[Christ]

HA! You just reminded me of a guy I know in this area... He used to pick up furniture that people threw out... and then sell it back to them, after "cleaning it up".

Goes to show exactly how persnickety some people can be... you can sell them back their own furniture, and most times, there wasn't anything wrong with it when they threw it out!

The one guy in NY that I had a problem with, he ended up being pissed because I saw value in something that he didn't. He knew, with some amount of certainty, that I would make value of his old computer, and probably end up selling it. I confirmed his belief when I answered the officer's: "What are you going to do with it?" with: "Rebuild it, a little better, and sell it for a little bit of nothing, so some kid can do his homework.. And I'm going to do it with more parts I got, probably, from this guy."

He was a little enraged by the idea that he also built computers, and found no value in something so "obsolete", but that I was willing to build garbage, with garbage, and sell it.

Other than that, I've gotten freecycle stuff, etc. as well.. I've actually used paper mache to fix stuff too... or broken glass from a liquor bottle, when something is "missing" a piece of thick glass.. The stuff is really easy to shape, if you can break out a piece that's close, you can file it down to fit.

When I used to do alot of case mods to computers and game systems, most of my acrylic sheets came from waste piles behind stores like lowes and home depot. Some of it came from people who had small pets that died, and threw out the plastic cage it was in.

In small projects, I almost never pay for material. I won't begin to fathom how much money I've saved by re-using stuff that most would consider "garbage".