Dumpster Diving

One man's treasure...

[dvduval]

When I was taking out the trash today at my apartment complex, I saw a computer laying in the trash compactor about 8 feet below me.

Was I afraid someone might see me? Heck, no! I jumped right in!

The reward: 1 400 MHz MB and Processer, 2 CD Burners (!), a DVD drive, a floppy, 64 MB memory, a sound card, a 16 MB video card and some misc. cables.

Just a month a go I found a 17" monitor...

And a month before that I found a complete computer. Only a 166 Mhz, but everything works! Combined with the monitor above this computer became the third computer in my home network.

So now I've got #4. My wife is going to kill me! I think I'm addicted. What should I do?
Have you ever had a similar experience?

[oilman]

I've got the reverse :)

I had an old old old 21" monitor that finally gave up the ghost. This thing was huge and weighed about 90lbs - not something the local garbage collectors will haul away. I did't really want to have to haul it anywhere so I just put it out by my trash cans one night hoping someone might grab it up - it was gone the next morning.

[hannamyluv]

We were talking about dumpster diving a few days ago here. I love dumpster diving. Go for it! When you run out of room (like I did. My husband now just sighs when I come home with another car load of cool stuff I found), start selling it on eBay. You will find that people will throw out anything and other people will pay just about anything for what they throw out.

[mivox]

So now I've got #4. My wife is going to kill me! I think I'm addicted. What should I do?
Have you ever had a similar experience?

I once brought home over a dozen compact macintoshes and old apple// computers, monitors, keyboards, etc.

Then again, my boyfriend helped load them into the car, so I didn't have to worry about getting "the look" when I got home.

[JonB]

why would anyone dump such a good working pc? and burners,dvd etc? maybe it was stolen? try norton unerase wizzard - maybe you find some secret fbi files :) in case there was hdd too.

[olwen]

In my house we are garage sale addicts. Bought a microwave that works well a day or tow ago for $NZ20 ($US10). Get plenty of good clothes as well, and all manner of things. I virtually given up buying anything new.

[lawman]

I hate having stuff around I know won't be used in the next decade. My wife wants to keep this stuff since it might be used in the future. I strongly encourage her to get rid of it. So far I'm losing.

lawman

[werty]

i picked up a comadore 64 at a thrift store hoping it would be worth something... paid like10-12

came with a giant 5 1/4 drive and some wacky game. also came with basic programming package.

the main reason i bought it was that it was an ugly brown...

it now sits in my basement

[hannamyluv]

>>commodore 64

Average sale price on eBay for a commodore 64 system is $43 plus the buyer pays the shipping

[weblamer2]

about 6 years ago, i found a gold-mine of a dumpster behind a westinghouse (now siemens) office building. It seems that whenever they upgraded their machines, they just threw their old ones into the dumpster.

I got loads of goodies from that dumpster. The security guard used to come out and harrass me, until I told him I was Mr. Gilmore's son.

I had no idea who mr Gilmore was, except that there was a parking spot there with a sign that said RESERVED FOR MR.GILMORE.

i should go dumpster diving more often.

[Yidaki]

>I once brought home over a dozen compact macintoshes
>and old apple// computers, monitors, keyboards, etc.

Ahem ... you don't have them still lying somewhere? I'm a mac collector (proud to have a lisa), so if you don't know what to do with the old stuff, just sticky me! ;)

[weblamer2]

Mmm... old computers.

Alas, i am about to sell my beloved atari 8 bit computer collection on ebay. I need to scrape up the last few hundred bucks for a downpayment on a house.

[werty]

yeah actually with the old macs...if you have any of the old one piece ones i would be happy to purchase one to turn into a fish tank!

[werty]

as for the commedore 64...yeah i saw them go for a little less when i purchased it. my thought at the time was i will play with it and see if it will be useful.

i will list it at some point before i move next time...so much stuff in the basement to sell. plus all the old computers i have at my parents house.

anyone looking to buy a sweet p60 with 8 megs of ram?

i think it is first generation pentium...the ones with the defective math coprossessor!

[hannamyluv]

»Computer Hard Drives

>>Guest host John Ydstie talks with Simson Garfinkel, a
>>graduate student at MIT. Garfinkel and another MIT
>>student recently purchased 158 used hard drives and found
>>more than 5,000 credit card numbers, detailed personal
>>and corporate financial records, numerous medical
>>records, gigabytes of personal email and pornography

This was one of the reports today on NPR. Makes you wonder if dumpster diving for computers might be profitable in another, illegal sort of way. The guy also said that over half the computers they purchased had not even been reformatted. How about the computers people find in the trash? Anything interesting on them...