retrozoneorg Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) I have a question.... When is it OK to rummage through someones garbage? Because I did.... And I hope you understand why I was walking down one of the many streets in my area to get to the train station so I could go to work. It was rubbish collection day so everyone (including myself) had been busy the night before putting our black and orange bags outside for collection. For some reason I found myself looking at how much rubbish some people manage to collect through the week. One house in particular caught my attention as there were SO MANY BAGS! All colours and sizes. Then something else caught my attention.... A White grid pattern which reminded me of Christmas Morning.... The Grid patten I was always hoping to see when I tore off the Wrapping paper of my presents... The Grid patten which meant I had a new MASTER SYSTEM game to play!!!! So I walked over to the bag and pretended to do up my shoelaces, took a quick look around - it was early so noone was in sight, then I took the bag and looked inside........ MASTER SYSTEM GAMES...... BOXED MASTER SYSTEM GAMES...... WITH INSTRUCTIONS AND EVERYTHING!!!!!!! I grabbed the bag and walked home - left it in my hallway and then left for work again. When I got home later that evening I took a look at what I had found. Arial Assault Batman Returns Golvenllius James Bond 007 - The Duel Marksman Shooting NewZealand Story Operation Wolf Rambo III Rescue Mission Sonic Chaos Sonc the Hedgehog Speedball Spiderman Tom & Jerry the movie.... All Boxed with Instructions.... I hope you can forgive me - but this has to be a good reason for going through garbage!??? Any other stories out there? Edited July 11, 2009 by retrozoneorg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDW Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 There is no need to be forgiven, I remember a whole thread that was on here a while back dedicating to Dumpster Diving. You go lucky, and it was perfectly legal if it was on the curb. Hey, at least it went home to someone who will cherish it instead of going to the landfill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 When I was 12 my dad and I used to dig through the Atari service center's trash in Arlington, Texas. Really I think 9.7 times out of ten people want their trash to go to someone that will appreciate it. That is why we now have freecycle groups, and other great stuff like that. In my city, curbside trash is questionable. I like to actually walk up to the front door and ask the people inside if they don't mind me giving their trash a new home (I did this today for a cordless drill and a CD player.) With their permission, I can stay in front of the home for as long as I need, and if the police bother me, I can say I have the permission of the home owners to be there. If they don't answer, I just work a bit quicker. In common trash I have found Atari stuff and SNES stuff. Dumpsters in my city have a stiff fine. But ultimately, practice respect for the home owners throwing the trash away and take the mindset that you are going to give it a good home, and generally you won't go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potatohead Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Nice score! Yeah, you are hooked for life. Welcome to the club man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 As long as the dumpster divers aren't strewing trash everywhere I don't have a problem with it. Nice score! I probably would have done the same thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRGilbert Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Yeah, at least you took the whole bag with you. Some pigs would probably tear the bags open and leave it all over. Makes you wonder what you left behind doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Great score! I have no qualms about going through garbage in hopes of finding a gem or two. And right, never leave a mess. Great way to get the cops called on you. So no apology necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthkur Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Makes you wonder what you left behind doesn't it? I was thinking the same thing. The system and other goodies might have been in other bags. If I found something like that I could not resist checking all the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 The only thing I find wrong with dumpster diving is the smell. That's why I don't do it. As long as the divers aren't making a mess, though, it's cool. I'm sure people have gone through my trash. Once I toss it in the dumpster, if there's something in there they want, they can have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloo Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I don't see a problem with going through the trash on say, the curb not in bags, it can get you some good stuff. I once found a Masterpiece board game that was in near mint condition on the curb outside of someone's house. Never found video games though. I was called a trash-picked one time by some jerk passing by while I was looking at a computer monitor on the street, you simply have to ignore them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Freecycle is the biggest piece of crap ever!!!!! First off, I don't want a Yahoo! account for anything else but Freecycle, so I signed up for not one, not two, but four. Second, I've signed up for Freecycle in my area. It says I need to be approved to be in the group. I never get the approval email. I've tried signing up 4 different times, with 4 different Yahoo! ID's, with 4 different non-Yahoo! emails. Nobody ever gets back to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Freecycle is the biggest piece of crap ever!!!!! First off, I don't want a Yahoo! account for anything else but Freecycle, so I signed up for not one, not two, but four. Second, I've signed up for Freecycle in my area. It says I need to be approved to be in the group. I never get the approval email. I've tried signing up 4 different times, with 4 different Yahoo! ID's, with 4 different non-Yahoo! emails. Nobody ever gets back to me. I hear ya. I did get approved, but the thing is about being a collector (even a bad one) is that I have little interest in getting rid of anything, don't have much to get rid of anyway (if I don't have it I didn't want it in the first place, so what's to give away?), and around here it's like a big boy's club, so I left. Never got a thing from there. Here' it's a joke and a half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrozoneorg Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Makes you wonder what you left behind doesn't it? I was thinking the same thing. The system and other goodies might have been in other bags. If I found something like that I could not resist checking all the rest. Don't say that! Becuase if it happens again I might very well dive into the pile of bags head first and start screaming "I know you're in there!" until I get arrested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Fyeah! I still dumpster dive to this day. Legaly, if you throw it in the trash, it's Public domain (meaning anyone that want's it can pick it up) I used to do it a lot more, back when we had computer stores and game stores, but all that has dried up around here, so there's not as much good stuff anymore. Howevver, it's still cool what you can find in the trash. And it really blows my mind to think of the idiots that just throw this stuff away. I mean, I could see if it absolutely doesn't work, but in the world of games, it seems there are two types of people, people who think games are worthless, and just chunk them, and people who think their gold and try to rip everybody off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthkur Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 ......in the world of games, it seems there are two types of people, people who think games are worthless, and just chunk them, and people who think their gold and try to rip everybody off. Sad but true. Just wish I could make contact with all of the former and gladly take all of the "junk" off their hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Classic Pac Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I have dumpster dived myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I don't mind people going in the trash and getting my stuff. I did kind of mind that the Indian/Pakastan guy at the convience store across the street was selling my CD's at the counter. I didn't mind he was selling my CD's.. it's just that I wonder what else he finds in garbages and sells.. namely food? He has a lot of expired crap on the shelves. There's a whole bunch of Starbucks coffee expired like 2 months maybe 3 months ago.. maybe even in Feb. I forget, but they don't even make that can style anymore.. they changed the graphics. How about expired flour from 2007? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I don't mind people going in the trash and getting my stuff. I did kind of mind that the Indian/Pakastan guy at the convience store across the street was selling my CD's at the counter. You could always offer him your newly acquired pr0n collection . Saves him the hassle of raiding your garbage for it later . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuzzed Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I admit, I've dumpster dived before.... However, the equipment in the dumpster has to be in good shape. I remember seeing a CD Player in the dumpster and I would have totally grabbed it to see if I could have fixed it easily. however, someone dumped their catbox right on top of it, thus making that thought a wee bit less appealing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STICH666 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 After seeing some videos I need to go dumpster diving! You can get boxes of free candy and such from Kmart simply because the stuff didn't sell. You can get unsold games at Target. It just blows my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I don't really dumpster dive, but I know lots of people who do. Heck, I don't even like to go picking on the one day of the year towns have trash removal for free. When I was younger I was cruising around with friends on that one day of the year. I always stayed in the truck. My friend got a whole stack of decent shape records.. good ones like Kiss and some other metal.. and an Atari 2600 with a bunch of games, controllers, hookups, and I believe that storage center thing. This was around 1987 or 1989 or so. My Uncle would come over and they'd be out for hours doing that stuff. One day someone was throwing out an arcade game. They wouldn't go back and get it for me. I drove past it on my bicycle a few times. I almost want to say it was a Kangaroo, but I really can't remember. Cabinet looked in good shape too. Every time we'd be driving somewhere and see a pile of crap I was always embarassed. My Grandmother would stop to pick stuff up and I'd have to help carry it. She made a good amount of money fixing stuff up and garage sales at her house. She would have a few garage sales a month and pull in about $1200 - $1500 per sale. All of this was from stuff she got in the garbage, well most of it. She'd paint it up, stencil it, make it country looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poopopyo Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I think the only time when it is ok to go through someone's garbage is when it's not in a bag, can, or one of those industrial rental dumpsters. Then again what those people did was pretty much a sin so it's ok what you did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Just got back from one place, but sadly no score tonight. There's always next time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 If I throw something out, it is trash. I make sure it is trash. Sometimes a little extra breakage insures it cannot be used.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STICH666 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 If I throw something out, it is trash. I make sure it is trash. Sometimes a little extra breakage insures it cannot be used.. woah woah woah woah woah........Lois this is not my batman glass but seriously I hope your not intentionally breaking consoles that other people might be able to get some use out of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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