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The Death of Electronic Surplus (hackaday.com)
szczys writes: For hardware developers, electronic surplus stores feel like being a kid in a candy shop. It's hard to walk down an aisle packed floor to ceiling with bins of seemingly-random components without feeling giddy. The wind down of domestic manufacturing, paired with the rise of online parts retailers (think eBay) has led to the shuttering of most electronic surplus shops. But a few of the best are still around. Brandon Dunson takes us on a nostalgic trip through surplus history and a tour of his local electronic surplus store. He brings it home with the saddest part of the trend: the loss of surplus means a loss of culture. Electronic flea markets and surplus stores are a nexus point of talented and interesting people. As they go, so does the opportunity to interact in person with the gurus of electronic development.
So that's what I was wondering... this part:
Electronic flea markets and surplus stores are a nexus point of talented and interesting people. As they go, so does the opportunity to interact in person with the gurus of electronic development.
...seems to be a role now filled by maker spaces. When I went to the local mini maker faire earlier this year, there were plenty of talented and interesting people doing fun projects with electronics.
The old swap meet is no more. That went back to the days when it was held in the Heathkit warehouse parking lot. I do miss wandering the meet in the early hours of the morning getting good used items.
Just recently the last of the big surplus parts stores closed. I remember getting parts for my Commodore 64 from them, bought my first PC from them (A Compaq Desk Pro), Heck I bought a couple of CPM systems from them in the day. They just had a big going out of business sale and closed the doors. It was a loss as I used to wander there isles and get component parts, power supplies, and other jewels. Heck, many of the parts for my 3d printer came from there shelves.
I do miss the old surplus parts stores, guess there was not enough business to keep them going.
Radio Shack used to sell these mystery boxes for $9.99 back in the early 1980's. My friend and I bought about three or four boxes each. Each one had brand new electronic components like resistors, capacitors, diodes, ICs, LEDs, gears and motors. Completely random, mostly useless stuff.
We run an electronics recycling company which is about 20% reuse and 80% scrap recycling. Whenever we set aside vintage and antiques for posterity we face a bickering match with state environmental staff who say we are "speculatively accumulating waste". We show the throughput, that it's 97% of incoming tonnage is either recycled or sold for reuse, but after 15 years the antiques take more floorspace. IBM 85XX PS/2 monochrome CRT monitors, which I was drowning in my first years in business, now sell as collectors items on ebay for $150... my main regret is I didn't "speculatively accumulate" a greater percentage than I did.
Gently reply
ITAR export restrictions have killed the likes of Boeing Surplus. I bought the main honeycomb aluminum panel in used in the AWACs strut at per pound scrap prices. And for other items, its been 10 a dozen years, but I remember haunting the Akiabara and finding boatloads of TV components going back to tubes. I also remember buying core memory arrays from Cascade Surplus in Portland. So much is lost....
FWIW, in the south bay, there are really only HSC/Halted and Anchor, although if you just need some "old-crap" you might find it with a trip over to Weird-stuff.
Fry's doesn't really sell much any more, and the other stores in the area are more akin to electronic "toy" stores than electronic parts stores (kind of like what radio shack used to be). I think that's more a *maker* influence they don't sell electronics any more.
When I was a video game tester (1998-2004), I used to regale the fresh out of high school younglings by informing them that video games existed long before they were born. I would introduced them to a tester who tested and fixed arcade machines back in the 1980's. Another tester who tested pen-and-paper and board games in the 1970's, many of which became inspirations for computer games. And my modest contributions to history was playing Pong when it first came out in the mid-1970's and the primitive consoles in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
The big chunky electronic parts are still around. The Internet is your friend in rediscovering your lost childhood. Here are some links to get started.
http://www.jameco.com/
http://www.555-timer-circuits.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog
the age of fat transistors is long gone
You can still get more or less any through-hole parts you want, you just may have to jump through some hoops to get them.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Surplus has changed, but it still exists in manufacturing areas. But it's not the type of surplus store you used to see. The HuaQiangBei area in Shenzen is the new surplus store. It's primarily rolls of SM tech that is suitable for Pick and Place equipment. Because that's where the manufacturing is at. The surplus around Shenzen is actually really cool.
With miniaturization, and on-demand prototyping, the need for companies to have surplus enthusiast level stuff is way down. You do electronic layout, send it to a low volume prototyping company and they will then send it back to you in a few days/weeks. Even those prototyping stores will only surplus unusual items, with standard items being shared across different customers.
The prototyping with with non-SMT is getting kind of rare. Hell, I have seen anyone even consider Wirewrap. These days a lot of prototyping is built around microcontroller and sample boards for ASICs. And the glue between the logic boards are a few resistors or capacitors.
"Electronic flea markets and surplus stores are a nexus point of talented and interesting people."
Interesting? A polite way to suggest 'eccentric' at best and more likely 'anti social' or possibly criminally insane. The 'talent' is most likely used for planting spy devices at the house of the girl next door, blowing up his high school or electrocuting cats. Bathing and brushing not spoken here.
So I'm an old guy. Older than you. I had my fun and still visit a couple surplus stores. The nearest one is run by a mean old fart who doesn't really want to sell his stuff. But you can have the nostalgia. I like what's happening now in electronics, communication and bioengineering. I look forward to the future and don't dwell on the past. Let's create new stuff that will captivate the 'talented and interesting people' of the future.
...omphaloskepsis often...
I visited a Radio Shack store in Washington back in 2000. It seemed an old store full of junk in a corner of an arcade mall. The staff did not even acknowledge my presence. Once I heard them telling to the customer they needed their ID to make the sell, I left.
http://www.sciplus.com/p/surpr...
Like you said, random stuff, although about half was purely mechanical (bearings, shafts, etc).