and so many power cords that I've stopped collecting them. I scored a huge rolling desk with 19" racks on either side instead of drawers, which included a couple of 386-ish computers, some video switching stuff, and a battleship-grade UPS. And by battleship-grade I mean that not only is it built like one, but when I pulled the company's website up, I saw a pic of a similar UPS actually installed in a Navy ship. Batteries won't hold a charge, though, so it's just a very expensive power strip (with line conditioning!) until I can come up with six NP7-12 batteries. I should have kept the rack rails and screws and stuff, but I ended up ripping most of that stuff out and just stacking stuff in it.

My brother and father both work renovating houses. My brother brought me a C600 computer and huge 21" monitor that he found sealed in a crawlspace. Computer is currently crunching SETI@home and the monitor was my main one until the focus started going out on it. My father brought me a Smith-Corona electric typewriter with built-in floppy drive and a monitor, found in an attic. And they've also brought half a dozen 286/386/486-era computers with maybe a few floppy drives and a few fans worth saving between them. I need to take a big bunch of them to the nearest dumpster, now that I think of it.

Non-computer stuff in the last year: a huge deep double stainless steel sink, ultra-bright exam light on sliding rails, 3 solid-core doors (going to be my new shelves someday), and the rolling office chair I'm sitting in.

Not much chance of me getting in trouble because I'm a security officer for the hospital. I've run divers off and then gone back to the dumpster to see what they were excited about. Yes, it's trash, but to get to it, you have to come onto private property. And while I DD myself, it's also my job to keep out people who aren't there for official hospital business. Trespassing is trespassing.

Word of advice to anyone thinking of diving at a hospital, doctor's office, medical mall, etc. I work there so I know where all the used needles, bloody bandages, and spare body parts are kept. You don't so I suggest you don't risk it.

A final word about construction/demolition/renovation dumpsters. They are a great place to pick up old carpet, old furniture, old counter tops, scrap metal, etc. But beware that many companies that do this kind of work have agreements where all scrap removed from the site is their property. They get very upset when they catch someone taking items that they were planning to sell/recycle/re-use/pass off as new to the next customer...
 
i went once, found 6 stuffed animals that i sold online for $30. I think i should go back to media play tomorrow, i need to make some money.
 
My friends and I dive in the local Blockbuster from time to time. We usually end up walking away with movie posters, and sometimes (not always) some DVDs or Couple so-so games.

We aquired over 20 FFXI games (for PC) back in June when we did it in 2004!!
 
troycheek said:
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I agree with him, Don't dive medical facilities. Its not worth the risk, People don't care which dumpster they throw crap in half the time, SO you never know where the needles, adult diapers, and what not are.

Its better to avoid.
 
HOLY SHIT. I got caught in a dumpter today :eek: and fuck it was scary. I opened it up (because this computer store is notorious for throwing out perfectly good computer epuipment) and there was a new dell, I didn't know what was in it, but I was determined to get it out. So I hop in, and then the door slams on me. You have no idea how hard it is to climb out of dumpster when you are scared half to death.:eek:
 
That is a crazy story, I'm glad that that has never happened to me. I don't remember the last time that I was even in a dumpster that tall that it could close on me. Anyway, did you get the Dell?
 
I found 3 250gig DiamondMax 16 5400rpm drives. One works just fine but the other two suffer from common Maxtor death problems...they're displayed as their model family in the bios and don't spin up at all. They're receiving power just fine because the little "Smooth" chips on the back get hot...TOO hot (as a result of the failure I guess).

They should be under warranty because these drives come with 3 years and are dated March & May of 2003. I thought it could be a simple firmware fix from what I read online, but after emailing Maxtor tech support, I was told this is not the case since they don't spin up at all and suggested sending them in for RMA if they're covered. I guess I'll just have to figure out what to do, because I don't want to waste money shipping the drives if they tell me they won't repair them since I don't have any proof of purchase or anything (which would be a good business move on their part).


Let's see...when I was 13 (20 now), I took a couple friends to a magazine dumpster at the elementary school by my house and we found a few pr0n magazines...man were we happy :D

I've found a bunch of wires, some of which have been used and some went back into the trash.
 
i found a 15 inch cornea lcd in a dumpster at school...tried to find a cheap power adaptor for it and finally found one on ebay for 18 shipped.. i opened it up spliced the power adaptor in a poof i have a working 15 in lcd for 18 dollars...i can complain
 
Jon8RFC said:
I found 3 250gig DiamondMax 16 5400rpm drives. One works just fine but the other two suffer from common Maxtor death problems...they're displayed as their model family in the bios and don't spin up at all. They're receiving power just fine because the little "Smooth" chips on the back get hot...TOO hot (as a result of the failure I guess).

They should be under warranty because these drives come with 3 years and are dated March & May of 2003. I thought it could be a simple firmware fix from what I read online, but after emailing Maxtor tech support, I was told this is not the case since they don't spin up at all and suggested sending them in for RMA if they're covered. I guess I'll just have to figure out what to do, because I don't want to waste money shipping the drives if they tell me they won't repair them since I don't have any proof of purchase or anything (which would be a good business move on their part).
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Generally you can just tell them the serial numbers from the back (or plug them into the online webpage) and see if its under warranty. They never go by receipts or anything. Only serials. The warranty length is from date of manufacture. The only exception is if you can prove you bought it much much later, then sometimes the warranty is from the date of purchase.
Linkage:
https://www4.maxtor.com/en/support/service/rma/create/01_serial_number.cfm?dt=
You should always check webpages before emailing :) And emailing should be last resort before calling. I dunno about you but I've always got crap answers when I email.
 
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