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Great Surplus Stores?
An old friend of mine, Todd San Martin, passed on a link to me of a great surplus place in Orlando that has lots of old nasa gear and more, and it made me think that it's probably time to talk about great surplus shops again. Not just the aforementioned skycraft or the well known Weird Stuff , although feel free to dicuss those too, but I thought it would make a cool post as a jumping off point for people to talk about their favorite shops especially those near aerospace facilities, both online and off.
This place has everything an electronics nut could want. And more.
Not sure if they have an online presence. It wouldn't matter. Most of the fun is going there and scouring through the thousands of bins full of assorted electronic components. Whenever I've needed parts for any electronic project I have never failed to find the parts at Active Surplus.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Goodwill Computerworks has great stuff. No website though.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
They are the first place I look for mechanical or electronic parts, speaker wire, or just to browse through bizarre military surplus.
If they don't know what something is, they'll just make something up and sell it off cheap. A very fun surplus store. I strongly reccomend it if you are in the area.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
http://www.meci.com/ You want a generator? They got that. You want a Xerox Star? They've had 'em. You want an AT&T unix workstation from god knows when? They got 'em. Need 10Kv capacitors? Sure! Need a freezer? No, no, I mean a WALK IN FREEZER! They GOT THAT? Mannequin parts? THAT TOO!
I am dictator^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H beloved leader of a Middle Eastern country, and am sick and tired of the damn Shi'ites rebelling. I'm looking for a place where I can find reasonably priced SCUD missiles a small amount of Nerve Gas (Sarin would do nicely), and possilbly a small nuclear reactor with which I could power my underground bunker - just in case the US decides I'm next. Any suggestions?
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for those in Silicon Valley, halted specialties co (HSC) http://www.halted.com is a great place. It beats buying fans online where shipping is outrageous, and you can buy resistors individually.
Disclaimer: I did not RTFA.
Around where I live the state holds an auction every week. You can get some great hardware if you're a geek there. Older AIX mainframes, SPARC-III's, etc.
I bought 12 Pentium-2's there for $50 total (no monitors). Also bought a bunch of Cisco 2501s on the cheap there as well (I think they went for 1/pop, no one else bid on them).
Basic procedure was:
Show up, see equipment, submit a sealed bid, get contacted within a day, go pay, go pick up your hardware.
If you live in a state capitol here in the US of A, check to see if they have auctions. If they do, go there, greatest thing next to sliced bread.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
If you are near Chicago or Milwalkee, check out American Science & Surplus for all of your unneeded science surplus stuff.
I have been to the Chicago store and wandered around for a good couple of hours. I need to get to the smaller store near Fermilab (although I have heard it is not as big)
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
... is about the only electronics surplus outfit in the Seattle area, as far as I'm aware.
In fact, Vetco is about the only decent electronic-component reseller of any kind around here, now that Future-Active Electronics has wisely decided that only Canadians are interested in buying electronic parts.
The last time I was in Vetco, they were planning to expand their overall component inventory greatly to pick up some of the slack from the former Active Electronics store just up the road. Go buy some stuff from them now so they don't vanish too!
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Go to Computer Surplus Science (not positive about the last word), located in the industrial district.
They have literally thousands of computers of all types..from old Commodores to 1.5 GHz machines, all at 40% or less of retail price. I got the Dell Inspiron 8100 that I am using right now for a mere $800, and this was when 8100s were top of the line. Believe me, they're niiiice.
As much as RadioShack sucks, if you know how to shop them, they will devalue most of their products to ridiculously low amounts at a steady pace. When I used to work there, we would on slow days, check the "devalued list" and find everything that has been devalued below 99 cents. These could all be products which had at one time been very expensive, upwards of hundreds of dollars. Eventually they make it down to the 99, 49 and even 0 cents range. (At 0, we would only have to check them out, pay nothing and take it home with us) Rarely would this produce anything really useful, but we got some interesting things, usually in surplus (a box of 50 old leather cell phone pouches that still kinda fit our modern cells for 1 cent each, originally 69.99) , various universal remotes for 49 cents each. We even found a couple old analog cell phones for 99c. My friend got a box of 50 mini butane torches for 0 cents each! Note: good luck finding a way to do this in store, but stuff used to appear on the website occasionally as "web specials"
99, 49 and 0 cents - almost what radioshack merchandise is worth
Dig in the trash behind the computer science and engineering buildings of a local university. You will find a lot of good stuff that can still be useful. I was able to pick up a large hunk of copper and some ibm model m keyboards just last week.
Its free.
Boeing surplus in Kent, Washington.
a il /
You can get anything from an outdated computer to slightly used machine tools to airline seats to chunks of titanium.
http://www.boeing.com/assocproducts/surplus/ret
I think HSC Electronic Supply is fairly well known around here, they mostly sell electronic components, but they have a lot of other stuff too.
I always check there first when I need a new computer power supply or keyboard, or if I want a card that doesn't need to be the newest. I dunno if it'd be worth it if I had to go through mail-order tho.
Addy for the interested is:
10805 Central Ave NE,
Albuquerque, NM
87123-2727
There's another surplus store a few doors down that I haven't been in yet (hey, stop throwing things at me), but seems to be better kept up. Judging from experience in now closed surplus places, well kept-up means that their prices are higher and they have less interesting stuff.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Furniture, computers, magazines, video tapes (all blanked, I think, with some funny labels), tools, miscellaneous electronics that I couldn't identify, bulk materials... Fun browsing.
No Laughing Allowed!
When I was in college, I hit the MSU Salvage Yard (Located here) every couple of weeks.
I've seen everything from (lots of ) lab equipment, to a PDP-11, to the old clock from the campus belltower, to whole pallets of workstations for sale there over the years.
I still try to swing by there a couple of times a year, to see if there is anything really really cool lying around.
While it may be a long trip for many people, check with large schools near you to see if they have public sales of stuff that was lying around.
But, this is the first thing that came to mind. http://www.surplusrifle.com . They themselves don't actually sell rifles, but have provided me with a lot of fun information about old WWII and earlier rifles that are still available.
I'm really geeked really, because I picked up in a 1946 M44 Soviet rifle last weekend. Unissued... never been fired. The weapon's been around for 56 years wrapped up in paper and passed around but never actually handled, cleaned, and fired. I'm geeked... really geeked. I've taken it apart a few times, cleaned greasy goop out of it for about 6 hours, and just totally enjoyed the whole process. I'm hoping this weekend, weather permitting, I'll get to take it out and finally test the thing out.
I tell ya what... I got that thing home, tore the wax paper protection and twine off it, then the underlying paper wrap, rubbed a cloth over it to get some extra grease off and was amazed. Here is an unfired Soviet weapon with a hammer and sicle on it. It's almost like finding a PDP-11 at a gargage sale to me... that had never been used. Granted, an unused PDP-11 doesn't exist; but it's almost that "neat" to me. Fifty six years sitting in a storage bin and I'll be the first human being to fire it.. how neat and geeky is that?
I can pull it apart and inspect the workmanship that went into it so long ago. The engineering that has gone into making it over the yers before it's actual production... the circumstances that lead to it's creation and it's reason for being stuck in a bin for so long. Totally geeky to me.
Granted, I'm going to use it to punch holes in inatimate objects rather than try and make a Beowulf cluster out of them... but it's still a huge amount of fun.
Gateway Electronics (not the moo moo store) here in San Diego has an excellent treasure trove of older electronics and parts. Really cool stuff!
Here in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, there are a few cool surplus places around. My favorite happens to be Ax-Man. They have a lot of total crap, but they also manage to have a lot of neat electrical stuff too. A lot of that is also crap, but there is enough cool stuff floating around to make an EE major like me think up some cool ideas :)
* RealDolls
You'll only get one from a geek who gets married. Sometimes not even then. Not Surplus
* Commodore 64s
Make nice web servers. Not surplus.
* Brain Transplants
There could never be enough to provide governments with brains - sorry. Not surplus.
* Bending Unit
Hey, my unit "bends", and the wife likes it that way. Most definately not surplus.
* Condoms
Well, maybe some of the geeks around here have those.
* Beer
???? Surplus beer? Never. I'm Canadian.
* Slashdot Coders
OK. Slashdot "Speel Chekers", duplicate catchers and editors who catch dupes are needed, not more
coders - I'll give you that one. But I doubt they're very interesting, so maybe not.
* Windows NT 3.5.1 Licenses
There was, as far as I'm concerned, a surplus once production of those things went above zero units. Interesting? Nope.
Hmmmm - 1 for 8. You need to improve big time, bud.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
WeirdStuff used to be good back when it was owned by the original owner. After he passed away, the store went downhill. Recently they tried selling a Commodore 64 to me for $50 as is and refused to test it. Ran to the local Salvation Army and grabbed a working one for $10 and that included the disk drive as well. WeirdStuff doesn't seem to sell anything useful unless you have a need for flakey monitors, Sun Workstations/Macs, Pentium/486 class PCs, or obscure computer parts. Don't expect to pay surplus prices for them though unless you participate in one of their auctions.
If you are in northern New Mexico the classic is Ed Grothus' Black Hole, aka Los Alamos Sales Co which is overflowing with surplus crap from Los Alamos National Lab. Links and pics here:k -hole/w ord.html ?pg=5
http://www.wps.com/about-WPS/personal/blac
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.04/e
and LANL itself has a great surplus sale once a month on the third thursday, or it was at least when I worked there.
Some prices are good, but other prices are ridiculous. I picked up an old HP Netserver this afternoon for $30, and they are currently selling on eBay for a few hundred dollars. By the same token, they had SGI O2's for $500 which can be had cheaper from other places. If you were big time into reselling surplus stuff you could take advantages of palents of DEC Alphas for $50!
From memory, when I was 16... close to 10 years ago:
- capacitors the size of pint glasses
- a wall of "building block" chips, like you'd play with in 1000-level electronics classes.. at really cheap rates
- mini-switches by the handful
- random keypads, with or without protruding cable
- a wall of magnets, ranging from magnetized-paperclip strength to "do not operate near pacemakers"
- Oscilloscopes clearly designed for use by squid or other multi-tentacled beasts
and racks and racks of things which, to this day, I don't think I could identify. My brother and I spent hours there dreaming up the things we wanted to build. Which, I suppose, is the sign of a good geek.
Anyone know of a place like this in the DC area?
These guys have a constantly moving stock of computer hardware and technology from up to 20 years back. One such piece that they have on display (unknown as to if it's for sale) is an ancient 16" 5MB IBM HD. They also have ancient Sun systems, servers, server racks, and a ton of miscelleneous hardware that one could spend a lifetime decyphering the usage of. It's in Tukwila, on Andover Park West, just a block south of Southcenter Mall.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
My two favorites are Surplus Stuff in Sacramento and Mike Quinn's in San Leandro. I've been trading at Mike Quinn's since 1972. It is an icon of East Bay electronics. Mike Quinn passed away about 20 years ago, but the torch has been carried by his daughter and Jay. About a month ago Jay sold me a 1hp 3-phase motor, brand new, for my lathe. Cost - $10. Retail price - $288.00.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Here at the University of Utah they have the "Property Redistribution" bullding, aka 'Surplus'. They sell everything remaindered by the university, usually really old; They've had every manner of medical electronics, musical instruments, computers and office furniture -- even cars )if you don't mind Ford Tauruses and Chevy Luminas). Right now they have a Sun 690MP and SGI Iris up for bid.
I've bought at least 500 bucks a crap fromt eh in teh alst two years: 3 Powermacs, 1 laptop, 2 monitors, 2 hubs and an SGI Multilink adpater (for $10 bucks that I sold on eBay for $300).
I've heard similar stories about UCLA, Oregon State and Texas A Basically, the universities strongest curiculae will have surplus from that, and for the UofU it's medical and computers.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
I haven't been there in about four years and at the time Ed Groethus, the owner, didn't seem to be in such great health, but I think the place is still there.
The Black Whole near Los Alamos, NM is quite a site. Most of the surplus stuff is from the nearby national lab. The place has been there maybe 40 years and is filled with crazy nuclear related stuff. Ed Groethus, the guy that owns the place seems to be very fond of much of his junk, so it can be tricky to get him to part with the good stuff.
Everyone calls the place "The Black Hole", but I think the real name is something more boring like "Los Alamos Salvage". It's definitely worth the trip if you're within 500 miles and are mesmerized by bits of shiny metal.
jeff
SkyCrap is indeed a fun place. They always have what looks like a row of ancient disk cabinets lined up out front, and a huge bin of useless popcorn boards just inside the door. Their capacitor aisle is really scary, I'm sure it would be useful for those backyard railgun projects. I mostly find myself there when I need some weird connector or a length of cable cut. Ony my last visit I picked up some case fans, and considerably cheaper than I could have any place that sells them as PC hardware.
Java: the COBOL of the new millenium.
Back in the day, I used to go to Collins Surplus in Cedar Rapids. This is the Collins that makes aircraft avionics and a bunch of radio-related products. I remember they had stacks of HP o-scopes from floor to ceiling, and you could always find some oddwad prototype (or pieces thereof) in the parts bins.
Just junk food for thought...
I moved from Kissimmee, FL to Alpharetta, GA a little over a hear ago, and the one thing I miss the most -- being an electronics geek as well as a computer geek -- is Skycraft (linked in the summary). That place kicks butt.
;)
I found many things there that I haven't been able to find anywhere since. RF transistors, various ICs, and even neat little LCD displays (50 cents each!) that I used in a couple MP3-player projects (via parallel port)...
I so miss that place. The poor guy at the Kissimmee Radio Shack who told me about that place doesn't understand the amount of business he lost from me
NGWave - Fast Sound Editor for Windows
Active Surplus is great for motors and random electronics bits and pieces, but their computer-related product selection leaves a bit to be desired. If you're looking for computer stuff, you might want to check Above All Electronics at Bloor and Bathurst (on Bloor, north side, slightly west of Honest Ed's). A lot more computer-related stuff there. They had a pile of gutted 486-era laptops and laptop displays the last time I checked - great fun! :)
- Ed.
While not necessarily Surplus, they do normally have alot of strange stuff turn up (including a puppet/costume used to make the movie Labyrinth). They normally have thousands of CD's, tons of clothing, lots and lots of camera equipment, camping stuff, random computer stuff (got a IBM3725 terminal there for $5 couple years back, and a 24port cabletron management switch for $90) and other junk. I usually go by there a couple times a year just to see what turns up.
TM
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
At the risk of blowing one's own horn, I have listings of Bay Area (California) and Puget Sound region surplus stores and swap meets at this link. There's also links to other resources.
Enjoy!
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
There *used* to be a whole street of them along Canal, of which the kings were Canal Surplus, presided over by the friendly and way-overinformed Stan, and Space Metal. ...
Of the once mighty twenty or so, only Industrial Plastics, which isn't really surplus, is left. Down on Chambers ( few blocks south) there used to be Alexander's Hardware, largest, cheapest, and sometimes best of them all for mech gear.
Tell ya, though, I'm selling off everything I ever bought at those places this very month, from steppers to 1/4 horsepower to gears, to screws and bolts, to tiny Japanese demon faces. Anybody want to buy the stock of an entire prototyping lab cheap better contact me now. The drill press is already spoken for, as are the three milk crates of SCSI and monitor cables, the bags of glass tubes, the fine rod stock,
The times, they are a changin.
Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
anything even REMOTELY similar in Vancouver?
One place comes to mind... Cal's Computer Warehouse on the north side of Grandview Highway west of Costco and east of Superstore. Open late 7 days per week. Wacky place. Some new product but mostly surplus and used. Hardware and software by the scoopful. NICs, audio cards, cables, adaptors, and monitors galore. I picked up a bunch of Wyse 60s there once (they dozens to sift through) for a team of programmers' serial debug terminals. Prices are so-so, but they've been willing to haggle. There's also an old microcomputer museum in the back with some treasures that aren't for sale. Check it out.
SFU used to have science & tech equipment auctions once in a while. UBC might also.
Alas, the Bloomington store is no more - I went there recently and there was just a hole in the ground. I guess my evil Teddy Ruxpin automaton finally took over the store, drilled a hole in space-time and destroyed it.
You can see some of my (admittedly crummy :) handiwork at the St. Paul or Fridley store - just look for the display with the dozen car speakers attached to a metal screen.
The nice thing about Ax-man surplus is that you can find other things there too; marbles, wooden blocks, plastic bits, nuts and bolts, baby doll heads, stepper motors, flat files, chrome trash cans, prom dresses, tons of laboratory glassware, aluminum stock, rollerblade wheels, nylon washers and blocks, remote control car starters, 500 gallon tanks, and really nice employees who are always full of suggestions for your project/halloween costume/plans for world domination.
I worked there for 2 plus years, and have yet to have a job that challenged my brain and body like Ax-man. It's like a museum where the gift shop is all around you. If you are in the cities, it's a must see! Say hi to David and Bill :)
The GPS in your car (that the dealer installed to know where it is should he have to have it repo'd) will tell the authorities that you stopped at the surplus store. The minitature ID tags in the used bio-hazard suit you carried out the door will synchronize with the digital video captured as you cleared the register and your face is on file as we speak. They're everywhere...o h m y g o d! ! !
What makes you think eBay has a corner on the big-brother market. If you fear black helicopters, you're not safe anywhere.
I didn't and wouldn't recommend eBay. They ripped me off with a c'card scam that took 6 months to settle, and then only because the bank helped...eBay ignored me. I simply tried to point out that things like we used to find in back rooms and storage units are more likely to be found online. It is clear that my use of eBay as a general example was far too specific for your present disposition (AC's are like that, I know...). eBay frouqad and google tracking is another issue for another day.
Building 19 (and all its fractional branches scattered throughout the Boston area) would sell the most bizaar stuff - mostly insurance salvage. When the windows started popping out of the John Hancock tower in Boston and crashing to the street below, they would be replaced with 4x8 sheets of plywood. After a while, the Hancock tower looked like it had some kind of plywood pox. Eventually it was found that the windows were not up to spec and all needed to be replaced. Shortly thereafter, Bldg 19 advertised 4x8 glass table tops. They weren't allowed to say where they got the plate glass, but they did say it would look much better as your dining room table than a sheet of plywood. That was 12 or 15 years ago, but I still laugh my ass off when I think about it.
Forget www.eli.com, in Cambridge, MA (Boston) -- while it was good when I was a kid and went ther ein 1982, it sucks now. I live in the area and let me tell you, what they charge for their overage sparc 20s and old crap just isn't worth it. Not even close. I know they do a lot of business mail order these days, maybe that explains the horrible attitude. When ever you try to get someone there to ask a question it is like pulling teeth. On top of that, they sell stuff as new that doesn't work. These guys are cheeseballs, I don't know how they stay in business sell Sparcstation 10s for $120. Twenty years ago, this was the tech mecca of mass, but now they suck, and not just a little bit. I hope they go out of business.
Distel was always the place to go. About twice a year I'd trudge over to them and see what they had. Mind you that was 15+ years ago and they're still going strong.
It's called the Country Boy Store. In the Kentucky countryside off of I-24 between Paducah KY and Clarksville TN. 40mm antiaircraft gun out front. Their facility is essentially three old barns and the remains of a real old country store, all kind of nailed together. Inside, lots of old military surplus, shirts, hats, BDU's, etc. Plus an enormous stockpile of guns and ammo. I've seen Uzi's, AR-15's, every conceiveable pistol, Lugers, etc. Old grizzled characters in overalls run the place. Lately they've come up with a lot of old surplus furniture and computer gear (Fort Campbell army post is just down the road). If you've ever wondered what a KY army surplus store should be like, this is the place.
There are quite a few surplus places in the SF Bay area, some better then others. Weirdstuff and HSC are not my favorites. Both are rather overpriced and really tend to cherrypick equipment. I'd highly recommend Mike Quinn's Electronics in San Leandro. Find stories about the creation of the IMSAI 8080 and you'll find Quinn's mentioned. Have to dig to find the treasures of course. Sharon Industries in San Jose is decent if he's open. Excess Solutions leans more towards components but really who know what you'll find. There are a couple swapmeets. The Foothill College one is the best for electronics. When I last went to the Livermore one it had a high concentration of fleamarket crap. Check out This Link for links to more surplus places in the Bay Area and also links to other surplus lists.
I've been going to "Freddie's" (Active Surplus for the uninitiated) since I was about 5. I'm now 28. Freddie was one of a big handful of electronics surplus stores in the late 70's/early 80's on what is now a *much* different Queen St. West strip. The earliest computer stores in Toronto were all on Queen St, from McCaul (by the City TV building) to Bathurst, about a kilometer over.
Freddie always (and still does) specialized in surplus junk, but the store used to be divided half-and-half with a double-door sized entranceway between them. One half, resistors, capacitors, all neatly sorted in cardboard bins (as they are today), and random electronic type junk. The other half, power tools, sheetmetal stuff, mechanical junk of all sorts. Nowadays it's mostly resistors, caps, discreet parts, and bizarre job lots of strange old electronic throwaways. You think it's interesting now? Try a quarter century ago!
Anyways, along with Freddie, there was Jackson, who I only knew as such (my Dad would know his full name, I was like 5-10 yrs old), who had a huge shop on McCaul St, a bit bigger than the electronics side of Freddies, but more oriented to complete bits of electronic junk, rather than discreet parts. He closed down late 80's if I recall, and I think he's somewhere in Vancouver now.
Electronics surplus wasn't the only game in Toronto in the 70's though. My Dad was one of the first people to bring in Apple ][+ clone motherboards, with an outfit called Aftek, which was on Queen more towards the Bathurst side. Nazir, the character behind Aftek, had his guys physically trace an Apple motherboard, with pencil and tracing paper, and with parts from Active Surplus, Dad and I soldered the chip sockets and resistors by hand in our basement.
I was still in the single digits at the time, and even before that, at 4 1/2, we had built a ZX81 kit which was bought from Active Electronics (not Active Surplus), about 10 doors east of Freddies.
That whole stretch of Queen was the introduction of personal computers to Toronto, and probably in a large way, to Canada. From East to West, Active Electronics, "Joe", who ran Perfect Electronics (I think it was called that... it's still there, but it's now a PC white-box and accessory shop), Active Surplus, albeit slightly changed but with the same guys behind the counter, Aftek, long gone although Nazir is still a friend of the family and still in computers, and then "Albert's", or "Supremetronics". He was at the corner of Spadina and Queen, and stuck it out for the longest time, I think he was nearly 70 when he closed up shop a few years ago.
I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of all this... I was so young it's all blurry memories and urban legends to me now.
There's no more hand-soldering of basement-etched cloned motherboards, but that stretch of Queen St., and a bunch of guys who *loved* collecting junk (you should see my Dad's garage and basement!), and had a real passion for these "new computer things", introduced a big city to a big industry.
They were the pioneers of gadgetry in Toronto, and a big bunch of idols and friends in my childhood.
Pasadena:
Marvac electronics: www.marvac.com
CandH Surplus: aaaim.com/CandH/index.htm
Van Nuys:
www.allcorp.com
All three have good paper catalogs too.
I am the lone locust of the Apocalypse, think of me when you look to the night sky. -Zorak
If you buy chemicals, exotic electronics, avionics, biotech equipment, centrifuges, radio controlled airplanes, HAZMAT suits, welding tanks, or even a pallet load of aluminum tubes, you are raising flags by doing something "out of the ordinary".
I would be EXTREMELY surprised if the CIA, NSA, and FBI all were NOT automatically trolling the listings and keeping list of who was bidding on unusual items. ("Carnivore" sound familiar?) Its just too easy to do these days and you don't need Ebay's help or permission to do that. Its freely available information to collect and data-mine. A central data base containing a good percentage of the uncommon/unusual purchases people have made within the US and abroad. Its very easy to build profiles of people by what they buy and sell.
These agencies would be TOTALLY STUPID not to do so in the name of "homeland security". I would not be surprised if they even plant particular items to see who's interested, afterall its perfectly legal to re-sell "government surplus"!
I think people do have a reason to worry about that. Its uncomfortable to do business if "big brother" is looking over your shoulder. So yes, you DO need to wear a "tin foil hat" figuratively speaking and be careful about how you conduct yourself and what you buy, or else you might find it necessary to explain yourself to some large men in black suits one day. It stifles creativity, ingenuity, and freedom.
Wierd stuff used to put a sticker on things saying "This is guarenteed not to work, if it does work you are welcome to return it for one that doesn't?"
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
Check out http://www.drms.dla.mil/newsales/ for information on US Dept of Defense surplus sales. In my former life in the military, I used to go to the surplus warehouse regularly to look for electronics. You could get a pallet of ~3 year old PCs for under $100 sometimes, and if you open these babies up, sometimes you will find some nice upgrade parts in them (large, newer harddrives, memory, etc...). One time I bid on a sale lot of office equipment ( I wanted a couple of filing cabinets). I won the bid for under $150...but then I realized I needed a full sized UHaul to move all the stuff. Had to have my own surplus sale after I got all that stuff (mostly desks and cabinets) to my house.
guys! There's more to fun than just electronics, real surplus stores also got military surplus. Geez I had so much fun at the old real army/navy stores used to be around. When I was a kid you'd go in one they had freeking bazookas hanging on the wall and torpedoes hanging from the ceiling and carried REAL STUFF. Oh man it was neat, I bet 3/4's of the stuff now is politically incorrect. sigh. Oh well, the better ones:
here's some larger ones with online presence:
http://www.majorsurplusnsurvival.com/
check this one out, some amazing stuff
http://www.colemans.com/
Now this isn't a surplus place, but it's pretty spiffy. Catalog that carries Xtreme low tech but functional devices, thing geek stuff for the amish, too cool, check it out
http://www.lehmans.com/
There used to be and might still exist an atlanta area electronics and stuff surplus stores called "Peachtree Salvage", they used to have several stores, I looked on google but didn't find a link that looked good, and it's been a few years since I have been to one,or atlanta for that matter, but if they still exist they had tons of odd stuff
1946 M44 Soviet rifles? They are a dime-a-dozen. Either N.I.W. (gun speak for New In Wrap) or used. Honestly. I've spotted slightly used models for $49.95 at local gun shows.
Bolt action surplus rifles tend not to be priced too high on the "desirable" lists. Of course you can see rare Mausers and such going for the occasional mega-buck but the Military bolt action rifles of the past two World Wars were manufactured in their millions. It takes a lot more than just N.I.W condition to command higher prices (unsual stampings/markings, rare modifications etc).
cheers
front
Anybody know if anything exists..
This is no time for a philosophical discussion! We're talking surplus stores here....
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Dunno where they get their stuff from but they've been there for 20+ years and have some very cool (and odd) stuff.
It is quite simple
Haiku should not be funny
Try a Senryu
In Chicago, I've found nothing that beats American Science and Surplus and you can order online now too! Not only do they have cheap surplus parts and scavenged 'junk,' but they carry a lot of new chemistry equipment and supplies, all sorts of glass lab products, telescopes, etc. It's a goofy store to describe, but when I need something, it's easy for me to figure out if they'll have the type of thing I need.
I once found a couple 12VDC fans there for like $4, then went next door to radio shack and found the SAME FANS for $12. Can't go wrong with that!
I have been going there for over thirty years and I've noted a few things that people new to the store should be aware of to make their experience a positive one:
- Go there often - at least once a month. Make sure the guys behind the counter know your face by asking not stupid questions. A "not stupid" question is "Where can I find geared motors?", not "what does a resistor do?". They don't expect their customers to know everything, but there is a certain basic level of knowledge and intelligence expected before somebody can walk in the doors.
- As part of the previous point, accept that everything there is "ASIS" unless they tell you otherwise. Asking what "ASIS" means will get an explanation geared for somebody with an IQ less than 50 that is delivered at a LOUD volume with questions afterward to make sure you understand what you have been told. Nothing pisses them off more than somebody bringing back an old cassette drive transport, demanding their money back because a pinion gear is missing inside it. They'll generally let (and help) you test stuff if it's reasonable to do and there isn't a huge lineup at the counter.
- Don't ask complex questions between 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM. A "complex" question is anything that requires an answer longer than "Aisle 2". This is their busiest time and if they're answering your questions they're not taking in money and that pisses them off.
- If you're buying something and you have people behind you, have your money/cards ready. Watching you fumble with your wallet pisses them off.
- If you are looking for something and they don't seem to have it, ask when they'll have it in. There's always a good chance that it's upstairs or they're expecting a shipment sometime in the future.
- Despite what they tell you, they're always getting in new stock. If you see something you like, but the only ones they have are incomplete or apparently damaged DON'T BUY IT! - they'll probably have more in stock in a few weeks or they'll pull more down from upstairs when the current stock is sold.
- Learn Polish, Ukrainian or Russian. At the very least it's entertaining to listen to what they think about their customers (I caught them saying that they wished a certain customer, who was no better than a misbegotten dog (literal Ukrainian translation), and all their descendents would be hit by a bright bolt of lighting. This is a mighty powerful curse.)
The simple rule is, don't piss them off.myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Computer Recyclers, 163 MacFarlane Road off Marivale. (613)723-3135
Not even in the same league as Active Surplus in Toronto, but not too shabby either. Lots of neat old corperate stuff, cheap U racks, steppers, power supplies, etc.
When I was growing up, this was The Place.
They're still around -- http://aaaim.com/CandH/
I live a ways away now, so I haven't been for a long time. But back when we were assembling computers by hand (S100 type stuff, and tricking out our TRS-80s), you could get great stuff there. Then in college, when I needed stepper motors, they were there for me.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
Check out http://www.drms.dla.mil/newsales/ for information on US Dept of Defense surplus sales.
;-)
I'm really glad that they have FSC 8810 - I always wanted to buy an army surplus cow!!!
Seriously, though, it is a really good site. I just wish I could save enough pennies to buy something in the FSC 1810 catagory.
"Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative" - Miyamoto Musashi
I think that goes for OS's too
Check out the GSA Auctions site. Lots of surplus Government property. It varies from literal junk, a la "Sandford and Sons," to valuable presidential gifts inluding jewelry and art. A few years ago, the Coast Guard cutter featured in the "Perfect Storm" was sold on GSAAuctions
-no signature is good enough