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Hey everybody, Josh here from Chicago.
Longtime listener of the podcast. I work full time and sell on ebay part time, currently about 250 listings. I used to thrift and go to on site auctions but for the past year I have only been going to a Goodwill outlet in Gary,IN thats about 25 minutes from my house. Me and my wife go every Sunday when they open up at 12 noon and usually are done in an hour and find enough clothes to keep us busy for the week.
I also really enjoy dumpster diving and check a group of roll off dumpsters that are at a large university here in Chicago everyday on my way home, I routinely find Herman Miller shells chairs as well as other resellable furniture, and sometimes if im really lucky find very expensive still sealed lab software thats being thrown away.
I want to thank Jay and Ryanne for changing my methods for selling on ebay, the long game.
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Welcome Josh. That’s insanely smart to dumpster dive by the university, especially if you time it around when students go on vacation and go home. Do you sell the furniture on Facebook?
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I havent gotten into the dumpsters for the dorms, these dummpsters is where they throw away furniture and other stuff when they remodel or clean out an office/lab.
I have sold a couple pieces of furniture on facebook, but some of the stuff I sell to a higher end antique furniture/ design store here in Chciago, for example I found 8 oak office chairs and sold them to the store and he in turn told me they were probably going to the country singer Zac Brown’s new house that he was doing the interior design for.
The Herman Miller shells I find I list on ebay without the base and they arent too big of a pain to ship, usually they end up going to Europe through global shipping.
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Amazing you have a source for Herman Miller shells. How much do they sell for?
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I know that the Big 10 school near me claims that anything in their dumpsters is their property and that takeing anything out of them is stealing
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It depends on the State, County and Municipal laws.
That said, generally speaking, if a dumpster is behind a gate, or has a sign stating “private property”, then it is definitely a no go and illegal to trespass.
Else, it is fair game for anyone.
Universities are normally an absolute gold mine just after finals. Rich kids and foreign students dump their stuff before leaving for the Summer. If you are quick, have a truck, and storage, you can make a killing! (This year, not so much, for obvious reasons).
Josh, have you ever tried dumpster diving at an independent thrift store?
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No I really havent, Im in an urban setting and most if not all dumpsters like that are locked up. I do check out roll off dumpsters for buildings getting renovated. Seems like in Chicago it was cheap enough to keep a property in a family for many years, sometimes one apartment will be full from when someone died 20-40 years before and never touched, or a basement or attic. So if the property changes hands first thing is a clean out crew throws everything in roll off dumpsters, Ive literally found gold and silver jewelry in the those situations, clothes, furniture. Victorian door/building hardware etc.
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