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

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

#261

Post by bigstrat2003 » Wed, May 28, 2025, 12:44 AM UTC

apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #187

SoftTalker wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is still the case for me, and has been throughout my life. I've never thought spending a lot of money on a car made any sense at all.

It's a little mind-boggling when you compare a decent $5K car to a $60K one, and realize you could have a 12-car fleet for that one car.

Is such a thing even to be had these days? I certainly own a decent $6k car, so I know it used to be possible. But I bought that car 14 years ago now, and it would surprise me if you can still get a decent car for that price after 14 years of inflation.

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

#262

Post by TuringNYC » Wed, May 28, 2025, 12:52 AM UTC

ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote: post #66

alnwlsn wrote: post #39

It's not just students. Where I live (admittedly wealthy) people throw away everything they can't be bothered to do the slightest bit of maintenance on. I have found, and made functional: - a snow blower - various weed eaters - vacuum cleaners - a generator (higher capacity than the one I already had) - a log splitter - pressure washers (nozzles usually clogged with dirt) - a chainsaw - multiple typewriters (the Sele…

A co-worker was telling about a student he knew who would never do laundry and just constantly buy new clothes while getting rid of the worn ones.

>> A co-worker was telling about a student he knew who would never do laundry and just constantly buy new clothes while getting rid of the worn ones.

I'm dating myself a little bit here, but when i started my career, we had to wear fancy pants. The pants cost ~80 and dry cleaning was ~8 -- so 10 drycleans were a new pair of pants. Thats not even considering the time-cost of drop-off/pick-up which is especially hard if you have long hours.

So I'd just do a regular wash on the pants, despite warnings that "it would ruin the pants over time." I think if I could have the pants last more than 10 washes, I was already in the green.

Even crazier was how some co-workers would have khakis dry-cleaned. Thank the Lord we now have non-iron technical pants. All my problems have gone away.

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

#263

Post by fewdaysto2025 » Wed, May 28, 2025, 12:53 AM UTC

ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote: post #66

alnwlsn wrote: post #39

It's not just students. Where I live (admittedly wealthy) people throw away everything they can't be bothered to do the slightest bit of maintenance on. I have found, and made functional: - a snow blower - various weed eaters - vacuum cleaners - a generator (higher capacity than the one I already had) - a log splitter - pressure washers (nozzles usually clogged with dirt) - a chainsaw - multiple typewriters (the Sele…

A co-worker was telling about a student he knew who would never do laundry and just constantly buy new clothes while getting rid of the worn ones.

[dead]

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

#264

Post by tmpz22 » Wed, May 28, 2025, 12:54 AM 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 „…

I've seen this phenomena at two universities. Its gross, dystopian, and eye-opening... unless you're a student who just went through a bingeful finals week and now have to move at extremely short notice.

1) Usually because they can't take it with them. A lot of students fly home, some don't have drivers license, and/or the cost to ship it third party exceeds the price of the items. It's also laziness, but I pin it mainly on practicality and cost.

2) They do, and at Santa Barbara I saw groups gathering, knowing the move-out days, to pick it up. These were migrants, homeless, and thrifty individuals. A lot of the stuff is still in its original packaging, as the parents of the student bought well intentioned but impractical gifts that never even got opened. A lot of room for better organization, but mostly folks just don't care, they're so caught up with finals and getting home that it's very far back in the list of priorities.

3) Picking through trash is a uniquely de-humanizing experience. Its one of the few things that makes me stop walking even in high-homeless areas like the Tenderloin, because I can't even imagine what it feels like to be picking through trash for items to sell, or particularly foodstuffs.

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

#265

Post by TuringNYC » Wed, May 28, 2025, 12:55 AM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #76

jrochkind1 wrote: post #35

There are more rich people in the US than when some of us middle-aged people were younger, the distribution of wealth has gotten much more uneven, while the numbers of rich have gotten larger. So, yeah, a lot more just really rich students than there used to be, rich enough to think nothing of throwing out luxury goods, finding it more convenient than doing something else with them. Then the increase of wealthy inter…

On our current trajectory, as time moves forward, you will need to be more and more rich to attend university. Even more so for universities like Duke, compared to, say, NC State or UNC.

>> On our current trajectory, as time moves forward, you will need to be more and more rich to attend university. Even more so for universities like Duke, compared to, say, NC State or UNC.

It is expected right? Our population has grown and we also have huge streams of foreign students...but the count of universities has largely been static. The class sizes are a bit bigger and the dorms accomodate more, but nowhere near in line with the demand. Naturally the prices have risen to meet the limited supply.

Not saying this is good, rather...we should be building more universities to stay in line with the general population

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

#266

Post by bigstrat2003 » Wed, May 28, 2025, 12:58 AM UTC

suzzer99 wrote: post #43

gotoeleven wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will learn to think different like everyone else.

I went through several pairs of crappy wireless headphones until I gave in and got airpods, which just work.

Wired headphones also just work, don't need to be charged, and are much cheaper. AirPods are a strict downgrade from normal wired headphones, and it is insane to me that people are willing to pay for them.

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

#267

Post by cloverich » Wed, May 28, 2025, 1:01 AM UTC

atonse wrote: post #204

monocasa wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 study…

So the solution could be top down: - give 2-3 extra days for students to move out. - maybe partner with a few moving/freight companies? you’d bring them a lot of customers and they could provide a good rate.

They dont want a bunch of students hanging around with no school and extra time on their hands. Agree its way to short, as someone that had to deal with it, but also understand the trade off they were making at the time.

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

#268

Post by disconcision » Wed, May 28, 2025, 1:08 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #241

thephyber wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College students (undergrads) aren’t full adults yet. They are transitioning from living under the protection of their parents to living on their own. Throwing away things that could be sold could be a matter of (1) frustration/exhaustion with the end of the semester, (2) no place in their car / plane luggage for extra items, (3) indifference of kids who don’t know the value of a dollar (the Ballenciaga slides are li…

> Throwing away things that could be sold could be a matter of (1) frustration/exhaustion with the end of the semester, (2) no place in their car / plane luggage for extra items, (3) indifference of kids who don’t know the value of a dollar (the Ballenciaga slides are literally the most expensive version of a slide you can buy — I usually get mine for less than $10). Or you know, them being rational actors who know s…

as a minor clarification balenciaga slides in good condition would probably be more like $100-250 used, though your point still holds

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

#269

Post by sgerenser » Wed, May 28, 2025, 1:12 AM UTC

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #194

dylan604 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why not just lower the tuition by 40%?

i wonder if universities can write off the "loss" of granting scholarships for inflated tuition rates? that said, scholarships come from all over, so if you're getting scholarships from outside the school itself, the school is getting all that money.

Nope theres no “write off”, universities generally aren’t for-profit and thus don’t pay income taxes. Even in the case of a for-profit enterprise, if a company foregoes income it’s just less income coming in, there’s no extra “write off” on top of (obviously) not paying taxes on the foregone income.

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

#270

Post by bawolff » Wed, May 28, 2025, 1:12 AM UTC

damion6 wrote: post #245

bawolff wrote: post #243

> The first tracks the prices and brands of the items that I kept, donated, or sold. The total value came to around $6,000, not including several items I couldn’t find prices for. So this person spent several days digging in trash to scavenge items that would be worth a total of $6000 new. But these aren't new. Many of these items have severe depreciation. Used slippers have poor resale value. Used leggings have poor…

You'd be surprised at what you find during moving season. Chinese students for example can't import laptops back home, plus they've had a taste of freedom and can't let them be scanned. In my spare time one summer I was making like $40 an hour with a full time job. $4000 handbag can't be travelled with, sold. Etc

Yeah, i think the most shocking thing is this person only found 6 grand replacement cost (not actual value) worth of stuff. That sounds shocking low to me.