28 of the Coolest, Weirdest or Most Valuable Things People Have Found in the Trash

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28 of the Coolest, Weirdest or Most Valuable Things People Have Found in the Trash

Most of the time, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is used to convey the idea that taste is subjective — what’s worthless to one person might be cherished by another. Other times, the phrase is used quite literally, referring to actual treasures found in the actual trash. That’s certainly the case for these Redditors, who, over the years, have either accidentally cast aside something valuable, or rummaged through enough trash to hit pay dirt. 

SchlapHappy 10y 2 Rolex watches with a combined worth of about $13000 bucks. I did property preservation for a couple of years and I went to change the locks on this house that probably cost about 1.5 million before the burst. Well the previous owners had left a lot of stuff in the house because there is no motivation clean before moving out when you have been foreclosed. I just happened to look in a nightstand as I was walking around taking pictures of all the rooms. You better believe I looked in every cabinet and drawer in that house

sackbj . 10y My girlfriend's mother was doing some house cleaning and getting rid of old junk. She picked up a bag of rocks and asked her husband what it was, he said he didn't know. So she threw it away. A couple of weeks later she realized that she had thrown away pieces of the Berlin Wall. ... 8

silvermoons. 10y I found a Shaquille O'Neal rookie card on the street while walking to school when I was 11 years old. The edges were a little bent and it was slightly discolored obviously, but it was still pretty cool. ... 10

solarvvind . 1 10y I've got a fully functional skee ball in my basement that I rescued from the dumpster. LazerBall, to be exact. Told myself that if it was still out there after a month, I'd try to rescue it. ... 20

jking11 . 10y Went dumpster diving with my brother and his friend one time and we ended up going to a Frito Lay factory. We had to call one of my other friends to come because we didn't have enough room in the trunk for all the bags of chips. We estimated that we took about $1000 worth of chips that day and every bag was within the sell date. We found out later they were all thrown out because of printing errors. ... 12

Geordielass . 10y Our neighbor has more money than sense sometimes. She asked my husband if he could help her wheel out a treadmill out to the curb for loose trash. Keep in mind this treadmill was brand new an she paid $1,200 for it. So we took it. ... 44

thedrinkmonster. 10y A metric fuckton of copper. Imagine 1 dump truck full of copper scrap priced at about $3 bucks a pound. These people were going to pay my brother and I to take it to the dump and had no clue about the value of copper as scrap metal. We were honest and told them the value of it. ... 59

StainISteelRat 10y Mortal Kombat 2 arcade cabinet. The frat boys leaving it on the sidewalk said the buttons and joystick were broken. 10 bucks and an order from Jameco later, I was a god among men. ... 82

TooManyVitamins . 1 10y I found a framed oil painting of some dachshunds on the side of the road by someone's hard rubbish. It was fantastic! ... 70

burnzkid . 10y Over $1000 worth of Keurig K-Cups, that were supposedly expired. Its vacuum packed coffee grinds. How do they go bad? I'm still drinking them months later and I'm fine and it tastes great. ... 191

yoats72 . 10y I once found a wheelchair in an old house that I helped remodel. I took it home with me and used it as a computer chair. I got really good at riding wheelies in a wheel chair. The best part was when friends would come to visit that hadn't been there in a while. They would always ask WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!? I would look at them with a confused look and then remember that I was in a wheelchair. ... 407

popeyes_chicken . 10y On move-out day at college, I picked a little spangly pink purse up out of the trash just because it looked like the sort of thing my mom would like. There was $600 inside. ... 712

camus_canoe . 10y I bought a book at a library sale while I was on vacation. It was by Andy Warhol and it was about $2 so I figured why not. A few weeks later I pulled it off the shelf to start reading it. I flipped through the first few pages and when I got to the title page I saw a mark in Sharpie. They were the letters AW. Someone accidentally donated a book that was signed by Andy Warhol. ... 323

DeadlyShot 10y My mom collected comics as a kid. She had many first issues, including Iron Man and Spider-Man. My grandparents never approved. Said they were a waste of time and money. The second my mom moved of the house my grandmother threw away all of her comics. Years later she looked up how much some of them were worth and showed my grandmother who nearly fainted. ... 687

drewbowski22. 10y When I was about nine, me and a friend found a stack of nudie magazines. Doesn't sound like much, but as a nine year old, it was the most amazing thing in the world. 241

direbowels . . 10y One time when I was helping gut an abandoned house and getting paid under the table, I found a bunch of shit including an Atari with a crap-ton of games, someone's Purple Heart Medal, and a mannequin with a mustache made out of what seemed to be human hair. ... 1

Kaatman 10y An entire tin box of sealed durex codoms. My driver took them. Half my current hardcover library. An endangered stuffed horny owl. Need an expensive permit just to own the damn thing. Also found a bomb once. ... 1

RJPennyweather . 10y My uncle is a garbage man, he found a Wendys cup that someone hadnt pulled the prize tabs off of yet, he won a million dollars. ... 72

Luckyguy252525 10y Not a garbage man. I have one of the best garbage finds tho. To make it short.. Applebees at night next to a best buy. Saw the Best buy dumpster had bags next to it. Xbox 360 in one bag, and a bag with 12 games extra controllers, charging kit, headset. Obviously an employee was trying to steal it or something, just happen to best him to the punch while getting high before applebees. ... 188

LiminalHotdog 10y Drove a hauling truck and found: 1912 Damascus Steel double barrel shotgun $1000 art deco statue $500 in old twenties fancy leather sofa chairs with ottomans $200 medical centrifuge 100's upon 100's of dollars in metal/recycling This is just some of the stuff that I sold. ... 343

Thespud1979 . 10y G.I. Joe comic book issue #1 at a garage sale for $0.25. That's the kind of thing you hear about but never figure it will happen to you. ... 5

LivingSaladDays . 1 10y A perfectly good latex ass. ... 5

truthness 0 10y 2 running Jeep Wranglers. I was doing community service at a public landfill and a middle eastern dude moving back home from the US brought two Jeep Wranglers to the dump. This was back in 1998, before the FBI would have been called in to inspect every square millimeter of the vehicle to make sure nothing fishy was going on. BTW, he had to pay to dump the jeeps. IDIOT! ... 2

zappafrank . 10y picked a broken glass frame out of the trash, a hand drawn looking pick of old man in chair, it was a lithograph by di Vinci, had it appraised it was a first press litho worth 17,000 dollars! bought a BMW motorcycle with it! ... 4

tkova2 . 6y Used to work at a facility that processed waste, we'd get some interesting stuff from crime scenes, police evidence, ect. But the most questionably disposed of item was a Smith and Wesson revolver from a police department in Virginia, in a box of evidence. Should have kept my mouth shut and kept that one. ... 175

theoptionexplicit 8y This was in the 90s... my friend's dad found a big sack full of arcade tokens. Not sure how it is now, but back then the tokens were mostly standardized. My friend was in heaven. ... 2.8k

dewpewdew 8y When former Football player Ricky Williams briefly retired to become a spiritual guru in the hills he moved into a place that was on my recycling route. I noticed a box he tossed once and grabbed it to see if there was any memorabilia or football items related in it. It looked important. What was in it was team doctors papers, contracts and just about all the personal information that one would need to actually become Ricky Williams. I felt weird that this was out there, so I took it home and burned every piece of it in

NevaMO . 10y neighbor died, family came from god knows where, threw a bunch of stuff out. we knew this lady and she had some cool stuff, so dad and i took all the trash they threw out and went through it. In it was a typed letter from President Harry Truman WITH his real AUTHENTIC signature...was valued over $10,000..... ... 3
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