Trash Treasures

Trash Treasures

Nick DiMola, owner of DiMola Bros in Queens, N.Y., shows off his extensive collection of valuables he has rescued from garbage pickups.

How long have you been in the waste industry? I have loved garbage since I was a kid. I always liked finding something and selling it to someone else. I used to go around to newspaper stands when that day’s papers were going into the garbage, take them and sell them for 25 cents to people waiting for the train. I was always fascinated with flipping garbage over to make money. As I got older, it turned into more of a hobby. Everything that I take from the garbage tells a story. It’s not like just finding a window and thinking that someday you are going to use it for your house. It’s stuffed toys, old appliances, old phones, old stereo systems, old vending machines, ice skates, lights from the roof of a taxi cab, model airplanes, gas engines, etc. Over the years from collecting so many items, I have kind of a museum on display in my shop. When somebody walks into my office, it’s like going into a time capsule. There is stuff on every inch of the ceiling and shelves. I have items dating back to the 1800s and I collect them up to the 1970s. Anything over that decade is “too new.” I like a lot of stuff from the 1930s and 1940s. They made things that last.

What is your process of finding these treasures? Most of my jobs are residential, whether an owner is selling a house or an abandoned property and their lawyer says, “Hey, we need to clean out the basement or garage.” We go down in there and begin clearing out the spaces. I’m the guy that finds things that have been buried for the last 50 years. I have an eye for anything that is interesting — from old milk bottles to oil bottles with funnel necks. Items like this are getting harder to find, but some rubbish removal jobs lead to an abundance of collectible items, making it worth the hunt.

How many treasures have you collected since you started? Thousands. I have at least 1,000 items in my office alone. Small, big; every item tells a story. If you walk into my office, it’s unbelievable. It looks like an antique store, but I don’t sell anything. It is my personal collection. To others, it’s junk; to me, it’s gold.

What was the first thing that you collected out of the garbage? When I was a kid, down the street from where I lived, there was a factory that manufactured washers and dryers. They had they four-wheel dolly on a steel frame with a T-handle that turned the front wheels made of steel and hard rubber. I got it out of the garbage when they were throwing it away and converted it into my own go-cart with a car seat on the top and a toolbox on the back. I used it to pick up scrap metal and bring them to the scrapyard in my dolly.

What is your favorite item that you’ve collected? I have so many of them, but I have this one windup toy dump truck from the 1950s. It’s 100 percent original, faded, and it’s got scratches on it. But I love it because it’s spring loaded, so when you push the little lever down to make the dump body go up, it makes a dump truck noise at the same time. I found it in somebody’s attic in a house cleanup.

What the most valuable item that you have collected? I have a lot of coins. I have old war paper money from 1922 Berlin, Germany, that’s signed by a high-ranking officer and still sealed. I guess it was made to give to the soldiers but never made it there. I also have a 1942 BU Navy torpedo launcher stopwatch that’s signed—it was used to detonate torpedoes.

I have a 1969 Rothschild red wine bottle (a 1959 bottle is valued at $16,000). Although the wine went bad, just the bottle alone is worth $1,000. If that bottle were in perfect condition, it would be worth $6,500.

Just recently, I found an 1897 original program for General Grant’s tomb in Manhattan in the garbage. It’s a paper document, looks like a brochure. I started researching it and there’s only one in existence in the New York City archives. There aren’t any others in any museums including Grant’s Museum. Sotheby’s is going to appraise it and confirm that it’s an original and a garbage company is going to donate it to Grant’s Museum in Manhattan.

You have a blog at http://WeLoveGarbage.wordpress.com. What kind of things do you discuss on it? I post things that I find strictly in the garbage—the items that I am saving. It could be an oil can, a pen, anything interesting. For example, I recently found an inkwell pen in a doctor’s office. It is made of marble and uses a 14-karat gold tip. At first glance, you might think it’s just a regular inkwell pen, but the tip is made of 14k gold, and was something someone actually used in the 19th century. Little things like that—that’s history.

How long will you continue to look for unique items in your pickups? Until the day I retire. Even if I was a millionaire I couldn’t give up the garbage business because just the excitement of going through 50 to 60 years of indoor garbage piles indoors is priceless. You never know what you’re going to find. It’s always a treasure hunt. We love garbage!

To read Nick’s blog and see more treasures he finds each week, visit http://welovegarbage.wordpress.com. Dimola Bros is an interior demolition and rubbish removal service based in Queens, NYC that works on residential houses to Manhattan commercial space. For more information, call (718) 326-6969 or visit www.dimolabros.com to see more than 750 photo galleries of completed jobs.

Sidebar

Some Items Collected

• Stuffed Toys

• Old Appliances

• Old Phones

• Old Stereo Systems

• Old Vending Machines (including Coke and Pepsi, Hershey Candy Bar, Detergent and a Wall-Mounted Cigarette Machine that was in a subway station)

• Ice Skates

• Taxi Cab Roof Lights

• Model Airplanes

• Old Oil Cans

• Gas Engines

• Wooden Coca-Cola Crates with Bottles

• Old Signs including: Cigar, Coca-Cola, Real Estate, Deli Counter, Church, War, Credit Card, Traffic, Fill-up 66, Concrete, Spark Plugs, Oil Fill-up, Cigarette, Ice Cream, Store, Police Department, Pepsi-Cola, Street and School (that says 10 miles per hour)

• Hubcaps

• Light Fixtures

• Scales

• Toy Dump Trucks

• Clothes Rack

• Handles from a Subway Train

• Military Rifles

• Bayonets

• Bugles

• Radios

• Thermometers

• Gas Pumps

• Old TVs

• Browning Cameras

• Original Etch-A-Sketch

• War Helmets

• Beer Taps

• 1926 Coca-Cola Syrup Barrel

• Original Admiral TV Remote Clicker

• Old Beer Trays

• 1939 World Fair Bags, Hats, Records, Pictures, Cameras, Black and White Photos, Souvenir Books, Match Covers, Glass Bottles, Spoons

• A 1939 Yearbook that Indicates the Year of the World’s Fair

• Black and White War Photos

• Black and While Photo Albums

• Old Tools

• Ice Handles

• Horns

• Old Liquor Bottles

• Mechanics Garage Sign

• Dad’s Root Beer Thermometer

• Old Automobiles

• Old Coins and Paper Money

• Artwork

• Newspaper

• 1950s Toy Tractor Trailer

• 1920s Gynecologist’s Chair (made a porcelain, chrome and a mohair seat)

• Drive-In Movie Theater Speaker Set

• 1960s Mini Bike

• Air Pump from a Gas Station

• License Plates Dating Back to 1914

• Antique Fire Extinguishers

• Shoe Size Measuring Tool

• Candy Corsages

• TVs

• Soldiers Boots

• New World War II Jackets

• 1940s Trench coat from the Police Department

• 1952 Sanitation Department Jacket and Hat

• Presidential Buttons and Pins

• Hand Blown Glass

• Jukeboxes

• Wooden and Lionel Trains

• Old Movie Projector