A friend of mine was moving and he gave me a crate full of mtb parts, said he was ging to throw it away. I am looking at the boxes, ready to ship, of about 250$ worth of his stuff. Probably split the money with him, it was about 400$.
My first road bike a few years ago was found by my brother in law in the garbage near Boston. Gave it to me with new tires for xmas and I've been riding ever since. Cannondale with 105 parts, still using brake levers on another bike.
I am now a regular at a local bike shop dumpster: free old tires and tubes! people get new tires and tubes and the store guys get free or cheap new ones, so they throw them out.
I live where there is no middle class, and people have gear, regardless of class, and they get new gear. this provides a good supply of thrift store/yardsale/garbage items that can go straight to ebay and make me money.