Skip Surfing - who does it ?

**Channel Hopper** · 26-08-2006

On the evidence of the posts in this thread

http://www.satellites.co.uk/php-bin/...ad.php?t=73250

the majority appear to have an attraction to looking in skips for salvegeable and useful objects.

It's not about making money (though saving money is often a major incentive if the item is immediately of use). For me it is more to do with hating to see something reduced to a bit of landfill, just because the previous owner finds it surplus to their requirements.

The best deals I have found were a two year old Philips TV with broken mains switch, and an easily fixed Yelo DVD player (complete with remote) in a box of a newer player, confirming it was less hassle to buy new than repair it

With winter not far away, my main retrievals in the area are roof joists and rafters, already sawn up by the builders for the various loft conversions going on. 60 year old wood makes some of the best material for keeping the living room warm and cosy on the long nights.

What have you found in skips ? and are you of the type that slows down to have a good look?

spiney · 26-08-2006

It's amazing what you can find, bits of wood, plumbing, radiators, cookers, tvs, fridges, videos, whole kitchens thrown away ..... not to mention that famous 2CV. Yes, I'm an avid skip browser.

Wickes used to say "you can build a house at Wickes" (but, how did you then get it out through their doors?). They don't say that any more, but it remains (almost) true that "you can build a house from skips ..."

***PoloMint*** · 26-08-2006

I'll certainly stop and look if I see anything interesting. Furniture seems quite good at the moment, recently acquiring a kitchen chair (needing some minor attention) which matches and replaces one I managed to destroy some years ago. The small odd table every now and then too, but some of them have been returned to the skip.

About a year ago I spotted a big wooden door in a skip and told someone who was looking for one, we went back later to collect. I've still got the key from the rusted lock, a massive big old thing.

Round about the end of May the skips are overflowing, that's when students get kicked out of halls for the summer and dispose of everything that they can't take home. The skips/bins by the halls can have collections of printers, Argos lamps, monitors and even desks.

It's the old, usually useless electrical things I really like, a couple of months ago I saw one of the first generation electric Visa machines by a shops bin and had to force myself not to take it, I really wish I had now.

spiney · 26-08-2006

Note that, although something in a skip has been thrown away, it's polite to ask before removing stuff, or at least leave a note with a contact number.

**gameboy** · 26-08-2006

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

The best deals I have found were a two year old Philips TV with broken mains switch

Common problem with Philips TVs my dad's, my mother-in-laws and ours all had the same problem.

The picture is so good it's worth fixing - IMHO.

***BarMoo*** · 26-08-2006

well I have always been a skip surfer. I believe I was about 8yrs old when I dragged my first washing machine back home [must have been a small one, but that's what my mother tells me, hehe].

38yrs old and living in Berlin is a treat (for that kind of stuff) with all the construction and house renovations happening.

But, I have learnt my lesson when it comes to spotting something. I used to look at whatever it was, go home and think about it, wait till it was dark (sic) and then go back: like a crimnal.

Fact is, usually about 11secs after I saw it - someone else had too and simply took it home immediately. German no-shameness

Mind, I do the same now.

The ever courteous Germans (true) will typically write a long note and sellotape it to 'rubbish' they think might be useful to somebody else and if its electrical and broken they usually tell you whats wrong with it too, hehe.

Musing: When I moved here nearly six years ago, I brought with me a wooden IKEA shelving thing which I had cut down to make a TV stand. Previously, it was an open wardrobe affair, one side of which I panelled and painted blue (a blue not available here, unless you have a colour swatch). When I moved apartments five years ago, I put it out as rubbish.

Low and behold - this is true, seriously - this May/june I was walking to the supermarket and along the way ..... you guessed it - my old TV stand was lying there Couldn't stop laughing. The fact that it had turned up in a totally different (and my new) neighbourhood was a bit spooky.

By the time of my next supermarket visit it had found a new home

Long live skip surfing, hehe.

.

***Saturlight*** · 26-08-2006

Channel, my bruv is in the house clearance business and some of the stuff he picks up are real gems.

When someone dies, the solicitor hands the keys to him and he has to clear it. Sometimes, the relatives want to know what's in the house, sometimes they don't care less.

My bruv's been told to throw out TVs, VCRs, pcs, macs, books, watches, furniture, trinkets, and some really valuable stuff. I tell you, it's a gold mine. The pc I am on now, he got from this woman who was throwing it out.

The pc is two-years old and had windows XP. It's madness.

But true.

***BarMoo*** · 26-08-2006

Originally Posted by Saturlight

The pc I am on now, he [bruv] got from this woman who was throwing it out.

Throwing it out - or having it forcefully removed? I have seen those debt programmes on TV.

Did she give you the guarantee, hehe

Joking.

How's that other PC doing saturlight - sorted it out yet?

.

***Saturlight*** · 26-08-2006

No, it's true, Bar. If you could see the stuff that goes in skips. Coz sometimes, there's so much stuff, my bruv cannot get rid of it, and he chucks it out.

Bikes, lamps, tapes, watches, clothes...too much...

That's where the LCD telly came from, the one I thought was a plasma.

He got a dvd player yesterday, a Panasonic with a remote. Still in guarantee, but it was about to get chucked out. I save it.

**PaulR** · 26-08-2006

Have to admit that I'm a confirmed skip raider. If 'm out driving I always slo down for a quick look and if it looks interesting, and I have enough time, I'll stop and have a further look.

Never found a 2-year old telly but wife and I have retrieved various items of furniture which, as my wife specialises in furniture restoration, are grist to the mill.

It pains me to see what some people throw out.

***2cvbloke*** · 26-08-2006

My TV was from a house clearout, it didn't work when I first powered it up (the red light came on but nothing happened), so the next day I opened it up, touched the solder points of the inverter with my soldering iron (one at a time of course, didn't want an exploding soldering iron!!!), let it cool, powered it up and hey presto, a working, free, 21 inch TV....

Then there was the time my old Olivetti monitor's cable broke a wire so the red colouring went, so one early morning and sleepless night I went for a walk, and hey presto, there was a skipfull of stuff, and a VGA monitor, so I took it out of the skip (along with a few C90 tapes as it was the local recording studio having a clearout and refurb) and went home, avoiding the main road as there's always a the ol' bill out and about there, so got it home, took it apart after finding it was dead as a dodo, and found that the cable matched the one off my Olivetti so took it out, popped it into my Oloivetti and to this day it's worked perfectly....

***BarMoo*** · 26-08-2006

Sweet story there 2CV. We all have them. I agree with PaulR about people throwing out perfectly reasonable stuff - but, without them, we'd be lost I guess, hehe.

BTW is there a definitive phrase for digging your hands into someone else's rubbish. Skip surfer, skip scavenger, dumpster diver, blah blah - or should we just continue to make it up, LOL.

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***2cvbloke*** · 26-08-2006

Dumpster diving...

***2cvbloke*** · 26-08-2006

Oh yes, I nearly forgot, there's a metalworking place near here, and occasionally it's used as a dump for the local sky installers, so one day I spotted looooooads of dishes and bracketry in there, so I went home, got me bag and filled it up with as much as I could, weighed a tonne it did!!! I still have a few minidish faces in the cellar from that scavenge....

Then a few months back opposite the same skip, I found 2 LNBs, one Raven, the other a skyware, the skyware was nackered as it was full of water, but the raven works perfectly...

***BarMoo*** · 26-08-2006

To be fair 2CV there has to be a limit, or? I understand PaulR picking up a chair for his better half - but ransacking a skip for the sake of it - is something my mother would probably liken to the trait of a [uumm, cant say that word anymore. Think caravans].

I reckon you are (soon to be revealled) as a good 'ol fashioned horder 2CV, LOL

Like what do you use this stuff for, where do you store it all and do you ever get round to using it. The mind boogles.........

I have a about 100 French Laserdiscs you can have if you want them, LOL.

Actually, I take that back, I remember coming back from the pub one day totally banjaxed to find this stack of discs by the bins and brought them indoors.

I do not have a laserdisc player, nor, could I ever speak French: WTF! Might put them in the bin tomorrow, maybe. Maybe VideoCD players might come back in fashion, what with all this HD war going on).

Barmy.

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***2cvbloke*** · 26-08-2006

Originally Posted by BarMoo

To be fair 2CV there has to be a limit, or? I understand PaulR picking up a chair for his better half - but ransacking a skip for the sake of it - is something my mother would probably liken to the trait of a [uumm, cant say that word anymore. Think caravans].

I reckon you are (soon to be revealled) as a good 'ol fashioned horder 2CV, LOL Like what do you use this stuff for, where do you store it all and do you ever get round to using it. The mind boogles.........

I have a about 100 French Laserdiscs you can have if you want them, LOL.

Actually, I take that back, I remember coming back from the pub one day totally banjaxed to find this stack of discs by the bins and brought them indoors.

I do not have a laserdisc player, nor, could I ever speak French: WTF! Might put them in the bin tomorrow, maybe. Maybe VideoCD players might come back in fashion, what with all this HD war going on).

Barmy.

.

Yeah, I'm a bit of a hoarder, but the dish plates have come in use a couple of times, I tripped over one of my big dishes and landed on a minidish and bent it, so I rolled that down to the cellar and picked out a spare dish face and fitted that, then a few weeks later I thought I'd see how deep this dodgy well in my cellar is so I dropped the dented dish in it, and never saw it again...

As for your laserdiscs, sell 'em as shiny frisbees!!!

Sharpen the edges and you have shiny deadly frisbees!!!

**Lancelot** · 27-08-2006

uumm, cant say that word anymore. Think caravan

Sounds like 'do as you likey ??

L.

**Channel Hopper** · 27-08-2006

Originally Posted by BarMoo

I have a about 100 French Laserdiscs you can have if you want them, LOL.

(checks for room in the house - tick)
Any titles BM ?

**gameboy** · 27-08-2006

A local newspaper hired a skip and just left it in the road.

A couple of days later it was full!

So, it's not just people taking things from skips, people throw their stuff in other people's skips.

***wod*** · 27-08-2006

theres not many things to get out of skips these days around where i live but theres this house with an old analogue dish on the wall . if it ever get taken down i'll get it

***BarMoo*** · 27-08-2006

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

(checks for room in the house - tick)
Any titles BM ?

Well, of the first seven I have just grabbed (that weigh about 7kilos)

Lectures diaboliques
9 1/2 Semaines
Une Lueur dans la nuit
Amityville 4
Histories de fantomes chinois
glory
Barry lyndon

I could list more, but, I'll probably do my back in before I finish the list, hehe. Quick finger count of 54 titles, not 100 as I first said.

Any particular title you had in mind, sir?

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