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Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score

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On Mon, 17 Oct 2011, PZ wrote:

> An ADB keyboard is a score these days.  Sure, we used to be able to
> find computers with ZipGSX's and Second Sight Cards too, just waiting
> to get thrown out.  An extra keyboard will supplement the dozens of
> keyboardless CPU's that are out there.  Good find.
>
I gather from a later message that he needed one, which actually does
make the story much more important.  To stumble on something just when 
it's needed is always a good find.

I thought he was just talking about finding a spare ADB keyboard, and I've 
found them up till even a few years ago.

Maybe I'm just luckier than some, I worry now that people have started 
following the "rules" and taking electronics in the special days when
there is a collection. How much perfectly useful stuff is going there now 
rather than the garbage, yet just dissovled for parts or whatever because 
the collection company can't recognize older equipment? A lot of the small
groups that take donations for rummage sales are getting pickier, too. 
Yet the only reason I have a IIGS is because one school about fifteen 
years ago had a number of them at their rummage sale, for five dollars 
each.

People worry about the neat stuff lost when people throw it out, I see it 
as potential to finding neat stuff, that wouldn't happen unless people 
threw it out.

I once found a Grappler in amongst some miscellaneous junk.  That seemed 
like quite a find, to find it in the garbage in the first place, but also 
that for someone who recognized what it was to find it.

I did find that 80meg iPod last summer, waiting for a new battery (and it 
was tossed out with a soldering iron too).  I bought a spare 56K modem 
last year at a garage sale, in case my current one dies (with few people 
buying them new, they aren't common on the used market), then a couple of 
weeks later found another 56K modem in the garbage.  Both external.  I 
found a wacom table among a lot of Mac discard this past summer, though
no pen (I wasn't thinking, so I have no idea if the pen was missing before
the tablet was tossed, or I simply should have looked for it among the 
junk).  That pile also resulted in some SCSI cables, that might be useful 
at some point.  I found an LCD VGA monitor last year when the students 
moved out, and another one this year that goes into sleep mode without 
prompting so I assume it needs some work on the power supply.  I found
a Radio Shack "video camera" that stores on an SD card in the garbage last 
summer, not that interesting but the SD card in it was.  I even found a 
Sony shortwave radio, admittely with the boards hanging off the open case, 
in a pile of interesting garbage a few years ago.  Something common like 
a monitor, many likely pass by who might make use of it, something more 
exotic, it requires a certain type of person.

I don't even go digging, I will go out on certain days when there is 
likelihood of interesting things (such as when the students move out in
the spring, and a lesser move out at the end of summer, and then a lot of 
people move here on July 1st), and I find all kinds of interesting things
without digging in the actual garbage bags.  I likely do miss things that 
way, but I avoid the real garbage, and making a mess.  I do find enough 
interesting things without having to dig.

     Michael




> On Oct 17, 8:34 am, Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
>> On Mon, 17 Oct 2011, IUnknown wrote:
>>> My wife and I like the drive around and go to garage sales
>>> occasionally.
>>
>>> I have been looking for a stereo receiver for my garage - and well,
>>> she just likes to shop. We figure that why throw something away when
>>> it could still have life - and mostly, I am just cheap.
>>
>>> So, after finding a suitable stereo receiver (Sony - $10), we hit a
>>> couple of other garage sales and are just about to head home for the
>>> day. We hit the last house, and are perusing the inventory. The wife
>>> locates an old hello kitty cordless phone, and my son says 'Dad -
>>> there is some apple stuff over here'.
>>
>>> I wander over to the cardboard box containing an old HP deskjet style
>>> printer.... and there is a PC-style keyboard and mouse in there -
>>> apple branded with an ADB connector. My son asked what they wanted for
>>> it.....
>>
>>> 'Give me a $1 and you can take it'.
>>
>>> So, I walked away with a great (working) full-size ADB keyboard for
>>> $1. Gotta love garage sales. The sad thing is that it would have ended
>>> up in a dumpster otherwise.....   How much of this great stuff ended
>>> up in landfills?
>>
>> After the buildup, I thought you were going to reveal far more interesting
>> things underneath, or even before a box was mentioned, a IIGS or something
>> exotic.
>>
>> The spare ADB keyboards and mice that I have were all found on the
>> sidewalk, waiting for the garbage trucks.
>>
>>      Michael
>

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Weekend Garage Sale Score IUnknown <stevementzer@gmail.com> - 2011-10-17 07:05 -0700
  Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2011-10-17 10:34 -0400
    Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score PZ <skierpaul@yahoo.com> - 2011-10-17 10:44 -0700
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2011-10-17 20:37 -0400
  Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score kynrek <kynrek@gmail.com> - 2011-10-17 10:30 -0700
  Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Kevin Dady <kevin@hackaday.com> - 2011-10-17 15:15 -0700
    Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Mike Maginnis <mmaginnis@gmail.com> - 2011-10-18 09:18 -0600
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2011-10-18 15:20 -0400
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Delfs <eeastman@gmail.com> - 2011-10-19 04:31 -0700
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Egan Ford <datajerk@gmail.com> - 2011-10-19 07:57 -0700
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score joltenjoe <joltenjoe@gmail.com> - 2011-10-20 23:45 -0700
  Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Sean Fahey <a2fan@hotmail.com> - 2011-10-18 08:02 -0700
    Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score IUnknown <stevementzer@gmail.com> - 2011-10-18 08:24 -0700
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Sean Fahey <a2fan@hotmail.com> - 2011-10-18 08:35 -0700
        Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score dog_cow@macgui.com (D Finnigan) - 2011-10-18 15:52 +0000
    Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Egan Ford <datajerk@gmail.com> - 2011-10-19 08:00 -0700
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2011-10-19 14:15 -0400
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Sean Fahey <a2fan@hotmail.com> - 2011-10-19 13:01 -0700
      Re: Weekend Garage Sale Score Kevin Dady <kevin@hackaday.com> - 2011-10-19 21:57 -0700

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