what a dumpster outside brings.

What I learned is that you cannot have a dumpster out front and dudes working without neighborhood people stopping by. You have dudes looking for day labor, scrappers looking for metal, guys looking for antiques, etc.

At one point we had like 10 people in the house including:

Ron - Black Cowyboy scrapper. He lived across the street and would take things that we were going to throw away and sell them. He would pretend he was giving them to friends, as if we didnt know that people might want to buy a TV. Ron was around for a few days and helped out a good amount in exchange for junk and scrap. Ron always seemed to be a bit disoriented, getting turned around in the house and not remembering which way the stairs were. Ron almost causes crashes each time he pulls out of his driveway.

John - John is a 53 year old grandfather of 15. He has 1 eye and an eye patch. You think this might slow him down, but if you offer him 50 dollars to clean out the nastiest basement on earth, you will be amazed. The man knows how to stack stuff in a dumpster so there are no air gaps, and has apparently been in "the industry" for longer than I have been alive. That is either depressing or impressive. John put in two good days work, and if I owned a company doing this, I would hire him. Its sad to think that he is my dad's age and willing to work for daily cash pay.

Dennis - 50 something black dude with HUGE dreadlocks. He comes looking for scrap, but immediately finds some junk that he will flea market. We offer it to him at "a fair price," and when he is done he tries leaving without paying. He totally shorts us and acts like he is getting ripped off.

Little Man and Dave - Dave drives by and asks if we have scrap. I tell him yes, but there are 3 others looking for it, and the first to show up, gets it. He comes back 10 minutes later with "little man." Little man is a 40 something year old black midget. He is there to help haul scrap, but apparently cant carry too much. They work together and only take the big stuff. They take most of the stuff from the attic, but stop short of it all because they are tired from walking the stairs. After I walked the stairs like 500 times in a day, I wanted to ask if they were seriously that tired after 3 trips.

Super gay antique dude - This guy walks in and drops "I work for SO AND SO... you need to call us anytime you get place like this so we can check the antiques" I have never heard of the woman and was like "sure dude." At which point my brother remembers his future children's college fund and starts schmoozing with the guy. Apparently his job is to drive around and buy antiques for some billionaire, whose name my brother did recognize. The gay dude had super huge safety glasses on with prescription lenses. Not the army type, but the type you would wear if you were welding or something.

Tyrone - Tyrone lived behind me for a year with his now wife. They are a cool couple and we have a bunch of friends in common. Ty is a 3rd generation scrapper/junkman/fleamarkeer. Tyrone knows the going value of just about any junk, has books of names of artists that could be worth money, and also has a pickup truck. I gave him tons of stuff for 25 - 50% of what he will sell it for. It worked out well for both of us, because I was going to throw most of it away anyhow.

Tyrone's dad - 2nd generation junk guy that mostly deals in antiques now. He knew each piece of junk and how much it was worth, where it was made and how old it was. It was kind of like an antique roadshow of 100 dollar 50 year old furniture. He also knows a person that wants to buy each thing and each thing that he doesnt take. This brings in Charlie and Jimmy.

Charlie and Jimmy were a couple of dudes that we called on Tyrone's dad's recommendation. Jimmy was just paid help, and was totally drunk. Jimmy also knew Ron, the black cowboy, despite the fact that they are like 10 neighborhoods away from eachother. Charlie walked around looking at everything that I DIDNT want to sell to him. He kept asking about the mantles and fixtures, which were going to stay. They took an antique C curve rolltop desk for 30 bucks.

Awesome.