Back in the 80s a chum of mine was in the habit of walking from tube to office via the back streets rather than down the main drag. Once, behind the back of Lillywhite's, I think it was, he found a stack of Rossignol skis piled up against the bins. He toddled in the back door and asked if they were rubbish too. "Yeah, they were the England Winter Olympics team's, they're finished with them." So he snaffled them: they were top of the range and still in very good condition, some of them hardly used. He made quite a bit from selling them.