Free stuff where people just wanted to get rid of things.

A few that spring to mind: - A Roland D-5 Synthesizer in excellent condition and including manuals -- $5 - A Yamaha QX-5 Digital Sequence Recorder (for the synth) in excellent condition and including manual -- $5 - A pair of Elan cross-country skis, including a pair of aluminum poles, all in excellent condition -- $4 - A Linksys Wireless-G router with SpeedBooster -- FREE

I collect Art Deco make up compacts and have found a few at car boot sales,i spotted a small black coty compact and bought it for £2.00 and i knew it was worth £30.00.

I will probably never know. I've gotten some very lovely things at Thrift Stores and the Salvation Army Store..I have a great Lazy Susan which is obviously made by someone and not a production line..I have a beautiful vase which I got for a buck which has the date and initials of the person who made it..maybe I've got some old, important and valuable stuff..like one sees all the time on Antiques Roadshow! Don't I wish! :)

I found an old (powerful!) daisy BB handgun at a garage sale for $5. I still use it to this day and enjoy it.

I found a Dr. Seuss stuffed toy backpack, with the tags on it, in the twenty-five cent bin at Goodwill. I sold it on eBay for $26!

In The Flyer, a free advertisement magazine, I scooped up a 100 year old modified Baby Grand upright piano for a hundred bucks. It stank like smoke, but after I got it cleaned up it made my house look beautiful! Now I just have to learn how to play the thing.

I got a scanner for my computer....still in the box with the packing slip...had never been used for $7.17

First of all, I collect antique books, so I was overjoyed to find an 1855 book on making etchings that was labeled "Monroe Girls Grammar school" for one dollar in perfect condition. I also found a tiny embossed envelop with a little flower painted on it tucked on the inside too. Nothing inside though.

perfect cocktail dress for 2.99 hell yea

i bought a purse at a thrift store and later found a dollar in a pocket of the purse...the purse cost a dollar..

4 NES games for $12.

The best deal I got was a couch and chair for a dollar a piece!

I got a 300 gallon aquarium for free, all I had to do was haul it away. The guy even helped me load it on my pickup.

I found a box full of old wooden spinning wheel thread spindles. Picked up a box of sixteen for sixteen dollars, thinking they'd make cute candle holders - which they do, by the way. Turns out they're worth about forty - fifty bucks a piece!!! Flea market shopping Guide: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/809939/flea_market_shopping_guide.html?cat=46 LOVE FLEA MARKETS!

I got a bunch of old wooden spinning wheel spools. I thought they'd make cute candle holders - which they do, by the way. Picked up a box of sixteen for sixteen dollars. Turns out they're worthy forty to fifty bucks a piece!! Flea Market Bargains: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/809939/flea_market_shopping_guide.html?cat=46

I bought a coleman camp stove at vallue village (thrift store) for $10 and it was mint. It was the cadillac model and I know that the basic camp stove sells for about $80 new. I also found a 3 battery mag light at the same store for $2 one time. It's a separate topic but people tend to give me things for free. I mean I've been given 2 free cars and a free snowmachine by 3 different people. The stuff always needs to be fixed and I think people would rather just give it to me because they know I can fix it.

A beer mug with the Beavis and Butthead logo etched into it. Best thing I ever bought.:)

40's Queen Anne style overstuffed couch in near perfect shape (had been in someone's summer cabin) paid $125 worth $1500

antique china. It is Washington Monument, 24 ct. gold on it. It has George and Martha Washington on it.

Does eBay count? I stalked a seller's auctions for months on a particular lot they had trouble selling. Eventually they dumped the lot. Money is made when you *buy* an item, not when you sell it. Case in point: this situation. The seller I mention above made an ill-informed purchase of a bunch of servers form a company going busto. $50 a piece sounded like a good deal to them, apparently. They were old pieces of crap tho, and nobody wanted to pay the $250 to freight-ship the lot...let alone another $50+ times 34 pieces on a couple pallets! I watched the individual pieces fail in auctions time and time again.....heck, they'd list the things starting at $10 and nobody would bid. They'd list one here and there starting at $1 + $5 local pickup fee (or $35 shipping lol)...I won one of those and made an offer on the lot. They declined because they paid more than that for them. Oh well....I didn't care...I waited. It took a couple months, but they finally realized they couldn't sell them the way they were marketing them. I knew I could...I just needed their inventory...but at a lower cost. They sold their whole 2-pallet lot for about $268...which kinda pissed me off cause I was willing to pay $300 at that time but fucked up and missed placing my last minute bid by 5 minutes.....I snost, I lost. Low and behold, that buyer had sticker shock on the freight cost and renigged on the deal. 3 weeks later the exact same lot was relisted......at $1 starting bid, no reserve. The owner realized they made a bad purchase and was simply clearing out inventory. I won that auction for $68!!!!!!! (remember I was willing to pay $300 for the same lot). I split it 50-50 w/ a co-worker and we each took one pallet for $34....17 servers each. Yeah, the servers were old pieces of shit...but they came with rail kits. Rails for those servers (and the 7 other models the same rails would also work on) were actually worth $65 a set......TIMES 17 (plus times another 17 for my friend). I got paid around a grand to ship some rail kits and chunk the rest of the servers into the dumpster. Not bad for $34. My money was made when I purchased the items...I could have fucked up 6 ways to Sunday and STILL gotten my $34 "investment" back. We make our money on the *purchase* of assets, not their sale. Make good purchases and the profits just happen (to varying degrees based on marketing and other factors but still...)

Was driving past a yard sale when I noticed a lamp that matched one I owned. The old woman had a 5 dollar price tag on it..I couldnt do it..The thing was worth around 4 thousand at the time..I had to tell her..and I bought it for 3 thousand..LOL :)

Trek 930.....$90.

I found a Lord and Taylor leather jacket (perfect) $5.00.

My brother found the bargain of a lifetime at a yard sale, but he was too nice to take advantage of their mistake. There was a box on a table marked "25 cents each". It held various articles that could be found in any families "junk drawer". As he was digging through the box he found a framed coin collection. It had every coin from some year in the 1800's. It included a $20 gold piece. He took it to the lady who was having the sale and asked her if she really intended to sell the collection for 25 cents. She was really grateful to him for pointing out her oversight.

Last weekend I was digging through a box of purses. I saw a Coach bag and bought it for 50 cents! That's a $300 or more purse! It was in great shape. I ran out of there quick before anyone else realized it was worth more.

i bought gta4 for £5.00 of ebay after i lost with bids of £15.00 on over 4 times

The latest one was a Trogdor T-shirt for $2.50. My best bargain I ever bought was a radio that I purchased for $17 and I saw the exact same one for $125.

a 25 cent book that had a $20 wedged in the pages

I purchased a vase at the Goodwill Thrift Store for $9.95 .. researched it and found out it was worth over $950 !! I sold it for $800 !!! +5