Bargain thrift Store, yard sale & dumpster diving treasu

[Woodbutcher]

Well done Bob !

[bobhenry]

Well SCORE once again. I promise I will add some pics when I get to work Tues. A $92.00 motion light (a big brass coach light type) for $5.00. It will probably go on the tractor barn to deter uninvited guests.I found an old school set of mechanical gages still in an unopened original plastic shell for 7.00. This set will go in the P3500 tater chip type truck to replace the un-operational or idiot light gages in my "Minibago" Project. And saving the best till last ......a 7 foot stack of 2" thick by 4x8 sheets of foil faced Polyisocyanurate insulation board for I am embarrassed to even say...OK $25.00

[bobhenry]

Well I have been combing all the sale sites and even Craig's list let me down! I finally made a call Wednesday morning and found a metal roof installer who also has a sales operation. I inquired about 14 foot and 4 foot scrap and he felt he could get me what I needed "very inexpensively" I was to drive over ( about 30 miles) and meet with him Friday.

Here is the good part.....

About 4 hours later our delivery semi returned and the driver mentioned to me the words "steel roofing". My antenna went up and I immediately started firing questions about "What steel roofing". It seems our sister operation who had just moved to a new building had to install a huge door in the new metal building. This was the removed steel. Heavy gage high ridge industrial stuff. I grabbed a tape and the six 30 foot scraps of 3 foot wide steel will make the roof of the Depot with a tiny bit of scrap to spare. It just can't get any better !

Thank you Lord

I cleared it with the boss with a $10.00 donation as compensation for about what we would have gotten from the scrap steel dealer as junk metal.

[Woodbutcher]

Well done Bob. We would have been disappointed if you would have paid money for roofing. Good luck finishing your project.

[Greg M]

Hmm, a free 6x12 trailer chassis, what ever will I do with it?

[bobhenry]

Way to go Greg ! Just found the post !

I was looking to post my latest FREE windows. Our plant has a window and door shop next door and I have permission to raid the junk pile whenever I see something worth recycling as it is otherwise going to the landfill. Well I scored two very nice crank out casement windows. They had a companion fixed 5x5 center window I left behind but grabbed the flanking windows as they were operational. They are now installed in the depot build....

[Greg M]

Yet another great score, Bob

[bobhenry]

Well sometimes ya just get damn lucky.

Posted less than an hour and located almost in walking distance of work was 400+ feet of 6" vee grove 1x6 car siding.

Got it at 40 cents a foot maybe a little less as he tossed on some short pieces as extra.

The kicker............................wait for it ................................ It had been removed from a 1909 Nickle Plate railroad box car !!!

What are the odds ?? He even had the unit number plack off of it. It seems this ol boy disassembles and reclaims barns, old buildings, and what ever else he finds. The story he got from the farmer was that the 1918 barn was built over the decommissioned box car that had been being utilized for storage. He was recycling all the barn members and when he got to the boxcar he salvaged all the siding. It is in fantastic shape for 100 year old lumber.

[Woodbutcher]

Well done Bob, You Are the King!

[bobhenry]

Well yet another find in the snow........

I went by a house in the neighborhood several times in the past few weeks and had spied a full view storm door lying about in the side yard. Yesterday I found the owner out and about with a bud lite in his hand. I pulled up in the snow packed yard and hopped out. Knowing how us beer drinkers think I pointed to his beer and asked.... " If I bring you back another 6 pack (pointing to his beer) may I have that old scrap door. He nodded yes and a few minutes later he had his 6 pack as his $6.34 payment and I was loading the storm door. God I love cheap.

[bobhenry]

Ok set down I didn't even believe this one....... Stopped at a yard sale when I saw some PVC fencing. Turned out I knew the homeowner. He was one of works temporary call in substitute drivers. We visited and I finally got around to asking him about the fencing. He asked me to make an offer so I said $50.00. He told me another fellow had made the same offer earlier so that must be a fair price but since it was me the price was $40.00. I had a truck full of odds and ends so I handed him the cash but explained I would need to come back by and pick it up. When I arrived he informed me he could have made us a profit as he had to turn down two $100.00 offers and one for $150.00. I thanked him be being true to his offer and got the 12 post 10 panels and all the nifty accessories loaded and as I was about to leave with it I got a $100.00 offer. I agreed to deliver it for that price however her husband nixed the deal so the 16 by 22 foot kitchen garden at the land ladys now has a nice 16 x 24 foot fence. I couldn't stand it and had to know so I priced the pieces and parts new thru one of the box stores web sites and I came up just over $700.00. It sure looks nice !

[bobhenry]

The next morning I knew the rich folk were having a community yard sale so my helper and I took some time to goof off and go shopping. First stop was a very nice queen mattress for the shelf bed in the depot. Yep it was FREE. After loading the heavy monster we continued looking and found 4 boxes of Windwood hardwood laminate flooring. I asked the bleary eyed homeowner who was still trying to set up how much. He entertained an offer and I said $25.00 which he accepted. I paid him as fast as I could get the cash out of my pocket. His wife was soon at his elbow explaining it should be at least $50.00. He told her sorry the deal was made and we shuffled of to load our new found treasure. Again, I was curious so when I got home I looked on line to see just what I had ! At $65.00 a box that $260.00 worth of flooring for $25.00 looked like the deal of the century.

[Tomterrific]

I've yet to fire it up.

Tt

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[bobhenry]

Guess it's time to knock some dust off of this thread........

Landlady was on a mission to get shingles put on a leaking front porch of her 4th generation farm house, She was almost frantic since the hurricane will drive up all the prices. I was pressed into the hunt. She wanted standard 3 tab in grey. So you all know me I jump on the local Craigslist and there is one listing. 11 bundles of cobblestone grey CertainTeed brand 3 tab shingles for $150.00. Well I checked to see if there were some for sale in the area in case we ran short. Found them at $22.83 a bundle. So it appeared we were saving about $100.00. Well I went to get the goodies last night turns out there were not 11 but 16 bundles. While I was there the seller asked if I would be interested in some #30 felt underlayment or other goodies in the shed. I asked how much and she said " I just want it gone ". So I had to leave some behind but 3 rolls of felt and two rolls of ice dam material went onto the truck. Once again I had to know so I tallied up all the treasure and it came to $580.28 +/- . That is a savings of well over $400.00. While I love free , cheap is damn nice too

[Cliffmeister2000]

Great job, Bob Henry!

The other day I was driving home from the grocery. It was about 7:30am. I get a Facebook notice about a garage sale with tools about 1 mile from my home, about 2 miles from my then current location. I asked the Mrs if we could swing by, and she reluctantly agreed!
It was a young man selling out and heading to Colorado to work on oil fields. He had been running a mobile carpentry and handyman business from an enclosed trailer.

I bought:
A Mikita Track Saw. A Rigid oscillating sander. A Rockwell Blade Runner ( which is basically a factory made jigsaw mounted upside down in a table). A Porter Cable Jointer. A pair of Irwin 30" parallel clamps. And some misc fasteners and maybe a tool or two that I have forgotten. All of these tools were in immaculate condition!

All for a grand total of $200!

I had to walk away from a roofing nailer, a framing nailer or two, 2 or 3 routers, and a bunch of other nice stuff that I just didn't feel I could justify spending more money on at the moment.