Electronics Surplus Shop 'WeirdStuff Warehouse' Is Closing (fastcompany.com)

Fast Company's harrymcc writes: When technological goods are no longer of use to anyone in Silicon Valley, they end up in the WeirdStuff Warehouse -- where, it turns out, there often is someone willing to pay for them. Sadly, the 32-year-old Sunnyvale store is closing forever on Sunday. I paid a final visit and, as usual, felt like I could rummage through this vast storehouse of obsolete gadgets and software forever. WeirdStuff first made an appearance on Slashdot in 2003 when editor chrisd asked Slashdotters about their favorite surplus stores. Also mentioned was Skycraft.

Comments

Re:You fucked yourselves

[alexru]

What are you talking about? They sold recycled junk. That place was cool as a museum, but not much.

Not as interesting as it once was

[erice]

In the 1990's they had a larger store across from the Sunnyvale Fry's of that time. The expected computer gear was mixed in seldom seen industrial devices. I remember walking in and finding an electron microscope for sale. I bought a logic analyser there that must have been a dozen years old when I bought it yet was still capable for contemporary designs. I shudder to think what it must have cost when new.

The more recent location is remote from everything. It isn't a place you can drop in and look around because you happened to be next door. Once there, it is just computer gear, very little of which is interesting.

Re:Not as interesting as it once was

[Bruce Perens]

Surplus places come and go, and obviously eBay has taken a lot of business. I'll miss Weird Stuff, where I actually bought evidence for Google's defense in Oracle v. Google - copies of Sun software that cloned other companies APIs. HSC will probably close if nobody wants to buy it. And that is close to the end for Silicon Valley surplus.

I enjoyed a visit to Skycraft when I was in Florida for Hamcation and the Falcon 9 Heavy launch. Mendolson's in Dayton is also worth seeing, make time for that and the Air Force Museum if you go to Hamvention.

But the one I'll never forget was a little hole in the wall on Long Island called Community Electronics. Went there on the bus from Lido Beach before I had a driver's license. There was always a story that Tom, the proprietor, actually supported the company from some entirely different business activity that you weren't supposed to ask about. We also had Barry electronics and Edlie.

Re:You fucked yourselves

[ShanghaiBill]

The big difference is not people shopping online, but the change in technology. Computers used to have hackable buses, parallel ports that were basically just pins on a TTL chip, and serial ports that were easy to bit-bang. You could go to Weirdstuff and buy some weird stuff that you could actually rig up to your Linux or DOS box and get working.

Today, I am afraid to even open the case on my Macbook. I need a microscope to see the traces on the PCB. Everything is BGA.

I still have my oscilloscope and a reflow oven, but haven't used them in a while. I am trying to get my kids interested in breadboarding some circuits for a Raspberry Pi, but it is hard to pry them away from their phones. It is a lot easier to get them interested in coding, because they can still see the point in that. But home hardware hacking is dying.

Somewhat Similar Store in Wisconsin

[Anonymous Coward]

American Science & Surplus in Milwaukee, WI (www.sciplus.com) has a ton of oddball stuff I've never seen anywhere else. Some electronics, but chemistry supplies and educational stuff too.

Ahhh Skycraft!

[kuhnto]

Its amazing that I am seeing Skycraft mentioned here. That little store in Winter Park, Fl has been my go-to place for all sorts of projects since I was a little kid. It is a great place for every type of surplus you can imagine. I know you can order most everything online nowadays but when you needed that DPDT locking rocker switch at 4PM on a Saturday, you had a place to get it. And Cheap too. The only issue is that it is not open on Sundays.

Re:Ahhh Skycraft!

[Mr Foobar]

Its amazing that I am seeing Skycraft mentioned here. That little store in Winter Park, Fl has been my go-to place for all sorts of projects since I was a little kid.

Same here, Dad loved to go out there not long after they opened, he always took me along.

One thing I've learned after all the years I've shopped there: if you see it and you have any interest in it, put it in your hands and buy it. If you hesitate, someone else will get it and it won't be there next time. Making you regret to the end of your days about your lost opportunity to have it.
Bought an old ISA NIC with connectors for RJ-45, thinnet, *and* thicknet. Makes a great conversation piece mounted on the office wall.