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

indyweek.com

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

#301

Post by newccount »

The true value of these luxury goods is likely closer to that appraised by those undergrads than by the author - i.e trash. Literally billions of dollars of unsold inventory are burnt and destroyed by Luxury brands to avoid marking them down to their correct market value. Cartier's parent company alone destroyed "400 million GBP" of watches in 2 years[1]. Why would you destroy billions of dollars of merchandise if they were actually worth that. I went down the rabbit hole recently after the LVMH tiktok scandal, and given the nature of modern supply chains and mass manufacturing, i believe the bulk of luxury clothing and accessories are likely made in Asia ( China, Bangladesh ) and Eastern Europe. Then they use various techniques to obfuscate the country-of-origin. I cant shake off the impression that the luxury goods market is mostly smoke and mirrors of artificial scarcity, paid celebrity endorsements and potemkin factories.

[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/18/richemont-d...

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

#303

Post by elzbardico »

lostmsu wrote: post #57
saulrh wrote: post #31

Works even if you're not in a college town. I once pulled a $4000 set of speakers out of my building's trash room - Boston Dynamics floor speakers, Polk Audio subwoofer - and I was just in a random apartment building in the bay area. Turned out the tweeter on one of the speakers needed replacing but that was like a $40 part on eBay and ten minutes of work with a screwdriver, didn't even need a soldering iron. You can…

> Turned out the tweeter on one of the speakers needed replacing How much time it took to figure that out, and what is the chance the thing would turn out unsalvageable?

Lots of defects in speakers are actually serviceable for a reasonable cost. For high-end speakers, I think it is worth trying.

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

#304

Post by elzbardico »

ted_dunning wrote: post #78
dfxm12 wrote: post #72

I get leaving tables behind, but why so much shoes/clothes? I used to live near an Ivy league school and this was a thing there too, but it was all furniture. People weren't throwing things away that fit in a carry on (unless they were knock-offs, I guess)!

Your last sentence is the answer. These kids are buying so much it won't fit into a carry on. Americans buy, on average, over 50 items of clothing per year. Older people buy less, younger people buy more. The result is too big to carry. "Omnia mea mecum porto" is from a very long time ago.

And the funny thing is that for all that money they are usually terribly badly dressed. Thousand dollar outfits that make you look like a clown.

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

#305

Post by anal_reactor »

distances wrote: post #293
anal_reactor wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 24hrs after your last fina Generous. When I was taking part in student exchange I had to be gone from the dorms a week before one of my finals.

How does that even work, you just travel back for the exam? I could stay I think up to 12 months after graduating. And it was entirely up to you when you wanted to graduate after fulfilling the criteria. I myself took the papers half a year after finishing my master's thesis, and then left the student apartment half a year after that.

> How does that even work, you just travel back for the exam?

No clue. I had a boyfriend at the time, so I stayed at his place. Other people did similar things. Or just slept on the sofa in the common area, while the students who stayed in the dorms would let them in through the main door.

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

#306

Post by ap11071 »

I once helped clean up after a festival in the UK—a relatively small venue that hosted around 10,000 people. It was incredible to see £450 tents, used for just three nights, simply abandoned. Among the most surprising finds were £300 Rab sleeping bags still in their original packaging (apparently the weather had been too warm to need them) and cash scattered across tent floors. Walking through the aftermath felt like browsing an outdoor gear store virtually anything you could want was there, barely used after just three days.

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

#307

Post by ghaff »

dafelst wrote: post #240
pembrook wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it’s a “solution” to a nonexistent problem. The vast majority of stuff people own sits unused for decades but gets moved around to whatever home you’re living in out of irrational loss aversion. This is human, and fine. But I’m 100% certain this author is grossly overestimating the value of the junk they believe they are “saving” and how much of it they will actually use. This is the rationalizing of a budding ho…

The problem here is that a good amount of perfectly serviceable items went into the trash instead of being donated. That is just straight up wasteful.

I have a bunch of stuff that someone might want (or probably more realistically think they want) but there is a very real limit to how much effort and time I'm going to put into connecting to that someone.

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

#308

Post by ghaff »

cardamomo wrote: post #224
atonse wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Better yet, offer to store a reasonable amount of students' belongings over the summer. My college offered this my first couple years but stopped by the time I graduated in 2010.

Yes, we had summer storage undergrad for dorms. Still put too much energy and effort into moving stuff around. In a more digitized world, I like to think there would be less paper etc. and I maybe wouldn't even have a big stereo system.

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

#309

Post by horsawlarway »

pembrook wrote: post #292
dafelst wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here is that a good amount of perfectly serviceable items went into the trash instead of being donated. That is just straight up wasteful.

What's more wasteful, throwing away mass produced items that still have 50% of their life left that you won't actually use (but are rationalizing that you will because 'free')? Or heating a 4,000 sq foot home for 60 years to store said items in unused piles and then having your children eventually throw those items away anyways when you die? Realistically it's going to be 1 of those 2 scenarios.

This is the rationalization that I've used successfully before.

Every item takes space, and space costs money. Space often costs quite a bit of money. If I'm paying $2000/m for a 750sqft apartment (not unreasonable for many metros), then every square foot costs me ~$3/month minimum (often quite a bit more because I also have to heat, clean, and organize it as well).

How many months of storage does it take to mean you're literally losing money by keeping an item?

For old shoes? Not that many... if you haven't worn a pair of shoes in a few years, you've likely spent more than $100 storing it.

For bad furniture? Not that many... it takes a lot of space. That crappy couch no one wants to sit on anymore can be costing you almost $100/month.

For that old bag you overpaid on and don't even like that much? Now you're just lighting more money on fire for every month you hang onto it.

---

Mentally shifting the equation to a more realistic "opportunity cost" model for items is healthy. Posts like the top level article are, respectfully, a chock of bullshit. Those kids might have messed up when they originally overpaid for a luxury item, but I don't believe for a heartbeat they're messing up when they choose to let it go.

Go work in a place that takes donations, and you'll quickly see they do exactly the same calculus. Goodwill might take your whole bag of donations, but they will absolutely throw 70%+ of it away right off the bat.

They can't afford to try to reuse your crappy stuff for months, quietly losing money storing it.

The nicer consignment shops won't even pretend - they'll just flat out refuse to accept most of your junk. It's not even worth sorting through.

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

#310

Post by horsawlarway »

dafelst wrote: post #240
pembrook wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it’s a “solution” to a nonexistent problem. The vast majority of stuff people own sits unused for decades but gets moved around to whatever home you’re living in out of irrational loss aversion. This is human, and fine. But I’m 100% certain this author is grossly overestimating the value of the junk they believe they are “saving” and how much of it they will actually use. This is the rationalizing of a budding ho…

The problem here is that a good amount of perfectly serviceable items went into the trash instead of being donated. That is just straight up wasteful.

Go volunteer at an organization that will accept this stuff as donations.

I think you're going to be in for a shock... 2/3rds of the donations go right in the trash (they will optimistically call it salvage/recycling).

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