I was in Spokane (about 80 miles from home) on business when I saw a barely legible Estate Sale sign on a corner. Having a little free time in my schedule I decided to take a look.
What I found was a yard completely full of stuff for sale next to a forty cubic yard dumpster. I quickly found a fishing tackle box full of old wooden lures, an apple box full of mostly Sun label 45 RPM records, a couple of quart Ziplock bags full of rhinestone jewelry and two large Roseville vases.
I waited around while the only other customer at the sale paid $10 for an armload of vintage dresses and military uniforms and then started up a conversation with the cashier.
I said “Wow, by the size of that dumpster, you must have had a lot of garbage to throw out, was this your parent’s house”? She gave me kind of a strange look and then told me the story.
The dumpster was actually in her neighbor’s driveway! The older couple that had lived there had passed away and the relatives had come to town, ordered the dumpster, and thrown virtually everything in the house away. When they were done and getting ready to leave, she had asked them if they minded if she took some of the stuff they had thrown away. They had been fine with that plan, since every pound removed from the dumpster saved them money. The garbage truck was coming the next day, so she only had about 24 hours to get what she wanted. She had gotten out enough stuff to fill her yard and then put up a couple of Estate Sale signs.
Postscript: As I was leaving she said "You know those funny looking vases you bought?" "I didn't get all the way to the bottom of the dumpster, but I must have seen at least a dozen others like them that which got broken when they threw them in". (The two I bought sold for $200 each.)