Best skip digging find

[1066]

A couple of recent find, although not directly out of a skip. I was dumping some household rubbish at our local council tip when the chap next to me unloaded a very clean looking chainsaw. I asked him what was wrong with it - pull cord broken. It's done a heap of work and still going strong. I also picked up a "not working" Dyson vacuum - had a small toy car stuck up the tube, use it in the workshop all the time.

[toxo]

A boatyard had one of those huge skips. I was looking for a particular piece of wood but it had just been emptied except for a solitary book that had been thrown in there. Being a curious soul and a lover of books I climbed down and "rescued" it. Was a very big and heavy book about yachts and yachtsmen published around 1907 and was an absolute mine of information about the yachts and biography of the aristocracy including the king. It had seen better days with loose pages etc. I carted that book around for years before putting it on Ebay starting at £20. It sold a week later for £320. 😮

[strimmer_13]

24 minutes ago, toxo said:

A boatyard had one of those huge skips. I was looking for a particular piece of wood but it had just been emptied except for a solitary book that had been thrown in there. Being a curious soul and a lover of books I climbed down and "rescued" it. Was a very big and heavy book about yachts and yachtsmen published around 1907 and was an absolute mine of information about the yachts and biography of the aristocracy including the king. It had seen better days with loose pages etc. I carted that book around for years before putting it on Ebay starting at £20. It sold a week later for £320. 😮

Result! 

[JohnfromUK]

19 minutes ago, toxo said:

A boatyard had one of those huge skips. I was looking for a particular piece of wood but it had just been emptied except for a solitary book that had been thrown in there. Being a curious soul and a lover of books I climbed down and "rescued" it. Was a very big and heavy book about yachts and yachtsmen published around 1907 and was an absolute mine of information about the yachts and biography of the aristocracy including the king. It had seen better days with loose pages etc. I carted that book around for years before putting it on Ebay starting at £20. It sold a week later for £320. 😮

It may have been a book from the series "British Sports and Sportsmen"?  I have the one on "Shooting and Deer Stalking".  There is an example of the Yachting one here https://www.mclarenbooks.com/shop/yachting/yachting-miscellaneous/british-sports-and-sportsmen-yachting-and-rowing-compiled-and-edited-by-the-sportsman/

[toxo]

21 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

It may have been a book from the series "British Sports and Sportsmen"?  I have the one on "Shooting and Deer Stalking".  There is an example of the Yachting one here https://www.mclarenbooks.com/shop/yachting/yachting-miscellaneous/british-sports-and-sportsmen-yachting-and-rowing-compiled-and-edited-by-the-sportsman/

No John. It was called "British Yachts And Yachtsmen" and in reasonable condition was worth (I found out later) much more than that. It listed all the aristocracy with boats owned. races won, skippers, club memberships (we're talking gentleman's clubs here where you slept overnight to get away from the missus )etc. etc. It had a coloured hand written inscription inside the front cover and was paid for with an American internet cheque by a guy in Switzerland.

[Hamster]

Some incredible stories  must admit I'm a bit of a throw awayer or giver awayer to be more precise, often put some very useful items in a box and drive them over to places like Oxfam, wife regularly sorts through older clothes for the same reason. I have a terrible thing to confess in that I once binned my collection of LP's knowing full well that some of them would be worth a few quid in a few years, I just didn't want them ending up in someone else's hands that's all. 😑  I know I know. 

Not a skip find but when in my late teens our poly was refurbishing a whole building and I ended up taking this massive square solid wood box away complete with a door together with a couple of rectangular window frames, still remember carting them home on the train with friends help; anyway cut one side open and screwed the frames to that side and had them covered in chicken wire, then made a sleeping compartment from off cuts which I screwed to the top of the square box, it made the grandest of ferret hutches and they'd use the chicken wire/frame runs end corner to poop which would all fall on old papers i'd place underneath. I had tons of fun with them. 

 

[Datum]

Saw an interesting looking bit of kit in a skip near work a few years back so I took it home & Googled it, turned out to be for re-gassing car air con systems. Powered it up, seemed ok, stuck it on eBay for spares or repair and it made £480! Despite my fears at the buyer being disappointed if it didn’t work properly he was delighted and told me they’re thousands new and he wanted it for spares  

Better than that though was in the early 80’s my Dad found a guitar amp in a skip (60W Laney Supergroup valve head for those who’re interested) which he diagnosed as only needing new valve bases - the thing was though that when we went to buy valve bases the guy in the shop had another similar amp in his shed which he let us have for £20, so I now had two which I used for years, one on top of t’other in the Sabbath way. They both earned four figure sums when I sold them in the 00’s. 

[Aled]

A couple moving house near me this week, skip outside the house.....from the skip I rescued a pile of good wood off cuts, a pet blanket, and a cat carrier!

Cheers

Aled

 

[Ricko]

On 16/06/2019 at 20:43, Ricko said:

Belle cement mixer; needed a belt.

 

So I lent it to the young couple next door, he's landscaping the driveway etc.

He's had three weeks use out of it and then the gearbox went. The firm where he works have a big contract with a huge hire firm, they rebuilt the gearbox for free!

[TIGHTCHOKE]

1 minute ago, Ricko said:

So I lent it to the young couple next door, he's landscaping the driveway etc.

He's had three weeks use out of it and then the gearbox went. The firm where he works have a big contract with a huge hire firm, they rebuilt the gearbox for free!

That must be because you were good enough to lend it to him, some things are just meant to happen!

[general grievous]

The most expensive thing I ever saw pulled out of a skip was my mate Paul. He was rat a**ed and had just slid over the roof of someone's mini that was parked outside a party we were at in Liverpool when the owner came out and called the police. When they arrived he was still hiding in the skip covered in brick dust and giggling. That cost him £400 to fix the car and a night in the cells.

GG

[mel b3]

On 22/06/2019 at 13:00, Datum said:

Saw an interesting looking bit of kit in a skip near work a few years back so I took it home & Googled it, turned out to be for re-gassing car air con systems. Powered it up, seemed ok, stuck it on eBay for spares or repair and it made £480! Despite my fears at the buyer being disappointed if it didn’t work properly he was delighted and told me they’re thousands new and he wanted it for spares  

Better than that though was in the early 80’s my Dad found a guitar amp in a skip (60W Laney Supergroup valve head for those who’re interested) which he diagnosed as only needing new valve bases - the thing was though that when we went to buy valve bases the guy in the shop had another similar amp in his shed which he let us have for £20, so I now had two which I used for years, one on top of t’other in the Sabbath way. They both earned four figure sums when I sold them in the 00’s. 

One of the designers of laney amps(Mr laney snr), was my technical drawing teacher in the early 80s . He eventually left teaching and went to work for his some full time. He taught me never to put a pencil in my mouth , because other people put them up their nose 😆

[Rake aboot]

Lifted a carrera hybrid bike out the skip last week.

Washed it and set up the front gears then sold it for £140.  Took 15 mins work

[serrac]

My son scored a lathe with milling head from his work who were about to chuck it, mostly because it was hardly used.
Not one of these toy mini-lathes either - half dismantled it to move it and the two of us could only just lift the bed section into the garage.
It didn't make it into the skip which is just as well as it probably wouldn't have come out very easily.

[arjimlad]

Slightly different-  went diving in my own skip.

I was given a nice mug in 2007. A Homer Simpson DIY jobbie.

We went off on holiday, leaving builders doing a new bathroom. On our return I found my mug in the skip full of fag ash and plaster

Cleaned it up, bunged it in the dishwasher and it is still in daily use 10 yrs later.

[strimmer_13]

3 hours ago, arjimlad said:

Slightly different-  went diving in my own skip.

I was given a nice mug in 2007. A Homer Simpson DIY jobbie.

We went off on holiday, leaving builders doing a new bathroom. On our return I found my mug in the skip full of fag ash and plaster

Cleaned it up, bunged it in the dishwasher and it is still in daily use 10 yrs later.

I would of gone ape. I feel the pain, my favourite mug, my brown stained chipped ugly mug just fell off the wash stand. 

For a sad minute there i considered superglueing it together. 

Oh well.... 

 

8 hours ago, Rake aboot said:

Lifted a carrera hybrid bike out the skip last week.

Washed it and set up the front gears then sold it for £140.  Took 15 mins work

👍💷

[Walker570]

Recently a neighbour was doing up some old barns to live in and had a trailer...very large trailer pulled by a JCB Fast Track full of brick rubble..just what I wanted. He delivered same saving him a 40mile return trip and I went down to shift it to where I needed it. Pushed the front bucket under and lifted the first load and saw something white. Checked it out and it was a porcelain bowl  nine inch in diamter..M&S marking so not cheap and it did not have a scratch never mind a chip. It now sits in our kitchen cupboard. How that had survived a JCB digger loading it with all those bricks and then tipped, then me digging it out with the bucket on my Kubota is a mystery.  Three loads Deliverd and I noticed a few blocks. Now I wanted some for the base of my log store so started to sift around in the pile of brick rubble and finally had a stack of 29 perfectly good unmarked blocks and a few halves.  Now how much would they hav cost me.

As I have said many times.......WASTE NOT WANT NOT

Edited July 12, 2019 by Walker570

[chrispti]

I worked for a skip company some years ago.... best haul we ever saw was from an elderly gent that had passed away and his bungalow was cleared by the council (assume there was no family) and they used one of our skips.

The skip was full of ww2 memorabilia... german iron crosses,  other medals, german mother crosses, mod issue pocket watch, loads of bits and pieces....

There was also a carrier bag full of old original matchbox cars !!!

[Datum]

On 12/07/2019 at 04:37, mel b3 said:

One of the designers of laney amps(Mr laney snr), was my technical drawing teacher in the early 80s . He eventually left teaching and went to work for his some full time. He taught me never to put a pencil in my mouth , because other people put them up their nose 😆

I live for tales like that - thank you! 👍🏻 

[JTaylor91]

Not strictly from a skip but was in a pile to be taken to the tip. A duplex kismet master foot pump. Just looked like a good little project to rebuild and clean up. Seem to go for a little money in any condition but I plan on keeping it. Similar to this.