nice! i usually find small cool things either at flea markets or on trash day--i recently got a narrow metal console table (missing its top) on 34th street. : >

cool find.
someday a chaise lounge will come to me.
i got an inlayed accordian that was in a woman's closet for 50 years at a garage sale, but still haven't gotten a proper strap for it.
and all kinds of things at nyc flea markets and dumpster diving--

Dude, those are awesome chairs! :)

I actually found a framed print sitting on the curb of a neighbor who was moving out of the country last year, and it was nice enough that I gave it to a family member as an Xmas gift and no one was the wiser. (I wasn't trying to be cheap, it was just a really nice and appropriate gift, and in perfect condition.)

I also once threw out a wicker chair that had a broken leg, and a handy neighbor took it off the curb, repaired it, repainted it, and owned it for six or seven years. Then when she moved SHE put it on the curb, and I snagged it back and gave it to my mom, who had just moved into a larger home and needed a chair for her guest room.

I got a set of these
and her sister set for $10 on Sunday!

At a junk store I found a shot glass with a cartoon of a monkey wearing a dented crown with the words "Mirth is King" underneath it. My wife and I couldn't figure out what it meant, and then a few years later we found a drinking glass with the same monkey and some kind of Lodge insignia on it.

My neighbor died recently and I now have a way cool tall oak swivel chair and a walnut swivel desk chair to remember her by. I should've stayed home just to check out what they put on the curb. I also got some old pictures of her when she was young and sassy.

I once bought a yearbook from 1956 for five dollars that I later sold to a collector for $160 because it had a picture of Marilyn Monroe at a train station in it.

I should have shopped around, really.

Sorry to break this to you, amberglow, but a table that's missing its top isn't a table.

joelf, where'd you get those? They're neat!

Slack, I saw a monkey shaped flask on eBay once that was apparently from the 60s if I remember correctly but the auction ended before I remembered to go back and bid.

interrobang, yeah, I bet you coulda got a nice chunk for that.

theora55, I get the impression that's why the guy sold me these chairs. He said they were his grandfather's. I didn't ask what happened to him.

oh, and thanks, boringpostcards!

Sweet chairs. I have a house full of crap. I should post some pictures. It's all retro goodness...

I was just washing my thrift-store found $5 Le Creuset large Dutch Oven. Sweet.

Wow, joelf - nice compasses!

I have a house full of crap too, bdave: I just got a lovely Ercol (well, probably) sideboard for free after a local school refitted their staff room for the first time in 40 years (!), me Robin Day for Hille plastic and leather bucket chair was £20, and my dearly beloved orange Eames (50s Herman Miller-made fibreglass job, oh yes!) was only £40. Not super-bargains, but comapared to antique shops, pretty good.

At jumble sales, I'm always after Pyrex Drinkups like these from the 60s/70s/80s which is a handy thing to like, as you always find loads at around 10p for a set of four.

The pleasure of finding the bargain is at least equal to owning the object. And I can't believe I just admitted to collecting fucking Drinkups.

Got an almost-brand-new mountain bike for $10 at a garage sale a couple of years ago. All I had to do was replace one of the derailleurs (sp?).

Also got an indistinguishable-from-brand-new dining table and four chairs several years ago for $150. Plenty of other things as well. It's great having parents who 1) live in a fairly well-off area, and 2) can sniff a bargain buried in a landfill at least three miles away.

Oh, and I bought a 1935 (i think) Underwood typewriter for $15 back in 1999. The idea at the time was that it was most assuredly Y2K compliant.