I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students • Hacker News Board

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#161

Post by roadbuster » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

Undergraduate tuition at Duke starts at $65,000 USD/year. It shouldn't come at any surprise that a lot of spoiled kids who are funded by the International Bank of Mommy & Daddy are apathetic and wasteful.

From: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...

"The median family income for a Duke student is $186,700. A significant portion of Duke students, 69%, come from families in the top 20% of earners, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Additionally, only 1.6% of students come from low-income backgrounds"

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#162

Post by nyc_data_geek1 » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

This is not limited to academia. The very first computer I ever touched, came out of a dumpster where my father worked at the time. Guess they were undergoing a tech refresh, and this financial institution had some apparently rather lax media destruction policies.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#163

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:38 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #67

nancyminusone wrote: post #25

>it also feels mildly wrong to take it I never feel any guilt about taking things from the trash. About trespassing to somewhere you're not supposed to be? Sure. But if it's something that's 100% clear is in the trash and will be going to the landfill and not going to some charity reuse place or something, and I want it, I'm taking it.

It is a feeling of disgust, not guilt. You're rooting around in the trash. Humans know, or learn pretty quick, that trash is yucky.

Depends on the trash. A co-worker and I would regularly grab prototype machines out of our dumpster. Thousands of dollars of quality electromechanical hardware (motors, precision linear slides, pneumatic cylinders, mini-compressors & solenoid valves, etc.) and big sheets of 6061 aluminum for the taking. Company had to throw it out and tell us not to take back out in order to take the write off.

At one point we upgraded to having an intern standing in the dumpster throwing stuff out to us as we directed him.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#164

Post by ufmace » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:38 PM UTC

the__alchemist wrote: post #124

I wonder what we need to do to make buying and selling used items convenient. My experience has been that the bid/ask spread is too large, and liquidity too low to be practical. And if you're giving something away, no one will take it. No explanation; just observations. I want to not throw things out and buy new, but haven't found a workflow that works. (I'm in an apt building near the one listed in the article; more…

In my opinion, never mind that stuff, it's enough of a hassle just getting good quality pictures of the thing, figuring out exactly what it is and what a wild guess of a "fair" price would be, writing up some sort of description, dealing with questions and appointments from potential customers. It makes it not worth the time and bother unless you're pretty sure you can get a few hundred bucks for it. Modulo of course how rich or poor you are right now and how much free time you have etc.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#165

Post by MisterTea » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

These are people far disconnected from reality and honestly dont give a damn about anything but projecting their wealth. Why else would they spend $400 on something as mundane as slippers? They are shallow and careless.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#166

Post by arcanemachiner » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:41 PM UTC

MisterTea wrote: post #165

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

These are people far disconnected from reality and honestly dont give a damn about anything but projecting their wealth. Why else would they spend $400 on something as mundane as slippers? They are shallow and careless.

This is one possible hypothesis, yes.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#167

Post by sokka_h2otribe » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:42 PM UTC

slibhb wrote: post #159

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

> Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „gratis - zum mitnehmen“ (free to take with you) and people who want/need come and collect them. Only if anything is really unwanted, you take back and throw away. It's…

The students live on campus, so the majority of folks are getting rid of items at the same time. Different than when people live in a city and not everyone is moving at once

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#168

Post by monocasa » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:42 PM UTC

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

> First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination?

At my wife's alma mater, the way move out in the dorms worked was that you had 24hrs after your last final and then had to be gone. That didn't really leave a lot of time for a lot of people that had maybe two checked bags and a carry on to work with, and had spent the previous time focused on studying for their finals.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#169

Post by coderatlarge » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

slibhb wrote: post #159

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

> Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „gratis - zum mitnehmen“ (free to take with you) and people who want/need come and collect them. Only if anything is really unwanted, you take back and throw away. It's…

this is how i furnished my grad school apartment way back when. fellow students helped carry furniture multiple blocks away.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#170

Post by RyanOD » Tue, May 27, 2025, 9:46 PM UTC

My older brother was a student at U of Michigan. Back in the late '80s, he salvaged a blue Gibson Destroyer copy from the end of the year purge. We're both still playing guitar to this day.

When I was in college at Michigan State, the local pizza joints (Hungry Howies and Gumby's) had a "collect 10 tabs, get a free pizza" promo going on. Every Wednesday, my roommate and I went to all our dorm dumpsters and came home with 40-50 tabs. We ate free pizza all year.