Adidas Gazelle Bold Sneakers

From the grey area between trash and donation:

Left at the free library. Which is officially not allowed, so I had better take them before a caretaker would take them away and trash them for real to avoid losing the city's tolerance for the place. Real suede sneakers in great condition. Most shoes I find there land in he kilo bag that I bring to the recycle centre next door. Just like some more dresses that I took today. Very nice, clean and wearable but to much hassle to list with little chance to sell. 

But a pair of Adidas trainers in this condition were worth trying. Gazelle bold stands for the extra thick platform sole, still to be found in retail, but the model was unavailable with the green stripes. They were gone in five days only. Asked €25, sold €20. Happy! 

Learns how a pair of roller skates worth new around €180 go with difficulty at €15, where I found these new, but only in grey and black at €120 at the official Adidas website, at discount somewhere else €90, but in other colours even from just €60. That's how the market works.

Clifton Guitar Stand

A fairly simple product, found across the street just two weeks ago. Used but intact.

New available from €7,50. Pick up at my door I got €3. Happy!

Edwards Suitcase

It took me half of the evening to find back this old post from 2008. Because pics not even on this computer and so also not in the cloud, but I was sure to have it. And somehow search words don't even go back that long. Never mind I found it.

First things first. The blue Samsonite on the left was a perfect and lasting thing, that I last used in 2018 for a train trip abroad, but that was scratched up to threads on the top by cat nails after 2020. Though still functional, I retrashed it. Needing place and not planning on any future trips anymore.

As I don't transport stuff to craft fairs since a long time the black trolley on the right was retrashed ages ago. I forgot why, but sure it wasn't good enough to sell.

I had some more curb founds in between that I mainly used to store things. That finally I got rid of, contents included. Functional but cheap brands with a thing here or there you just don't want to pull money from someones pocket for.

One I never kept but sold straight away was this from 2017.

Last one left was a J.D. Edwards case with issues, but mainly concerning zipper pullers and a flat pocket not to be opened anymore. A quality product with a strong fabric casing that I believed could still make someone happy.

Just didn't sell quickly because people want the four wheel trolleys now that you can push without still holding half the weight. Personally I think I will need that too if ever. 

I solved the zipper issue provisionnaly and included a mini chain lock to replace most likely unusable cipher code lock.

Lady close to my age came this afternoon and was chuffed. Not the jackpot but €10 in my pocket was 'free' groceries for today.

Miele Vacuum Cleaner Bags

When I was a kid vacuum cleaners were all equipped with the same simple square paper bags to collect the dust, and they came very cheaply. 

I had them up until the early Nineties, one from my grandmother and one from her sister in law, till they both gave up. Model above from 1976. Mine were even older.

Newer models with better dust filtering and other improvements came up, all fine with me but what just bugs me is why do they all have to have their own special bags, with kind of a cardboard or now even plastic keys to fit the thing in, and otherwise your machine just won't work! Every brand even has varieties. And on top they are expensive. I wonder why nobody has ever thought about negotiating a standard for this to prevent waste of unused bags from broken machines. Like they do currently about cables for phones and other e-gadgets. And has kind of existed forever for AV equipment already.

Bagless models are being developed and maybe improved of course, but as far as I know affordable ones are not ideal yet. Like the one I sold for trash.

For myself I'm currently good with my AEG that I got around 2006 from a neighbour who went to a home. It still has the cardboard 'keys', and I can cut them of and stick over to non-fitting bags. Plus I have a set from the thrift shop, recently found to last me long enough.

But going through old photo's I found these from 2011! Curb found for sure and most likely in front of my door. That is pure luck. I had forgotten because never shared, but now I'm quite sure I reused the card board pieces for as long as they lasted.

So long story short, when I found this set of in total 18 bags in March I had no need to keep them and listed, asked €7,50, got €8,50. Buyer paid €12 including shipping, would have cost him over €20,00 (best deal I found) buying new on line.

Just for fun I packed them in a crazy luxury bag...

For real, this simply had the size, shape and firmness I needed. After stapling it all up it didn't look so stylish anymore. And for me antoher one gone from the lot I also use for books.

RSI Original Starter Roller Skates

I found this pair of roller skates November last year neatly placed on the curb on my way to somewhere, obviously meant to be picked up.

With really everything in not totally new but really good condition I thought I could get at least get a third of new price (around €180) and listed them even below at €50. But I already saw lower priced comparables then. But it was for a first try.

As you never know, but no chance. A few days ago after non response the ad had expired and I gave it a second try at €20. This morning someone offered €15 and I gladly accepted.

Pricing quality products like this is trial and error. At the thrift shop we have a big shelf full of skeelers, roller skates, and ice skates that in general go for not much more than €5. The demand for second hand seems to be low, people who can afford it buy new. And for short use? I think I'm lucky with what I got and happily boxed them tonight. And another big box out of my house! 

Last Dress Dummy Sold

This morning I finally managed to sell my probably 100 year old dummy, that was in a corner of my room for so many years displaying a fake fur coat that I sold at kilo price last year. But things weren't sure.

Here she is in full 'glory'.

Unfortnunately, late last night, stupid me broke off the already fragile part of the tripod, knocking the doll over coming home holding laptop and more, while I had placed her in my tiny hallway thinking that would be handy. Not...

These three pictures highlight the damage, but also the special shape and age of the body. They don't make them like this anymore and a European 44 can hardly be this slim. Obviously the model is 'corsetted'.

Luckily buyer still wanted to have the body. She was sure to find an alternative stand or base. With discount of course, but she didn't play difficult and still payed more than I would have accepted.

My impression somehow was that the woman, with a Dutch name, but veiled moslem style, needed it for a one time occasion showing a special dress. I would have loved to give the antique piece a longer future, but if after this it will land in the trash so be it.

Two others. one  trashed, one sold, I'm down with one, the best of all, and all I need for the occasional sale of clothing.

Plastic Waste For Cash

This is real trash, plastic packaging. Milk packs of our own, accepted because of the plastic lining. Why collect and separate to cash it in for very little? In the past the only way to get rid of my own was the big grey bag. Then special containers came, not obliged but citizens were requested to drop the stuff there. No compensation. Being eco of course it did it. Just like for the glass jars and bottles that I've been used to since my earliest childhood. Then the city announced new machines in trash processing would do the job for the plastics and the containers disappeared. 

But not that long after the recycle shop opened and bringing the waste of my own plus what I find rewarded me in the beginning with €15 cents a kilo, now even 20.

The lot here is about 800 grams, good for about €17 cents. But I'll add another large bread bag full tomorrow afternoon or after tomorrow and will claim at least the 1 kilo at €20 cents or more. Is it worth the trouble for such petty cash? Definitely. I did the separating for nothing before. For dropping it off in the container I had to make a small detour on the way to groceries anyway. Now I make the detour to the recycle center instead, it only takes a couple of minutes extra for the administration to get my reward.

Plus sometimes I combine with other things like e-waste, flattened cans or textiles and shoes. Thus I have weekly additions of tiny amounts in my account that add up to once in a while help me through that one difficult day before the big pay comes.