It's really easy to do. We have 8 million people in NYC and many of them just throw good stuff out. Especially in Soho, Financial District and Midtown. Many clothing stores throw out unsellable clothes rather than liquidate them. Some businesses throw out display cases, restaurant equipment, bar equipment, plasma tv's, computers, laptops, etc etc. Find out through the sanitation department on what days they do runs to pick up stuff like this. Usually it's a once a month thing and each part of the city is done on a different day. Just the other day I found a 50" plasma screen in the trash. While i didnt check it out to see if it worked, it was heavy and i couldnt get it in a taxi so I left it there. But even if it didn't work you could have sold it for parts which is a few hundred anyway. So next time you are walking through the streets of NYC keep your eyes peeled. You never know when someones trash might actually be a treasure.