The man who scours wealthy Shore towns for trash-picking finds

Tucker Upper, as he is known to a legion of followers, pulled his white Chevy Silverado into a spot on 29th Street in Avalon. He was looking to pick up some items — not in the Shore town’s upscale business district but among its nearly as upscale curbside castoffs.

“The trash is good around here,” said one of the Jersey Shore’s premier trash pickers, who traveled from his home in Somers Point as the drizzle let up on a recent September Sunday.

Mega beach house after mega beach house had an end-of-season sale of sorts — mattresses, dressers, lawn chairs, headboards, couches, coolers, old television sets, bikes galore, and more out for the bulk trash collection that would start the next day.

Tucker, in a black sweatshirt and orange cap with his brand/production business logo of Freedom 2 Dream, had spotted a Wilson golf bag with clubs. “I’m going to take these for sure,” he said. “A lot of people will come down, and they just need a set to play for a weekend.” He ran a finger along a wood. “These are super old looking. There’s a slim possibility one of these clubs could have value. Up close, I’m seeing this is probably trash. But people might want the bag.”

He hefted it over a shoulder.

All along the Jersey Shore, modern-day treasure hunters set out to find the resalable trove — or prosaic scrap metal — among the trash. They ride over in pickup trucks from the mainland, especially at the start and end of the season when the most desirable is likely to be out. They cruise the wealthy beach towns — Margate, Longport, Stone Harbor, Avalon, and so on — for a deal, giving a second life to detritus that would surely end up in a landfill.

Scott Barrie, 37, of Somers Point and a friend of Tucker’s, works construction in Avalon and Stone Harbor. He also keeps an eye on the curb and has found gently used surfboards, fishing poles, and once, an unopened Lego set that netted him $300, Barrie said. But, he allowed, “I’m not as hardcore as Tucker.”

Born James Graeff, the 34-year-old who grew up in Birchrunville, Pa., and Longport goes by the handle Tucker Upper on YouTube — a nickname his older brother gave him. Now, his channel has more than 220,000 subscribers and is the real moneymaker. Tucker features his popular GoPro videos of him trash picking the wealthiest Shore towns. He also clears out homes and bids on storage units, filming both, he said.

All the while, Tucker offers running commentary, even a bit of philosophizing. “Enough with consumerism,” he said on this day. “We as a race need to realize it’s never going to be sustainable to continue buying new stuff even when the old stuff is still usable.”

Some towns have ordinances against salvaging, but it appears to be seldom enforced. Avalon, however, doesn’t explicitly prohibit the practice, according to code enforcement official Paul Short.

Tucker said he has never gotten a ticket. As far as he is concerned, he is doing his bit for the planet. “It’s a good thing,” Tucker said to the skeptics out there as he picked up a Toshiba CRT TV popular with retro gamers that he figured would fetch $50 on Facebook Marketplace. “The landfills are crazy.”

Ever since he was a kid, Tucker said he had an eye for finding delight in discards. He used to enjoy his church’s thrift sale. When Tucker’s family moved to Longport, the tween would bike around to check out throwaways. Once, he found Halloween decorations. By 16, he was scrapping metal as a side hustle.

Tucker went all in when he met Sammie, now his wife of six years. “It was something we could do together,” he said. Tucker even wooed her with little trinkets he trash picked.

Sammie said she thought it was sweet. “It was like a hobby that brings him joy,” she said. They furnished their home with finds, including a decades-old, hand-crank Maytag washer that she painted teal and upcycled into a table. But that was then. Sammie said she hasn’t gone on a run in a while, now that the couple has a young child and she is reluctant to have salvaged items in their home. “We’re big germophobes,” she said.

Still, back in Avalon on 30th Street, Tucker junkernecked, as that head swivel is known among the trash-picking set. He’d seen an aqua blue cooler missing a leg, sure, but emblazoned with the “cool” message “LIFE IS GOOD. TAKE IT EASY.”

“Oh look, the leg is inside here,” he said, opening the cooler’s lid. “It’s a little bent. I could sell as is, and the person buying it will fix it. Or I can just scrap it.”

As Tucker loaded the find, Don Theune, 66, of Narberth, came racing out. “I know you,” he said. “I follow you on YouTube. I like all your stuff.” The artist proceeded to quote specific lines from recent videos.

What’s the appeal of the videos?

“Most people look down upon this stuff,” Theune said, taking in the seeming dross on the curb. “They throw everything out. He turns trash into treasure.”

Indeed. As Tucker drove by a lovely house on the bay, he spied a Celestron NexStar telescope. “This might be the craziest thing I found today,” he said, adding it to his mounting haul of beach cruisers, a flowerpot holder, and another Toshiba TV.

Later, Tucker would report that the telescope sold for $60; the cooler, for $30.

On this day, Tucker was pleased with his take.

“You never know unless you go,” he said, reciting a favorite mantra. “That’s like everything in life, too.”