My daughter had a a large glitzy light fitting on the [low] ceiling of her room. Walking home I noticed a plain bowl fitting in a skip and said "That's what you want!". When I turned round again she'd dived in and got it! A perfect colour match to the room as well! In the seventies I read in PW about people moving into houses and finding [in one case] a whole stack of radio items in the attic. I thought "That doesn't happen really" but some time later, I was in Liverpool and saw someone filling a skip with radio items [there was one visible on top]. It was a business that had made PA systems and they were emptying the flat/store room above. I got my friend to quickly reverse his Citroen Dyane back down the street and helped myself! There is a chance factor as Paul said but apart from checking bins and skips it also helps to 'put yourself about a bit' as they say, also where you might be living could be significant. I 've said elsewhere that a chance remark at a boring party at New Year Eve 2019 meant I was presented with a Radio someone didn't want but couldn't throw away [it was mother's]. You never know really. A chap rang once from Rawtenstall. He had some gear left over from when he'd had a small electronics company, that he didn't want to just dump. His wife was a Vet but I could never work out quite how he came to contact me
Dave