h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One night my friends and I went scavenging in a skip at the local computer company!! We lifted up our freind who then clmbed into the skip and sorted out all the interseting looking stuff. We filled three car boots with 'booty' (sorry for the pun) and then headed for home. In total we recoverd nothing useful but we did find some funny looking ancient computer monitors. In all it was a good night out..... well sort of. One final note, skip scavenging is not to be confused with bin diving, the pass time of tramps and other unsavouir people as oposed to drunk students who jump in skips and look for computers.......

I thought this was the hitch hikers guide, not the thieving gypsy bastards guide.

Here in Guernsey we have no gypsies that I have come across. How many sea-going caravans have you come across? We also have minimal unemployment. If you leave a skip full of reasonably useful stuff in the street it is usually still there in the morning. If you leave it in our equivalent of a council estate it has not only been emptied, but refilled, emptied, refilled, emptied....

better theiving gypsy bastards than bigoted scum...............

For real riches set the bin on fire and while the proletariat is panicking, steal the copper wiring from their pretentious abodes

Universities are a great place to look... though of course there's often three thousand like minded students about. I've recovered some extremely nice conference room chairs before, soft leather chairs, etc, desks, etc.
The principle behind this, for most corporations and universities, is that if you've got a whole load of slightly used furniture then it's cheaper and a lot quicker to hire a skip and dump it all, than to employ somebody to find homes for it all.
The same principle applies to computer equipment, especially seeing as a lot of companies like to have the most up-to-date equipment possible, and so dispose of the last batch when they get the new.
Sometimes you may even find corporate secrets on the hard drives... excellent for blackmail.
My brother once found an extremely nice silicon graphics workstation. Unfortunately it didn't have any memory, and the memory for those things is extortionately expensive. Oh yes and it did turn out to be stolen.

All in all, I think this is an excellent article for an improvished hitch hiker seeking to view the delights of the galaxy on less than 30 Altairan dollars a day. Or whatever it was.

Marvels of the universe for less than 60. Close, though.
Everything would be so much nicer if cleaning companies offered an inexpensive service for washing mattresses that have been soaked in ratty water and sprinkled with masonry dust. There might even be resale value for such items. Even if you're not after anything, remember to check discarded white goods for small, trapped children when passing skips.
I tried to put a Wombles reference into this article when sub-editing it but it was removed. I'll have to put it here instead. Underground, overground etc.

I wondered what happened to Lord Lucan. Didnt think he would be living in a caravan though. Get a sense of humour for Christams mateyboy.

Is there much money to be had in small children that have been 'conditioned' in discarded white goods then?

Do they attract a higher premium than, say, the ones you find dancing aimlessly around in supermarket car parks trying to throw themselves under every passing car?

I would like to know what the exact legal situation is with skip scavaging.I have just seen three second hand doors in a skip and I think I'll have them away on Sunday is this illegal. I often see things in a skip that I could do with although them does not seem the done thing to take them although its a good way of picking up something for free.