Why do people go hunting in skips

[YouFo666]

But don't you have to go on other peoples property to get to the skip ?

 

Nope !! skip's are mainly dropped off the property so as to cause as little damage as possible, plus most skip wagons cannot get down drives etc because of plants and trees and the width of the driveway..

[YouFo666]

A few years ago i was delivering some work to a company in doncaster and the company had a skip in there yard and as i was waiting to be unloaded i went and stood next to it to have a quick fag lol and was just having alook inside as you do as im abit nosey lol and there was a realy old round small table in it and i just really liked the look of it i ask to owner if i could have it and after some funny looks he said ok . Anyway 2 weeks later i sold the table to a friend that did auctions and i got just shy of £1500 for it so just goes to show that another mans junk is another man gold ha ha

 

Nice one Jay. I have had Hundreds of pounds back from what loonies have decided is not useful anymore or de rigeur .. Plant pots !! If you dont want cash in yer pocket then it's going in mine.. Will try and post a link to the table I found... OOOOH it's a big booger..

[poppins]

Nope !! skip's are mainly dropped off the property so as to cause as little damage as possible, plus most skip wagons cannot get down drives etc because of plants and trees and the width of the driveway..

 

 

Thanks, but also don't you have to be quite tall to even look into a skip, let alone pull something out..... the ones I've seen you need a ladder to see whats in

[Dozy]

I am one of those skip-rats. Here's why I do it :

 

1. I have a wood burning stove and skips are a good source of free fuel

 

2. It's a good idea to fix and re-use things, not stick them in landfill.

 

3. It helps the person who owns the skip out by making more room for other stuff.

 

I always ask the owner of the skip before taking anything and people have *always* been glad for me to take stuff out of their skips.

 

Here's some of the things I've had out of skips recently, apart from the wood.

 

Hornby 1920's Tin Train Set - sold on Ebay for £120.00

 

Dining Chairs - Use them in our spare room

 

21 Speed Dawes Mountain Bike - Used daily - Just needed new tyres to make it work. (They retail at around £120-200)

 

Children's annuals from about 1910 - was going to sell on Ebay but they're too nice to sell.

 

Various videos, terminator, alien etc.

 

Brass Door Knobs - replaced some of my 1970's door handles with them.

 

A fellow skip-rat friend of mine recently found and Ebayed a complete playground set

 

People seem to be obsessed with buying new stuff and throwing out perfectly good items. This kind of culture is not sustainable and in 50 years time people will probably be astonished that we didn't "make do and mend"

 

As well as the skip-diving I also buy and repair stuff from Ebay then re-sell it, it's a much more eco-friendly thing to do and everyone wins - the buyer gets a good bargain (e.g. a working laptop for £40), the seller gets rid of something that they consider junk and I make a bit of of money as the middleman. Anyone over the age of about 40 will probably remember repair shops - in those days if something broke you didn't just chuck it out, you took it to a repair shop and got it fixed.

 

Spot on! I usually have a look through skips to see if there's anything useful. When it comes to getting rid of stuff, I'll ask friends if they want it and, if I have no takers, I put it on Sheffield Freegle.

 

I was brought up poor, and still don't like to see stuff thrown away if it can be used by someone else. It just seems wrong.

[alex3659]

People go on about recycling, Isn't this just that?

People who throw stuff away but begrudge it anyone else make me sick.

I would much rather someone got some use out of something I didn't want than it get buried in a landfill.

Before anyone asks, no I haven't done it myself but wouldn't mind anyone else making use of anything I had thrown away into a skip.

[Glennis]

taking stuff from skips is illegal

 

I didn't know that. If I see plant pots or containers to plant up for the garden, I usually take them.

[Number Six]

I agree that it's better for someone to have something and use it than to bury it. Our kitchen radio /CD player came from the tip - there was I putting old milk containers in the plastics skip, and next to me is a Panasonic stereo in the electrics one. I went in my bottles bag and in my boot - works perfectly.

 

Years ago a friend and I took tried to take some granite stones from a tip for a building project but we were stopped - apparently it was better for it to be buried and more granite mined for his extension, so the operative said. A fiver changed his mind, which until then had been firmly against the idea of it being recycled.

[swaroberts]

The problem is we don’t have mechanics ,engineers and electricians that can mend things any more we just have "fitters" .

That and the fact that companies design and price stuff so that it's uneconomical to fix. This is a deliberate policy by companies so that they can make more sales. A typical case in point is LCD TVs. You can buy a 32in LCD TV for £299 if you look around, but if you cracked the screen and wanted to just repair instead of buy a whole new TV then you'd be looking at around £400 just for the screen.

 

As long as people put up with this kind of pricing then we'll keep on throwing away stuff that's could be easily fixed. Prices of electrical goods generally make no sense at all. A case in point would be IPod sync cables. Apple sell them for around 15-18 quid but you can pick up exactly the same cable from Poundland. How can there be a 1800% difference in price?

 

(Oh and I'm just waiting for a poster to ask how much those cables are at poundland )

[Number Six]

Apple sell them for around 15-18 quid but you can pick up exactly the same cable from Poundland. How can there be a 1800% difference in price?

 

(Oh and I'm just waiting for a poster to ask how much those cables are at poundland )

 

No need - they can work backwards from the percentage difference.

[Grandad.Malky]

. Prices of electrical goods generally make no sense at all.

 

The power socket on my Laptop was loose and rather than messing about with the warranty I made some enquires at PC world I would have been better buying a new one.

 

So warranty it was then, no Laptop for a couple of weeks until Toshiba got it fixed for me.