atomic_fungus (atomic_fungus) wrote,

#3938: "Valuable antiques" *whimper*

Yeah, I dove back into the morasse that is the garage today.

One of the things keeping me from doing more work on the garage was the fact that I had a palpable fear that my siblings would go apeshit if I threw away something valuable. After our visit on Memorial Day weekend, though, I've concluded that I have a lot more latitude than I'd originally concluded.

So when I went to work on the garage, and found all those boxes full of old issues of Saturday Evening Post, I evaluated them from the standpoint of, "Who would pay money for these?"

I almost--almost--just dumped the entirety of them into the trash can, but then I happened to see that most of them were vintage 1920-1930, and realized I couldn't do that because they might be valuable antiques! *sigh*

In perfect condition, these magazines go for about $12-$20 on Ebay. These are not in perfect condition, and most of them were in fact ruined, either by mold, mice, or water. (Or combinations, or all three.) I saved as many as I could, but it came to a bare fraction of what was originally stored in the back of the garage.

All these magazines came from my maternal grandmother's house, and they got stashed in the back of the garage in early 1978. They have sat there for thirty-five years and time has had its way with them.

"Who would pay money for these?" Someone who wanted to contract myxamitosis and hantavirus, I think. I probably risked a major disease just handling them without a respirator mask. I do in fact hesitate to sell the salvaged ones for that very reason; they look okay but God alone knows what kind of microorganisms are inhabiting the damned things, and I'd probably be better off tossing them in their entirety.

Besides the magazines, I found the jack for a Model T. I'll put that up on ebay for $20-ish.

I found the engine for my Mighty Casey ride-on train set that I got when I was perhaps five. The battery is still in it and still connected, but considering it's FORTY F-ING YEARS OLD I doubt it would hold a charge.

Here's an interesting idea: adapt an RC servo to run the forward/backward switch, put in a new battery, and have an instant large-scale train set! Whee! The only problem I'll have is finding the track, but it looks like there's a ton of this stuff on Ebay--and it's only $300 for a set of track! A complete locomotive is $300. Jeeze-louise.

(Wanted to embed YouTube video of the commercial. YouTube has decided not to work. If you see a video here, it's because it started working after I posted this and edited the link in.)

There's lots more to do, and lots more to throw away, in that shitpile out there. Don't bother going through my garbage for it; if I'm tossing it, it's because it's shit NO ONE WILL WANT. If you go through my trash anyway and come down with rabies or the black plague, it's your own damned fault because I WARNED YOU.


  • #7562: BLUE ANON


  • #7561: Busy, though pleasant


  • #7560: Trying enchiladas again


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