One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s what they say, at least. Boston-based RR Auction will find out Thursday when bidding begins on a collection of letters, checks, notes, books, invitations, and other ephemera once belonging to the late John Updike. The material, which was culled from trash outside Updike’s Beverly Farms abode by Paul Moran, includes many treasures: an address book — filled out in the author’s own hand — with contact information for the likes of Andre Dubus, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O’Brien, and V. S. Pritchett; books inscribed to Updike by Nadine Gordimer and Salman Rushdie; intimate love letters from a woman named “Joan’’; copies of the Harvard Lampoon that Updike sent to his parents during his time as president of the Lampoon; 15 floppy disks containing files of the author’s work, with labels including “Poems,’’ “Book Reviews,’’ and “Now It Can Be Told, The Black Room’’; playing cards, sunglasses, shaving brush, wristwatch, and assorted other knickknacks. Who is Moran and why did he pick through Updike’s trash? He’s a former special-needs English teacher who, along with his wife, runs a Hawaiian shave ice truck called Maui Wowee. The couple live in Derry, N.H. In 2006, Moran was riding his bicycle past Updike’s house when he saw the icon of American literature pushing a blue recycling bin to the curb. One thing led to another, and over the next two years Moran assembled the strange archive of material. (Updike died in 2009.) “I didn’t really want to do it, but I wanted to know what the whole load was going to be,’’ Moran told us Tuesday. “I’d like to see this go someplace good.’’ RR Auction estimates the collection could fetch as much $30,000.