Deal of day Estate/Yard Sale

Wife and I had some personal business yesterday morning in little town 50 miles north.. So we go get our stuff done there, start head home. Wife says there is an Estate/ Yard sale just off the road on way home we could stop at.. Seen the listing on internet site She checks regular...Now my wife is what I call geographically impaired..Her idea of just off the road is like 10 miles out of the way on this one.. Kind of like when we went to Hamburg NY for NTA years back and she says.. We should take an hour or so swing over see Statue Liberty as long as we are in NY.. Right! it's just over there we'll drive over take look before lunch..She does this all time when were in car..
Anyway
We got no where need to be until later afternoon so what the heck, I take a right off highway. Actually have some what idea where we are going..Finally see sheet hanging on road sign with spray painted letters says ( SALE) >>>.. Drive another mile on town road pull into yard of old farm house..Ducks are scratching ground corn off dirt part of drive..Front yard not much grass because some critters been staked there..
Just my kind of place feel like home here LOL..Two car garage attached to the house both doors up filled with tables full of stuff.. I'm thinking O-boy wife is going to be dragging more crap home for me to trip over. Lucky Me!
I wander in quick look around really not seeing anything need or want or got to have??? Then I spy a box---ohooh what we got here???Very dust cover Garrett Ace 250 metal detector not even put together..look it over see has note says Warranty card sent 1/17/15. This thing is 6 years old. huh? All parts here..Check! Coil has just few light scratches looks like never used..No batteries in it, don't look like never was or any leaked in it..Check! head phones never been out package..Nice.
Has piece tape with what looks like $15 on it.. So ask the lady sitting there. Do you know does this thing work?? She says "I have no idea" I said "I think this price here is a $15 would you take $10?" She said yes so fast made wish I had said $5... So pay lady quick run to the jeep with my prize wait for wife. Wife finds one little basket for $1 she going put plant in...Of course I get the "I thought you didn't want to come to this sale?" "Who got the deal now?"
This Boy :-)
I already have an Ace 250 have had for many years this one is actually newer..So get it home put in some batteries. Go out in back yard and find some crap right away LOL.. Works Fine...So I got the deal of the day.. I now have another nice little loner detector. Plenty good for lots of things I do.
Thought for bit could flip it real easy...The cheapest I see them for on net now with head set is around $230.00??
Naa I'm going keep it add it to my Crap let wife trip over it :-)





Mac

She should have said free! . . . it's a Garrett! . . . J/K . . . great find! :-)

Lucky dog.
If I showed the junker I use I'd get booed off the net lol.

Sweet deal. The headphones are worth more than that.

And I paid $$$ for my Minelab.............

BIG difference between Garrett and a Minelab. :-)

Yep my underwater machine is Minelab Excalibur not sure how long even had that now. But it was not cheap machine by any means. I had Fisher 1280X before the Excal and the 1280X back then was $4-$500. Haven't looked at 1280X recently may even have gone down in price??
I originally got the first Ace 250 for my wife or kids to use on beach while I was in the river with water unit.. When people find out you have a detector their is always someone want to borrow them it seems.. When I get someone ask to borrow I hand them the Ace.



Wright
If your machine dose what you need or want it to do and works for you.. that is all that matters. Not a junker if can find what you need to find. Can't say don't have some value if works..

I just bought couple the fancy fishing magnets...Already have couple cheap one that have more than paid for them selves..Not sure these fancy one going to work any better than cheap ones.. Will see here in few days. Their still in the box right now.

Mac

I have been thinking about the Ace 250. I have an old Bounty Hunter and I know what you mean about folks wanting to borrow it. Every time I loan it out it comes back in pieces, however. Last time it came back the wires that attach to the battery were broken off and I put it in a corner and have not used it since.

Great find, Mac!

Moosetrot

Best I used was as a kid, my neighbor became a Compass dealer and
I helped him vendor at Farm Show and such.
He'd take me along detecting. There was a lot more to find in those days.
Later in life He and sons would dredge and ask to use my boat one week a year
and I gladly did.

That's why you should NEVER lend MD'ing equip out to anyone :-(

Think ya could find a piece of jewelry or two in a mess like this with an Excal ? HA! :-)

I didn't post this here last December when it happened.. Got one them phone calls from friend of my sons that knew I had detector. Knew I like challenge and was pretty good at finding things. Well versed in searching..
Talked to the lady that actually lost her ring. Was pretty sure had gone in trash also that it was probably gone for good..She was a teacher at a smaller church school..I told her if it was in the dumpster dumpster hand't been dumped.. I could probably find it just not sure how long that would take..She said she had talked to janitorial staff as soon as she realized her rings were gone. Dumpster was not dumped.
After we did find the rings she was of course ecstatic. Wanted to know how she could pay me?? I told her well you know I didn't find them your daughter did. She said yes but if you hadn't said you would come help. I would not even have looked farther..Would have given up! She then offered to pay me. I told her you know it close to Christmas..You do so much for the kids here at your school. I like to sometimes offer people I do things for a Pay It Forward..If you feel you must pay me something. Make a donation to your favorite charity or help some other stranger when you get the chance.. Pay It Forward....
She then said will you at least take a hug?? Well yes I will,, covid or no covid I will take a hug if you wish to give me one. So I got nice hug from her and her 10 year old daughter. Helped her put all the trash we had pulled out back in the dumpster. Plus the trash from the day that staff had left out so we didn't have to search that...
I told them have Merry Christmas went on my way..

Below is what I wrote at the time to go with picture I share with Family and Friends on FB..


Helped organize a successful search and recovery mission yesterday afternoon. Not my first time dumpster diving,it was my first time though going threw trash for this small of a target. Doing this was to be what I consider a treasure hunt, an adventure if you will.
Would like to say I found the rings with my skill and use of my metal detector.
It wasn't meant to be.
As we spread and I detected threw the fifth big bag of trash.
Bingo!
The daughter of the lady who lost the rings, spotted them in the pile..
Leave it to the eye's of youth.
I had a pretty good feeling we could find the rings. Being that she was very sure that the rings were most likely thrown in trash with a paper towel.. Retracing her steps for the day were very important in that revelation. Thankfully the dumpster wasn't that big so gave me a mission I figured could be completed..
With all the stress of 2020 I Was just glad I could help her out.. She thought her rings were gone forever. I figure her daughter being one found them was meant to be..



Mac

FYI - I got my Minelab from these folks.

https://www.kellycodetectors.com

They have a great selection , very knowledgeable staff. I bought mine in person at their showroom in Florida one year when I was there. Nice place , every accessory you could think of for metal detecting. Got a nice SS treasure scoop there too. Very competitive on prices too.

I recommend them.

Yeah, Kellyco has been around for awhile and good people to deal with :-)

need to get my Ace 250 out and swing a bit

Yeah I'd love to get in big beach like that day after..Be plenty fresh drops probably pick few dollar worth change easy enough.. Beaches I go on here on river can be pretty busy on warm day. They never have any where near crowd like that though. Or type folks that loose any thing to high end.. Don't find to many high end pieces on beach where people build camp fire drink Bud Light..LOL find lot Bud Light bottle caps :-)

Mac

Why are 99% of the people on the beach wearing shirts?

Nobody wants skin cancer?

Nice score Mac, my son has a 250. I have a couple different ones that I use quite often. My FIL found a $1200 minelab at a yard sale for $15 a couple years ago. I put batteries in and it worked perfectly.

That is pretty cool when you can run into something like that.. I think sometime people buy a machine thinking they are going go right out find bunch neat stuff. Make fortune??
I'm sure there are some get lucky right off.. I can't recall how much crap and just change I dug before found first gold ring. I've always paid for my machines doing mercenary work looking for lost items. People loose something in marina things like that.
But few people I think buy machine and then get bored quick and then machine gets set aside.. I find most times though at action and yard sales certain things are like buying used traps. Some people got no idea what they are worth just want them gone so their more than priced to buy.. Others seem to think they have some old great collectible so got them way over priced. My guess on this machine was maybe bought for someone older didn't get used. Kids were clearing out house just wanted things gone.
I've gotten couple deals that way but most times seems go the other way..

Mac

This ^^^^