Make money garbage picking
Martin Gregory, a year-old Montreal resident, has been supporting himself as a modern-day treasure hunter since Gold, jewels, silver, historical artifacts? He then researches and lists his finds on eBay, Craigslist and Etsy , as well as hosting regular garage sales that draw both readers and random passers-by who eagerly scoop up his eclectic finds.
He also holds onto broken gold and silver jewelry until he has enough to sell for scrap to his local pawn shop.
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Although Gregory searches for things he can turn over for a profit, he also considers himself an historic preservationist. Gregory recently took the time answer a few questions for the Clark Howard community. Also, what have been your favorite finds? One of my first great finds was an antique 14k gold Waltham pocket watch. Early on I actually had very good luck with jewelry—on two occasions I found around a thousand dollars worth of gold jewelry, and on a few other occasions I found large collections of mostly costume jewelry.
I think my most interesting find though might be a Nazi German passport that belonged to a Jewish woman who escaped just before WWII. The history of that piece is really fascinating, as you might expect. Otherwise, some of my favorite finds are decorative, ie: The market for perfumes, especially vintage ones was very surprising to me.
Before that I really had no idea! It turns out that the nice ones are very expensive, and that old formulas which might only date back to the 80s or 90s are often more desirable than the new ones.
When I started doing this full-time I mostly just thought of it as a fun experiment — it certainly felt like a better idea that doing minimum wage work. Over time though I just got better and better at finding trash, identifying what had value, and knowing how best to sell it.
Things I find in the garbage | I'm a professional scavenger and entrepreneur making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.
These days I feel quite confident that my line of work can sustain me. I would say do some research before going in!
How I do it | Things I find in the garbage
I wish I had done this more when I started out. It took me years to figure out some things that are really quite simple if you just put the time into reading.
In particular, my eBay skills took much longer than necessary to develop. Sometimes things, especially furniture, are thrown out with very good reason.
Thankfully, the bugs are actually pretty easy to spot once you know what to look for. I have a section of my blog How to avoid bedbugs dedicated to helping you with that, so check it out.
I guess it would be not to be afraid of trash! You never know, you might strike gold!
Click HERE to read through the entirety of the GarbageFinds. Turning trash into energy at anaerobic digester plants.
How to Make Money Selling Your Neighbors' Junk
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