Over the past 10 or so years I've accumulated about 200 various pieces of audio equipment, some from large estate lots, some from people just dropping it off, some as part of auction lots where I wanted one or two pieces and had to take the whole stack to get what I wanted.
In years past I used to just send it to auction and hope it disappeared, took it to goodwill, or stripped it for parts, but what's left now are mostly all 90's rack system pieces, a few dead, badly burned up Kenwood amps, low end cassette decks, turn tables that need cartridges, 5-10w receivers that need work, and assorted 'surround sound' converters, dolby units, and a few dead low end CD players.
Other than maybe saving a few knobs, springs, and maybe feet, they are just taking up space on my back porch.
The city trash won't take them, they charge $8 each to take them to the dump, and ads listing them for 'Free' on CL and FB got no replies.
What do most do with items like these?
I did rob some of the feet off a few of them but I also don't need any more junk lying around. Its not like I don't have enough stuff saved as it is and I certainly have enough projects to deal with to last me the rest of my life.
In years past I used to just send it to auction and hope it disappeared, took it to goodwill, or stripped it for parts, but what's left now are mostly all 90's rack system pieces, a few dead, badly burned up Kenwood amps, low end cassette decks, turn tables that need cartridges, 5-10w receivers that need work, and assorted 'surround sound' converters, dolby units, and a few dead low end CD players.
Other than maybe saving a few knobs, springs, and maybe feet, they are just taking up space on my back porch.
The city trash won't take them, they charge $8 each to take them to the dump, and ads listing them for 'Free' on CL and FB got no replies.
What do most do with items like these?
I did rob some of the feet off a few of them but I also don't need any more junk lying around. Its not like I don't have enough stuff saved as it is and I certainly have enough projects to deal with to last me the rest of my life.
It is definitely not a good habit as you’ve learned. The general pattern is that it is just hoarding a lot of stuff and never have the time or even motivation to repair just 1 of them. The satisfaction turns to frustration after time.
Simply pay for recycling or bring it to the dump yourself (important part of the process as after all it was you that also brought it in!) and have an empty house/porch and less burden. Less really is more.
There is no reason at all to keep mediocre stuff. A few nice feet and solid metal knobs. The rest is superfluous as you’ll never use mediocre stuff.
Simply pay for recycling or bring it to the dump yourself (important part of the process as after all it was you that also brought it in!) and have an empty house/porch and less burden. Less really is more.
There is no reason at all to keep mediocre stuff. A few nice feet and solid metal knobs. The rest is superfluous as you’ll never use mediocre stuff.
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Its not mediocre stuff, its low end at best. The middle grade stuff is still very worth fixing, anything pre-1980 or anything over about 50wpc is generally worth fixing or parting out.
I won't junk anything without pulling off the feet, regardless of what they're made from, and any knobs or small parts that tend to get lost. You never know when it will save an otherwise worthless unit. (No one will buy even a perfect working receiver if its missing a knob or foot).
I will not pay to get rid of them, $8 each would cost me $1,600 to get rid of less than pickup truck load of stuff. That's not happening.
I'll fire up the backhoe and dig a deep hole outback first and forget I ever saw them. They won't displace ore than a bucket or two of dirt once buried but I'd rather not go through all that.
In the past everything would find a home, even the junk found someone to take them for parts but lately CL and FB get zero replies here.
No matter what it is. Even better items don't get any replies. I just picked up two working PioneerSX1980 receivers, an SX1250, two SX650's, and an SA1000 Technics, all 'working' in decent shape for $40 for all off CL, They were an hour away and had sat for a year with no takers. In a normal world any one of them would bring over a grand, but lately nothing sells. In that same lot though were two non working Fisher receivers, late 90's junk, a mid 80's Technics 20wpc receiver with rust and battery acid leaking out the back, and five low end Fisher, and Garrard turntables that are all missing parts, It was an all or nothing deal.
I may have forgotten to load up a few of the turntables and the one Fisher receiver accidentally got forgotten at the fleamarket was we were packing up a few weeks ago. It didn't work so no big loss.
The Technics with the rust actually works but inside its a total mess, it used a pack of AA batteries for the memory and they were likely in there for 40 years, leaking long enough to eat away a 3" hole in the back. I plated it over and put a jack there for an external battery pack but its been set up on the porch with two junk Akai speakers for now, if it dies I'll strip it for parts I guess. Its ugly and no one will steal it, which is its only good trait.
A buddy takes his unwanted items to either goodwill or he leaves them at fleamarkets or in carts in parking lots in bags as if someone had bought something and forgot it in the cart. He said almost always someone grabs it and its gone before he comes out of the store. Another buddy puts items out in front of his house with price tags on them and a coffee can marked no refunds. Almost always they get stolen and he's rid of them. No one has ever put money in the can though.
If he put them out for FREE no one touches them.
My biggest problem is people dropping stuff off, I don't think a week goes by where I don't find a stack of components on my porch that someone just left there. Usually there's at least one item that's worth keeping or fixing, or at least worth the sum of its parts but its the black plastic junk from the 90's, usually made in China that's not worth bothering with, or almost anything never.
Yesterday I came home to find two huge Criterion speakers, two Infinity RS2000 speakers, and two Realistic Mach Two speakers on the porch, all need foam or a tweeter but they're in decent condition cosmetically. But along with that lot were two Sears branded receivers and a Soundesign receiver that weighs maybe 3lbs total from the 80's. It works but its pure junk, probably not even worth the shot of cleaner I used to clear up the volume and balance controls while testing it. Basically a portable radio made to look like a receiver. Its in the pile now, which is basically about 8 stacks about 6ft tall or so in the corner of my porch, which is roughly 15x20ft, fully enclosed but not heated or insulated. Just a former screen porch with drop shutters that haven't been open in decades.
The stacks of junk components sit next to my two spare outboard motors, a half dozen tackle boxes, a stack of lumber for an future house project, and a set of spare rims and tires off my old truck and two beach cruiser bikes I haven't ridden in 10 years.
The bikes are out there because I needed room in my living room to sort out all the new parts I picked up last winter. They had sat in the living room, (which I never use either, for the past 9 years or so when I moved here.
Its not hoarding, its a lack of space to keep things. I went from a house with 2400 sqft of space and a four car garage to a 900sqft house and a one car garage and two big sheds, but I gained an attic and basement here. The attic was full when I moved here, the basement still has unpacked boxes from when I moved plus a full wood shop that was there before me.
I've been slowly building and putting up shelves down there for storage but somethings just aren't meant to be stored in a basement.
I won't junk anything without pulling off the feet, regardless of what they're made from, and any knobs or small parts that tend to get lost. You never know when it will save an otherwise worthless unit. (No one will buy even a perfect working receiver if its missing a knob or foot).
I will not pay to get rid of them, $8 each would cost me $1,600 to get rid of less than pickup truck load of stuff. That's not happening.
I'll fire up the backhoe and dig a deep hole outback first and forget I ever saw them. They won't displace ore than a bucket or two of dirt once buried but I'd rather not go through all that.
In the past everything would find a home, even the junk found someone to take them for parts but lately CL and FB get zero replies here.
No matter what it is. Even better items don't get any replies. I just picked up two working PioneerSX1980 receivers, an SX1250, two SX650's, and an SA1000 Technics, all 'working' in decent shape for $40 for all off CL, They were an hour away and had sat for a year with no takers. In a normal world any one of them would bring over a grand, but lately nothing sells. In that same lot though were two non working Fisher receivers, late 90's junk, a mid 80's Technics 20wpc receiver with rust and battery acid leaking out the back, and five low end Fisher, and Garrard turntables that are all missing parts, It was an all or nothing deal.
I may have forgotten to load up a few of the turntables and the one Fisher receiver accidentally got forgotten at the fleamarket was we were packing up a few weeks ago. It didn't work so no big loss.
The Technics with the rust actually works but inside its a total mess, it used a pack of AA batteries for the memory and they were likely in there for 40 years, leaking long enough to eat away a 3" hole in the back. I plated it over and put a jack there for an external battery pack but its been set up on the porch with two junk Akai speakers for now, if it dies I'll strip it for parts I guess. Its ugly and no one will steal it, which is its only good trait.
A buddy takes his unwanted items to either goodwill or he leaves them at fleamarkets or in carts in parking lots in bags as if someone had bought something and forgot it in the cart. He said almost always someone grabs it and its gone before he comes out of the store. Another buddy puts items out in front of his house with price tags on them and a coffee can marked no refunds. Almost always they get stolen and he's rid of them. No one has ever put money in the can though.
If he put them out for FREE no one touches them.
My biggest problem is people dropping stuff off, I don't think a week goes by where I don't find a stack of components on my porch that someone just left there. Usually there's at least one item that's worth keeping or fixing, or at least worth the sum of its parts but its the black plastic junk from the 90's, usually made in China that's not worth bothering with, or almost anything never.
Yesterday I came home to find two huge Criterion speakers, two Infinity RS2000 speakers, and two Realistic Mach Two speakers on the porch, all need foam or a tweeter but they're in decent condition cosmetically. But along with that lot were two Sears branded receivers and a Soundesign receiver that weighs maybe 3lbs total from the 80's. It works but its pure junk, probably not even worth the shot of cleaner I used to clear up the volume and balance controls while testing it. Basically a portable radio made to look like a receiver. Its in the pile now, which is basically about 8 stacks about 6ft tall or so in the corner of my porch, which is roughly 15x20ft, fully enclosed but not heated or insulated. Just a former screen porch with drop shutters that haven't been open in decades.
The stacks of junk components sit next to my two spare outboard motors, a half dozen tackle boxes, a stack of lumber for an future house project, and a set of spare rims and tires off my old truck and two beach cruiser bikes I haven't ridden in 10 years.
The bikes are out there because I needed room in my living room to sort out all the new parts I picked up last winter. They had sat in the living room, (which I never use either, for the past 9 years or so when I moved here.
Its not hoarding, its a lack of space to keep things. I went from a house with 2400 sqft of space and a four car garage to a 900sqft house and a one car garage and two big sheds, but I gained an attic and basement here. The attic was full when I moved here, the basement still has unpacked boxes from when I moved plus a full wood shop that was there before me.
I've been slowly building and putting up shelves down there for storage but somethings just aren't meant to be stored in a basement.
I started locking the porch door, then they just drop stuff off on the step or in the driveway. I hate to say it all has to stop because every so often I get something really good, or at least something really worth fixing. What does have to stop is the computer monitors. The CRT stuff stopped long ago, but now its computer monitors, some not all that old and most work fine. I can't imagine why anyone would throw away or give away a good monitor? I've had the one I'm typing on now for 14 years, if it don't die, its staying where it is. The tower has been replaced a few times but the keyboard and monitor have been here since 2010 or so.
A few that have shown up on the step here are a lot newer. They don't sell, and no one will even take them for free. That wasn't the case years ago, with the CRT monitors, they were always in demand if they worked. I used to buy and refurb those by the dozen and resell them at the local flea market. (I had a computer guy who took every one I could come up with to the market every weekend).
I can't imagine sitting and typing this on a phone or not having my main computer at home.
In fact I've got one in several rooms, including at my workbench. Plus two laptops, one for inventory, one that only runs my ancient HP laser printer that won't work on Win 10.
I'm sort of thinking a good bit of this stuff is either getting scrapped out for the tin and the rest buried or hidden in the regular trash. We pay $45/mo for trash collection here, and all we get is a list of items they won't take. No tires, no appliances, no window glass, no building supplies, no concrete, no metal, no tarps, plastic, or garden debris, no electronics, no e-waste, no tires, no auto parts, no plastic bags, no wire, no pizza boxes, no oil, no grease, no paint cans, and the list goes on. Now they wont take 'dust or dirt', because they won't allow trash bags, people were emptying their vacuum cleaners right into the bins and when they dump the can it makes a plume of dust. Now they want people to 'find another means to dispose of the contents from your vacuum cleaner.
At my old place I had about 50 CRT TV's that were pretty much junk from a clean out, the town I lived in there wouldn't take them. I took a few of them over to a buddy in another town and they took 10 per year there with no issues, the rest I took outback behind the one barn and turned them into dust by 'alternative means', then I swept them up into boxes and they gladly took the boxes of dust and broken glass, plastic, and pc boards. I marked the boxes dirty diapers, and never heard a word about it. The rest just got 'returned to the earth' in various forms that fourth of July.
Hard to place any suggestions.
Sounds like fun to me.
I like junk.
Or the good stuff.
The trash collection rules sound ridiculous.
Its like a dentist saying they can fix anything.
But no teeth allowed.
What is the point in paying.
Sounds like fun to me.
I like junk.
Or the good stuff.
The trash collection rules sound ridiculous.
Its like a dentist saying they can fix anything.
But no teeth allowed.
What is the point in paying.
I guess it depends on the municipality you live in, but don't you have a transfer station that accepts electronics recycling? In some places the transfer station will only accept electronics on certain days, or only a couple times a year, but they usually take the stuff at some point.
I feel for ya, though. I have relatives who live where there's a local transfer station that accepts electronic junk anytime, but you have to pay a small fee per carload, and you have to be a resident. Where I live, it's all private collection services—and you know how things go when it's completely private. They don't take junk electronics, even to the dump, without a large fee. There are even businesses like 1-800-GOT-JUNK. You gotta pay for that.
I feel for ya, though. I have relatives who live where there's a local transfer station that accepts electronic junk anytime, but you have to pay a small fee per carload, and you have to be a resident. Where I live, it's all private collection services—and you know how things go when it's completely private. They don't take junk electronics, even to the dump, without a large fee. There are even businesses like 1-800-GOT-JUNK. You gotta pay for that.
It is old fridges that we have always had problems with. They have started charging a fee to take them to the waste yard now.
People just put them in a van and stop in a quiet place and spit them out onto the grass.
TVs just end up on the street. Old mattresses have always been a regular thing to end up dumped out in the countryside.
When I lived closer to London we had a waste yard that had a long queue right down the road every weekend and I had a fridge to get rid of and at that time they never used to charge for them. I also had the keys to a building close by. I borrowed the sack barrow and jumped the whole queue and made for the fridge drop off point and was immediately confronted by a bureaucrat who nagged me for not transporting it in a vehicle. I told him that he needed to do something about the queue for that to happen. His jaw dropped so hard that it almost punched a hole in the concrete yard. I was out of the yard by the time he had picked his jaw up again.
People just put them in a van and stop in a quiet place and spit them out onto the grass.
TVs just end up on the street. Old mattresses have always been a regular thing to end up dumped out in the countryside.
When I lived closer to London we had a waste yard that had a long queue right down the road every weekend and I had a fridge to get rid of and at that time they never used to charge for them. I also had the keys to a building close by. I borrowed the sack barrow and jumped the whole queue and made for the fridge drop off point and was immediately confronted by a bureaucrat who nagged me for not transporting it in a vehicle. I told him that he needed to do something about the queue for that to happen. His jaw dropped so hard that it almost punched a hole in the concrete yard. I was out of the yard by the time he had picked his jaw up again.
its crazy there are countries where everything gets repaired and other ones they take care nothing gets recycled but thrown away in order to sell new things.
since the 1930 the world wide production turned from long lasting objects to short living ones - a true madness and paradise for capitalists
since the 1930 the world wide production turned from long lasting objects to short living ones - a true madness and paradise for capitalists
Some consumers seem to find happiness in gathering as much stuff as possible in their lifetime as well. That does not help. Having helped out a few times with clearing out I can't imagine having loads of old junk can make a man happy. I only see sorrow in such places but maybe I don't understand.
In one of the more severe cases the man had so much stuff that there was a "path" to follow in the house stuffed with piles of devices. There was only 1 possibility to get to the couch and only 1 seat free. Even the couch had equipment. The kitchen was unreachable as it had bicycles and bicycle parts crammed together so there was no way of preparing food. Fitting in the pattern: many times I notice that curtains are always down and no lamp is working in such houses and the typical person then has many torches that also don't work. They rarely look after themselves (teeth, hygiene), see a possible use in any garbage/object but don't seem to grasp they don't repair much despite knowing details of their stuff and the defect. They are able to put stuff in every free square millimeter but usually think that their home is too small. The general modus operandi is to accept given stuff besides the self bought stuff and pretend it "just happens". "If I say no they will not give me the valuable stuff either so I can not say no".
An imported bizarre habit is to rent space in storage companies. Paying to store junk that will never be used 🙂
In one of the more severe cases the man had so much stuff that there was a "path" to follow in the house stuffed with piles of devices. There was only 1 possibility to get to the couch and only 1 seat free. Even the couch had equipment. The kitchen was unreachable as it had bicycles and bicycle parts crammed together so there was no way of preparing food. Fitting in the pattern: many times I notice that curtains are always down and no lamp is working in such houses and the typical person then has many torches that also don't work. They rarely look after themselves (teeth, hygiene), see a possible use in any garbage/object but don't seem to grasp they don't repair much despite knowing details of their stuff and the defect. They are able to put stuff in every free square millimeter but usually think that their home is too small. The general modus operandi is to accept given stuff besides the self bought stuff and pretend it "just happens". "If I say no they will not give me the valuable stuff either so I can not say no".
An imported bizarre habit is to rent space in storage companies. Paying to store junk that will never be used 🙂
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the turn away from long lasting objects flooded the world with junk.
Extreme example are some old farming machines staying outside in the rain for dozens of years yet could be still repaired and used if anybody would care.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
Extreme example are some old farming machines staying outside in the rain for dozens of years yet could be still repaired and used if anybody would care.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
Usually there are ways to dispose consumer objects in any muncipal. You just have to find out and to accept the rules.
If you take apart amps, radios, CD player and the like, it may get simpler and reduce size. The metal parts are no problem, they are worth money. The plastic is usually accepted too. The PCB's are a highly reduced volume then and you got to find the way to get them recycled. The main problem may be numbers, one or two of each kind are accepted, but not a dozen TV screens. Go there with more than one person or try to visit the dump every time you go shopping, for example.
If the bureaucracy doesn't give the citizen an option to return garbage, they have to deal with wild dumps, which will be much more expensive to clean up later.
If you have horded stuff for years, you created a problem by your self, sorry if the truth hurts. So stop hording and find a way to reduce the garbage, piece by piece, but you have to start NOW and keep up with reducing. It is your own fault you created that situation, don't blame others for it.
If others use you as a dump, you created that situation, too. Draw a sign, install a camera, record 24/7 and call the police if it doesn't stop.
If you take apart amps, radios, CD player and the like, it may get simpler and reduce size. The metal parts are no problem, they are worth money. The plastic is usually accepted too. The PCB's are a highly reduced volume then and you got to find the way to get them recycled. The main problem may be numbers, one or two of each kind are accepted, but not a dozen TV screens. Go there with more than one person or try to visit the dump every time you go shopping, for example.
If the bureaucracy doesn't give the citizen an option to return garbage, they have to deal with wild dumps, which will be much more expensive to clean up later.
If you have horded stuff for years, you created a problem by your self, sorry if the truth hurts. So stop hording and find a way to reduce the garbage, piece by piece, but you have to start NOW and keep up with reducing. It is your own fault you created that situation, don't blame others for it.
If others use you as a dump, you created that situation, too. Draw a sign, install a camera, record 24/7 and call the police if it doesn't stop.
I am surprised there is not a free electronics recycling location near you. You show Pa. and NJ as your locations.
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Locally twice a year you can put out stuff. Usually anything worth anything gets picked up. I was quite saddened when I put a sun monitor out a number of years ago and no one took it. Supposedly the city recycles, but I don't believe it. I heard an explosion and saw the truck smashing my monitor in the "recycling" truck. I feel for you. But for that twice a year option, not sure what I'd do with old stuff.
Well, admittedly this life style is all too familiar. Glad to read it's not only me that leans in that direction. I'm ramping up the clean out process, ramping down the bring in. I've been fooling around on ebay for 20 years, selling various items I've picked up here and there for play money. As you said, these days are not like the days of yesteryear; you're lucky to even get a sale now. So I am winding down; leaving things I see that I would have taken in, in the recent past, to somebody else.
Hurts the pride to have to let something go for less than you paid for it, after working on it to make it "right" and then working again to get it packaged adequately for a cross country handle by the shipping company. I'm doing far more work to rid myself of some stuff, than I did to generate the cash I spent picking it up. Work once to enable getting into that situation, work again to get out of it.
The psychosis started when I first turned into a teenager. Somehow I got my hands on these books "collectable bottles" and "collectable insulators", I used to dig the earth to pull out the old bottles, with the book saying it's worth $65! Good $ in the 1970's SWTP catalog here I come. I think I'll get the dynamic range expander! I used to climb the telephone poles along the tracks to pull off insulators, which the book said were worth $30! I had 30 of these things, thought I was gonna be rich; I think I sold one at that price. I still have some of my old insulator collection sitting in a box out in the garage.
My wife calls me "Hawkeye" because I'm able to see such "valuable things" in a pile of junk or in just how I see the world. Think, while driving the car about 30 mph, spotting a pair of small KEFs sitting amongst a few dozen other items at someone's yard sale. The grilles were off and I recognized the shiny black bextrene cones as I drove past...
It is a little fun to see if you can make something work; I am handy in that dept. Picked up a free gas mower someone had put out because the cable to the "safety bar" had stretched to the point where it wouldnt pull the brake mechanism away from shorting the points. No problem for me; now it doesnt have a safety bar. It is a little fun to see how things work, what they did inside, etc. But I guess as you get older, you need a higher "ZBB" which was what they called the funding cutoff for projects they were considering where I used to work.
The abundance of "stuff" in the USA is astounding.
Hurts the pride to have to let something go for less than you paid for it, after working on it to make it "right" and then working again to get it packaged adequately for a cross country handle by the shipping company. I'm doing far more work to rid myself of some stuff, than I did to generate the cash I spent picking it up. Work once to enable getting into that situation, work again to get out of it.
The psychosis started when I first turned into a teenager. Somehow I got my hands on these books "collectable bottles" and "collectable insulators", I used to dig the earth to pull out the old bottles, with the book saying it's worth $65! Good $ in the 1970's SWTP catalog here I come. I think I'll get the dynamic range expander! I used to climb the telephone poles along the tracks to pull off insulators, which the book said were worth $30! I had 30 of these things, thought I was gonna be rich; I think I sold one at that price. I still have some of my old insulator collection sitting in a box out in the garage.
My wife calls me "Hawkeye" because I'm able to see such "valuable things" in a pile of junk or in just how I see the world. Think, while driving the car about 30 mph, spotting a pair of small KEFs sitting amongst a few dozen other items at someone's yard sale. The grilles were off and I recognized the shiny black bextrene cones as I drove past...
It is a little fun to see if you can make something work; I am handy in that dept. Picked up a free gas mower someone had put out because the cable to the "safety bar" had stretched to the point where it wouldnt pull the brake mechanism away from shorting the points. No problem for me; now it doesnt have a safety bar. It is a little fun to see how things work, what they did inside, etc. But I guess as you get older, you need a higher "ZBB" which was what they called the funding cutoff for projects they were considering where I used to work.
The abundance of "stuff" in the USA is astounding.
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Do you have anything like this near you? They take paint, household chemicals, electronics, batteries, etc. I make a run every other month getting rid of stuff.
https://www.cityofirvine.org/environmental-programs/hazardous-waste-collection-centers
Can't you take them to the dump?
Electronics are worth money just in parts... don't bury them in the ground.. not a good idea.
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