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Home / I-Opener Areas / I-Opener General Posts Any Dumpster divers out there ? Cool finds.....

Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) BlakJak Yea, You read it right.... I've been doing this for many years, Many COOL Finds. The computer I'm using now to write this was disposed of by a local company, It's an IBM 300GL low profile desktop. It's in near perfect condition except for a very small scratch right on the corner of the case thru the paint, A little fine touch up brush and the right color you won't even notice it. When I found it it was missing it's hard drive and CD-Rom, I added the HDD(a 1.6 GB Samsung found on a earlier excursion)24x Lite-on(Also found), Win-95(Yup you guessed it also found w/cert/auth.)56 k modem,Sound blaster 16,and a 3DFX Add on card early ver.(All previous finds). The machine came with an Intel 166 MMX and 16 megs S-Dram. I upgraded Bio's and and upgraded the Cpu to a 233 MMX and added 32 megsfor a total of 48 MB. Ran the machine thru an extensive and very expensive diagnostics program (Yep found it too.) Machine runs fine. I won't tell you about the wireless infrared keyboard with pointer, Came with I/R receiver and software,Cables The person who bought it obviously didn't know how to hook it up..It's like BRAND NEW... The Kensignton Video cam PC Camera, 22 Adaptec 2940 U\W SCSI Cards OEM still wrapped in esd bags & esd sticker unbroken. with soft. A 8.4 Maxtor HDD. 6.4,4.3,3.2, the list goes on and on and on and on.... Lucky computers just went belly up, What a find there ! When future shop went belly up.....Should of seen what was disposed of from there tech service dept.... No wonder most of these companies are not making major profits....They throw it away.... This probrobly goes along with my post about miniumum wage They they get what they pay for! Shop Supv/Lead tells an employee to clean up the work area, there is stuff strewn about everywhere on the work benches, floors, in big boxes, all mostly leftovers from upgrades, or wrong or problem parts,or inventory order mistakes, The employee just does what his boss sez CLEANS UP ! Places it all in Bigger boxes askes someone what to do with it...Guess where it goes next... You know the crazy part of all this is MOST OF IT IS 100% Usable. Got a 22' Storage containers worth... Latex gloves and denatured alchohol paper towels along with a 4' Mechanical "GRABBER" and a flashlight are tool's for the trade... GOTTA WATCH OUT FOR SHARP'S (Needles from diabetic's / Drug users),glass,sharp metal,Chemicals,Dust from broken florescent bulbs, Rats, Wild CATS, and even Hobo's who camp there over night. On two seperate occassions I nearly had all the caca scared out of me. The first one was @ future shop there was some refrigerator boxes next to the dumpster and I was SO INTO checking out the contents of the dumpster my head was in La La land(This one had an excellent find history).... Suddenly A voice came from one of the boxes and asked me if I had a light (For his cigarette). Man that nearly scared the u-know what out of me! The other one, another future shop...I opened the door on the side of the dumpter and looked in and there was a guy setting there !!! Talk about almost having heart failure... These were very early morning encounters. 2-3 am. LEO* is real cool several have Checked me out couple of years ago (and a couple new LEO's recently) now they just wave when they see me... *LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER Tips.... Carry I.D., Proof of Ins.(if driving) and most of all be nice to them... Bad attitudes will probrobly get you thrown in jail for tresspass or some other charge... Tell the truth what you are doing and why...Explain you have a hobby and you like to fix things or something like that... No you are not looking for credit card info, Passwords or company trade info. If they want to search you or your car let them...Be very cooperative. Hopefully you have had the common sense not to drink and drive, no open containers,no drug stuff or weapons. VERY IMPORTANT ! >No smart ass answers...BE polite ! (You don't have to say sir...they actually hate that) Doing so (BEING A SMART ASS) will get you into real problems, more LEO'S will show up and then they may want to play with you, And you WILL LOSE.... I've have had probrobly 40-50 encounters with LEO's an the majority ARE OK and don't want to go thru the trouble of filling out stupid reports... You may find a few that have a bad night and a bad attitude to go with it...just be polite and cooperate...They will more than likely loose interest in you very soon and leave when they see there's nothing really illegal going on. (They usually overlook tresspass) If they tell you to leave and don't come back there...You better do it...LEAVE. No havn't found any emmy's. Anyone out there have dumpster diving experiences... I would like to read them. BigAL 03-26-2000 10:56:56

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Shane I'm glad you found a cool free toy, but for the environment's sake, you should report companies that dump hardware into the trash. To fireproof circuit boards and cases, lots of toxic chemicals are used. Not to even mention what type of chemicals are used in a typical monitor. If they're simply put into a land fill, eventually all of it leches out. It's definitely very uncool to dispose of hardware by throwing it away. 03-26-2000 11:01:37

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) BlakJak I see so many enviormentally poisonous things thrown away I could probroby spend a full 40 hour week calling the EPA and making complaints....going to court testifying, etc. They don't have the resources or man power for (Minor) infractions...They are looking for BIGGER infractions. 03-26-2000 11:17:04

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) taylor BlakJak, Are there certain days of the week, time of year, certain stores, type of company to look for? Or does it seem to be random when you find things? -t 03-26-2000 12:20:46

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Datoyminaytah Check out college towns around the the end of school years. Lots of perfectly good stuff tossed in dorm/apartment dumpsters. 03-26-2000 13:56:33

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) BlakJak It's totally random, Luck of the draw, 03-26-2000 14:13:04

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) BlakJak I'm only into Retail/Corporate dumpsters...They provide the highest yields. P.S. by the way I am employed. make about 55K a year, $25.00 hr. weekdays,$37.00 hr. Saturdays,$50.00 hr. Sundays. (I really hate to work weekends though.) I do this strictly for hobby and excitement of all the cool things I find. It's like a treasure hunt. 03-26-2000 15:06:38

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) alcool Theres a few storage places here where i live, once a month they have "blind" auctions for the contents of storage units that didn't pay their rent. I got one for 50 bucks last year that had around 40 grand worth of computers/monitors/scanners etc. They also throw all kinds of stuff out in the dumpster there. People don't want to carry stuuf home or whatever, just throw it away. regards, Al 03-26-2000 19:44:55

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) alcool Theres a few storage places here where i live, once a month they have "blind" auctions for the contents of storage units that didn't pay their rent. I got one for 50 bucks last year that had around 40 grand worth of computers/monitors/scanners etc. They also throw all kinds of stuff out in the dumpster there. People don't want to carry stuuf home or whatever, just throw it away. regards, Al 03-26-2000 19:45:01

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) TimT The company I work for used to rent space in the same building as a major defense contractor. Apparently that company had finished one contract and was starting another, so they had *loads* of stuff they were throwing out. I scrounged around and basically have a lifetime supply of serial cables, parallel cables, 10Base2 ethernet cable, terminators, and a bunch of mice (the computer kind ). I found about 50 packs of 5 1/4" Windows 3.1 installation disks that were unopened. Something our tax dollars bought that wound up in the trash.... 03-27-2000 12:12:35

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Ricrob Hmmm $25 an hour 37 for sat and 50 for sun... Me thinks you work where I do at B.A.? Just curious 07-02-2000 16:45:50

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) *+,+* Interesting hobby. 07-02-2000 17:31:03

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) garfield kick ass!!! any recomendations of what kind of places... what stores yield the best goods, etc. what time of day? what if there's a video camera over looking the dumpster? 07-05-2000 22:23:14

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) -N\/N- Most recent find is an I/O magic 4x4x32 CDRW Drive. The drive is a generic I beleive Creative labs uses the same drive only puts their CL logo on the front. Stores reason for tossing it out...Someone had broke the IDE cable connector...ON THE CABLE... And open box.... Drive is in perfect condition works great very quiet and fast. Retails in the store for $179.00 (ouch). This type of score is rare but it happens.... 07-06-2000 03:19:30

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Karzy To all you idiots whining about environment violations I have one thing to say: The world has been around for upwards of 5 billion years, and if you honestly think that by throwing a circuit board or 2 or a million away we are going to destroy it than you are even dumber than people who throw them away. 07-06-2000 07:29:22

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) metoo The best dumpster diving I ever had the guys clearing out the Radio Shack would yell "INCOMMING" as they heaved stuff in my general direction... by the end of the day they helped me load up my minivan with the wall racks that now adorn my garage- you know the ones with the horizontal groves that you can put wire hangers in. 07-06-2000 13:48:46

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) ckbone A friend of mine works at a company that services bank computers, ATMs, etc. He regularly tells me when they dump things. I have collected piles of misc (mostly useless to me) neat computer parts. For instance...the fan they use to cool ATM machines fits into a std computer case....Prabably costs $100... Blows 3 times as much air. I collected 3 safes...the last one weighed 800lbs...required a cherry picker to get it into my truck. I learned how to be a safe-cracker...figured out the combinations using my ear. My garage is full of crap. 07-06-2000 17:34:43

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) anonymous+coward in my field, we replace/upgrade old communications equipment at telephone central offices you can imagine the stuff that gets tossed out. (hundreds of feet of fiber and jumpers, metal bars, twisted pair cables, etc..) many employees can run their own phone services in their barn at one AT$T location, during their downsizing, i saw at least 5 palletes of old monitors and computers (20" hitachi's and unix systems) to be crushed. as for me, i just salvaged the fiberoptic jumpers and hooked up a fiber network at home (100baset going into fiber transceiver to hub, throughout every room in the house) 07-07-2000 06:46:52

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Joe Bob A co-worker of mine scored 4 Pentium 90Mhz laptops just before they were about to go into the dumpster. This was almost 3 years ago mind you so a laptop at 90Mhz wasn't too shabby. Apparently the 4 Toshiba laptops were not "standard" to what the rest of the company was using, which were Compaqs. Oddly enough, we donate all our old Compaqs to charities throughout the city. I'll never understand corporate America. :p 07-07-2000 08:29:04

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) jettaGT I found a broken palm pilot in the trash at my last co-op in college, I picked it up dusted it off and took it home, planning to use the screen for something or just crack it open and poke at it's guts. Well, on a whim I put some new batteries in and BINGO, it started up just fine. I got a free palm pilot because somebody doesn't know how to change batteries!!! jettaGT 07-10-2000 06:28:17

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) pipa Our local Service Merchandise is great. They have a huge dumpster. I stop by there every now and then to see what "broken" things they threw away. So far, I got a brand new (unopened) airline golf club case, a perfectly good Black and Decker toaster oven, an electric putting cup, a pair of headphones, etc. etc. There was a treadmill in there once, but it was too big to fit in my car. pipa 07-10-2000 15:09:28

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) XOXOX I found a Maxtor 8.4Gb hard drive once,It was bad but still in warranty. Called the 1 800 maxtor # and they exchanged it for refurbished one. 07-10-2000 19:24:57

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) friar+tuck I have a fairly good paying job, but when I see something that is good getting thrown out by the company I work for it makes me angry. Here they are on one hand nickel and diming their workers, and then throwing out stuff as if they were billionaires and money didn't matter. Then if you tell management that you want something from the dumpster that they were going to throw away anyhow they insist on publicizing it to the entire company and start collecting bids from everyone so they can sell it to the highest bidder. We had seven medium to good quality office chairs that weren't very old. Problem was, a couple of people didn't like the company and picked the chairs to vent their anger. They broke a couple. So the operations manager said to throw them out. My supervisor gave the task to me, and I couldn't do it. Most of them were 100% good. I took one of the broken ones to the maint. shop and fixed it, then called the plant engineer (another manager) to come take a look. He couldn't believe they were being thrown out, and ordered me to remove the others from the dumpster. He showed the general manager, who agreed they should be kept. My supervisor and I later had a shouting match because he wanted me to follow his orders without question and I had not. So he went and threw a couple back in the trash. To make a long story short, I am writing this from home, seated on one of the chairs in question, and I have since then also taken lots of other things from the dumpster as well. I have built a huge and solid work bench in my garage just from the lumber from the dumpster. I have given away entire software packages, still in the unopened original cellophane, of programs like Lotus 123, MS Office, etc. I even have a monitor that was being disposed of. What kind of a business throws away brand new packages of highlighters and white-out, ladders, tools? I'm ashamed to say, mine. So yes, I take it, and no, I don't tell anyone. Would you? 07-10-2000 23:11:36

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Dude... Hey, I hear you dude. From a pro diver and not ashamed of it! Almost seen it all! Corporate America is SO WASTEFUL! I bet in any other country on this planet anything that is even remotely useful is recycled or reused by someone in some way. If heresay said one 5 hour driveway sale Netted slightly over $3,900.00 cash from stuff found in corporate dumpsters no one would believe it to bad. I been there with the chairs. A customer purchases a nice expensive office chair and couple weeks or months later the overweight customer busts one of the 5 wheels on the chair. The customer goes back to the place he bought it and asks for a replacement wheel or a refund or something like that. The manager tells one of the floor drones to go find a wheel...The drone goes to the stockroom and opens one of the other unassembled chairs and removes one wheel from the parts package. Then puts the open box aside somewhere and goes and gives the customer the replacement wheel, customer leaves happy. Another customer comes in and says his chair has a small flaw in the material in one of the cushions. OK here it goes again, The manager tells the floor drone to find a matching cushion. Back to the stock room maybe he looks in the box that has the missing wheel but I doubt it. Opens another unassembled chair package and removes the cushion needed and puts the opened box aside...Next to the other opened chair box... 2 weeks later another customer has just bought a chair and during assembly he found out he is short 1 screw or other small part...The manager tells the floor drone... Months later there are a half dozen opened chair boxes with various parts missing...Do you think someone cares enough to go thru and see if they can put together a good chair package and put it back into the system, NO Manager says clean up the warehouse! the big boss is coming in a couple of days. The warehouse gets cleaned up the easiest way possible...out the back into the dumpster. Individual remaining parts in the boxes still wrapped in plastic. Hmmm never mind there is a 1-800 number on the outside of the box that says Problems, call us! The 1-800 number sends replacement parts at no cost to the requester, even free shipping! Recently though the stores now occasionally have someone use a box knife or razor and slash an X through the cushions.....or spray paint them with an X..... What a waste..... 07-11-2000 03:20:31

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) ....... Oh yeah, also at least a dozen each Windows95 98,Office 95 and 97 CD's still in cases with manuals....Bill gates would faint! I almost did! 07-11-2000 03:28:11

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Me too.. I found a Newer 4 Head Phillips Magnavox VCR with vcr plus function. Works fine! and also tossed a 486 sx25 mini laptop. Someone was cleaning out there office and tossed a bunch of other stuff too! 07-11-2000 15:24:37

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Thefoo I got my stereo out of a dumpster...I got it before the trash guy came...perfectly good, with speakers... I've got about 4 of my monitors from companies that were going to chuck them, among other things. 07-11-2000 17:43:57

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Big Boy I found a Sony/sprint PCS Cell phone and a Seiko Mini single label printer. Have not had time to see if these work, The cell phone needs it's Li-Ion battery charged and the printer is missing the interface cable. Both are in excellent condition. 07-11-2000 22:19:41

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Uh, whats that smell Found several printers at a local c-usa dumpster, Been checking this for months and they always have thoroughly smashed and destroyed EVERYTHING. I sometimes I take small parts though. But this time someone must have felt generous! 3 printers, an Epson stylus 600, Epson stylus 800 and a HP inkjet. All have DNC stickers on them. (do not count?) They appear to be in great shape except for couple of very small cracks on the paper trays but those can be fixed with a small amount of glue. (or Methylene Chloride solvent) I already have an Epson 800 so the one I found could be a source of spare parts? 07-12-2000 18:23:06

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Aluminum Gerbil How do you get into C-USA dumpsters? around here I only go to the small computer upgrade places. If you go to Best Buy or other large places the dumpster is connected to the building and totally sealed. How do you get in? Gerbil 07-14-2000 00:18:35

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) Uh, whats that smell The dumpster here is a stand alone. Should of seen all the SMASHED stuff in there last night. Slim pickings for any usable stuff. They even smashed the keyboards amd mice and cut off all the cables. It's real sick. 07-14-2000 03:52:28

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) porkpi Found a perfectly Gateway PII 300, 5G, 32MB, modem, nic, etc. in apartment dumpster. I fantasize that some disgruntled grrlfriend threw out her man's box. Probably just typical wastefulness. Found perfectly good tv sets, mattresses (can't bring myself to do keep though - yuck), *leather* sofas, etc. at upscale apartment dumpsters around college campuses. Found plenty of multigig hard drives, cdroms, zip drives, and even a cd-rw with bent ide pins. What kind of moron can't straighten some pins out w/ a flathead driver or needlenose? I expect people will throw just about anything away given sufficient laziness or stupidity. Anybody ever seen Steve Martin's The Jerk? Looks like BlakJak has witnessed the logical extremes of our disposable society. Man as trash, anyone? 07-17-2000 00:50:15

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) friar Profile Man as trash? Hmmm... Have you lost your 'special purpose'? lol 07-17-2000 08:06:54

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) I Find it! I get a lot of stuff from the computer upgrade centers in my area. They don't sell used stuff so out it goes! Sometimes it truly amazeses me! I Check about once a week towards collection day. I score on Lot's of older working motherboards,cpu's,cases w/ power supplies(Rather dusty ones some are)RAM MEMORY and hard drives. Lot's of stuff is less than a year old! Where I go it seems like they have the "Smith's must keep up with the "Joneses" mentality. Fairly rich neighborhoods and money does not seem to be too much of a concern at times. That's ok with me. I trade stuff at used computer parts shops at a different part of the city and get some stuff I need for just my time and gas! 07-17-2000 16:54:51

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) vwbug19 Profile yep i usually spot some on road side trash and i did finds a gateway 486 full tower pc and it has 200mb plus 2 gig hd :) and a mac se computer it works and a real goldmine is a hp netserver 4/66 lf it was about the double the width of 2 midtower case and it has 2 built in scsi channels! for total of 16 scsi devices and sports an eisa bus!and did find a several monitors,i warn you that in some cities it's illegal to scavenge for roadside if it interfere with traffic, mine usually from redidental side streets when ever i spot one i'd hit brake and back up to it :) as for raiding a dumpster there are some places that locks the dumpsters so to prevent illegal dumping :( and best place to find a used bargian is in a thrift store like goodwill,i did find a hp laserjet IID for 25 bucks anditworks but what a huge printer! 07-20-2000 17:44:47

RE:Any Dumpster divers out there ? (modified 0 times) ironman Profile | Email Where I work they got it right. Everytime a bunch of "obsolete" equipment collects they hold a giveaway. We all collect in the break room and put numbers in a box. They draw one number for each peice of equipement and the the first draw gets first pick. Recently I got a nice 15" trinitron monitor (great for a server box), a P133 full tower gateway (upgraded to 200Mhz and now is my home server/inet gateway). They also did a grab-bag of old ram (they literally have a box with 60 or so old sticks of ram all unlabeled). Maybe next year we'll be getting our hands on the pIII 500's were using now... they're already ordering 600's and 750's. (Thank you Mr. Moore!!) All this without getting my hands dirty 07-22-2000 20:53:52

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