Ali's Surplus Stuff, Sacramento, CA
Vanished between Fall 2022 and Summer 2023
Cause: Unknown
Excess Solutions, San Jose, CA
Converted entirely to Ebay, 15-Jul-2022, Retail Store Closed.
Cause: Unknown
I find myself in a state of shock. I didn't learn about Excess's closure until the first day after my arrival in the Bay Area, for my 2022 scrounge trip. This leaves, given the apparent demise of the ASVARO swap meet, as of 2022, a grand total of ONE surplus place in the Bay Area proper (Anchor Electronics) and ONE an hour and a half drive away in Sacramento (Ali's).
In all my years, to date, I never imagined I would see a day where the swap-and-scrounge offerings in the Pacific Northwest (WA and Oregon) would exceed the quality and quantity of what I found while growing up in the Bay Area.
Then again, I never thought I'd see two years of utter panic with a global 'pandumbic,' either. :-P
Pandumbic aside -- Draw what conclusions you will from this sad event. My take on it is, simply enough: Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.
TekDragon, Kent, Washington.
Converted to 100% Ebay sales sometime between 2015-2020, cause: Unknown
Halted Specialties/HSC Electronics, Sunnyvale, CA
Closed 12-Jan-2019. Reason: Complicated
I have mixed feelings about HSC. On the up-side, they've been another long-term surplus presence in an area where long-term survival for such places is a challenge at best. I've gotten a number of good deals from them, even helped them with checking out and updating some equipment, and I respect how they managed to stay around as long as they did.
On the down-side: Their pricing on surplus test gear was, for the vast majority of their stock of it, delusional at best. Their inventory of such equipment never seemed to change very much over the last couple of decades, probably due in large part to such pricing. I can't help but believe this was a significant factor in their demise.
There are, as explained in their farewell letter on their Facebook page, other factors as well. Most notable (and I applaud them for calling this out so bluntly) is the demise of local (as in Silicon Valley) manufacturing, and the R&D and engineering jobs which go with it. When was the last time you came across, say, an oscilloscope or communications radio which had 'MADE IN USA' proudly emblazoned on it AND that came from a company with manufacturing and associated offices right there in the Valley?
I've said it before, and it bears saying again: If you have a surplus place local to you, count yourself lucky and support them with your business!
Weird Stuff Warehouse, Sunnyvale, CA
Closed in April, 2018. Reason: Google's greed
Losing Weird Stuff hurt more than losing Mike Quinn's. The cause, as near as I've been able to determine from their final newsletter and talking to the senior staff, was Google buying up a bunch of buildings and land in the area, including the one Weird Stuff was leasing, and "asking that they vacate the premises as soon as possible."
Thirty-two years of Weird Stuff. Twenty-two of them in their Caribbean Drive location. Essence only knows how much hardware, software, and general surplus stuff they helped to keep out of the landfills, or how many hobbyist and commercial techies they've helped over those years, just by being there and doing what they did best. My initial Internet presence, all the way back in 1997, wouldn't have had a chance if not for the stuff they sold!
Gone. Poof! Just because some soulless monolith of a company thinks they need more space (to do what, for Pity's sake?! Are they going to try turning the entire city of Sunnyvale into a huge data center or something?) They managed to put at least 30 people out of work in one shot. Sure, that may be a drop in the bucket in the larger scheme of things -- But not to those 30 people!
Larry Page and Sergey Brin: Besides costing a whole bunch of dedicated techies and support staff their jobs, you have, in one blow, made the electronics recycling problem in the Bay Area a whole lot worse. Who knows how much more still-useful equipment is going to end up in the landfills or scrap-metal bins because of your greed?
Well. So much for your favorite motto. You should probably add 'Except when it's inconvenient' to the end of it.
Cascade Surplus Electronics (aka, 'Da Lode'), Portland, OR
Closed in 2012. Reason: Low sales, frivolous lawsuit.
Despite Cascade's long and colorful history, no surplus place can last forever and they were certainly no exception. Having to defend themselves against a frivolous lawsuit, brought by a former customer, was the first blow. Losing over 50% of their original store space, coupled with declining sales overall, did the rest.
Outback Equipment
Company,
Converted to all-Ebay over the last couple of years. No longer qualifies for a listing.
ACCRC, Berkeley
Converted to all-recycling, early 2009. No direct sales of any kind, no offices, no warehouse (they're operating literally out of converted freight containers).
Taraval Computer Repair
Disappeared without notice between 2008-2009. Cause: Unknown.
All Tech Recyclers
Closed early 2009. Cause: Victim of the economic meltdown
I really do have to give Dan and Jan Burtis a nod on this one. They tried! They really did!
All Tech, though primarily a recycler, also sold surplus test gear. In hard economic times, companies which might normally be on a regular upgrade cycle for such equipment are going to hang on to what they've got much longer than they would otherwise. This cuts back on supply, which can spell doom for small specialized outfits such as All Tech.
I've said it before, and it bears saying again: If you have a good surplus outlet within reach, treasure it! Don't ever take it for granted!!
Correctest, Milpitas, CA
Disappeared in the last five or so years, cause unknown.
European Electronics,
Closed sometime in 2007, exact date and cause unknown.
Triangle Tool &
Machine,
Closed in 2008, Owner wanted out of the business.
Nothing sinister or nasty here, apparently. Just someone who got tired of being in the surplus business. Doubly unfortunate, however, because Triangle was the only 'good' source I knew of, in the Bay Area, for (reasonably) cheaply-priced precision mechanical and electromechanical equipment. In short, they were one of very few dealers who handled stuff useful to robotics hobbyists and companies alike.
Lynntronix
(Lynn Johnson Electronics),
Lost lease on their building in February 2009. Whereabouts unknown as of Sep-2017.
The Boeing Surplus
Retail
Closed 21-Dec-07 due to a horribly short-sighted and selfish decision at the corporate level.
This one felt nearly as bad as losing Mike Quinn's place. The only difference is I was in line early enough to watch them take the building signs down (I wonder if they sold them off as well?)
What can you say about a place which was an icon in the
Boeing Surplus was, in part, a victim of changing times. The Boeing Company, as a whole, had slimmed down, outsourced, and off-shored so much there was not a lot of true manufacturing left in the area. This meant what was a great source of surplus dried up quite a bit over the last decade or so.
However, I also think the store was a victim of corporate short-sightedness and greed. Mary Armstrong, the former head of Boeing's Shared Services Group (the division which ran the store), left SSG within a week or two after making the decision to shut the retail store down. Last I heard, she had become head of Boeing's 'Environmental Services' division or some such thing.
To some, this will not seem at all suspicious. To me, it looks far too much like an executive polishing their resume before moving on to greener pastures, with the retail store being the sacrificial lamb.
If you have one or more good surplus places in your area, treasure them! Never take them for granted!! It has become all too clear doing so can have ... annoying... results.
Wacky Willy's,
Closed permanently at the end of September, 2006. Cause unknown.
I got E-mail from Tony Gould (the owner of Cascade Surplus) in early
September, 2006, telling me that Wacky Willy's Surplus was closing its doors
permanently as of 30-Sep-06. Based on what I've heard from other scroungers, WW
was
I regret not having had the chance to know them a little better. My only impressions of them were from brief visits in 1994, 1999, 2005, and 2006 (August). The two visits in the 90's were the best of the lot, and things seemed to go progressively downhill from there.
Kaiser Technologies,
Closed for all test gear and related sales sometime during summer, 2006, closed permanently shortly thereafter. Exact date unknown, cause unknown.
The last report I had for Kaiser Technologies, as of 12-Sep-06, came from my phone call to them in an attempt to set up a visit. According to the person I spoke to, the last remaining holdout for the test gear side (Jan, Dan Burtis's former partner) was "no longer there," and the half of the building that had held the test gear had been completely cleaned out and sold off.
Given that, I don't hold out much hope for the rest of the place. It'll probably remain a computer recycler, but that's all. The Bay Area already has plenty of them, some of which you can actually buy useful things from. Not Kaiser (at least not any more).
HMR Recycling Retail Counter,
Retail section closed August 2006. Exact date unknown, exact reason unknown.
While the loss of almost any surplus place is something to be a little nervous about (as in "who's going next?"), I'm finding it awfully hard to shed any tears over this particular closure. When HMR started out several years back, they were pretty decent. However, something nasty must have happened because they went from 'decent' to 'reprehensible' in the space of less than a year.
For example: During my 2005 scrounge run, I found the attitudes of their sales people to be exceedingly snooty, barely one step away from insulting. Couple that with the fact that their inventory didn't really have anything that couldn't be found elsewhere, often at a better price and without the snoot factor, and I really think they brought their downfall upon themselves.
Given that HMR appears to be continuing their recycling operations, and has
not gone out of business as a company, I cannot ignore the possibility that
they may pull a
Until then: May their original retail counter rest in peace(es). I certainly won't miss it.
House of Science,
Closed sometime in late 2005-early 2006. Exact date unknown, owner went to different job.
House of Science is a unique loss, not just to the surplus arena as a whole but also to any experimenter who enjoyed tinkering with high-voltage goodies. This includes Tesla coils and Van de Graaf generators.
I got an E-mail from the former owner, Kevin Hilbiber,
in 2006. Last I heard, he was working as a tech at Condor Electronics in
Condor Electronics
206-633-5190
Mike Quinn Electronics,
Closed 31-Jan-06, most likely due to mismanagement.
Writing memorial notices for surplus places is far from my favorite task, in terms of running this site. This is especially true where the store involved has been such a strong fixture in its native area (and beyond) for so many years, or when it had such a strong influence on the directions I chose to follow in my life.
Mike Quinn's was such a place. They got started just after WW
II, and moved to the
I learned an awful lot about electronics from tinkering with the stuff I got from Quinn's, and I learned a great deal about the surplus market from shopping there. Most recently, I learned that their closure was, apparently, due to a mismanagement problem that started only in the last decade or so, and got progressively worse. I'm not going to name names in public, but suffice to say that the primary reason for Quinn's decline and downfall seems to be that the owners and management simply didn't "get it" about the surplus business.
More specifically, they didn't seem to understand (or care) that you have to keep a steady stream of stuff flowing through if you hope to survive in the long run, and that your store has to have some semblance of organization so that buyers can find what they're after with a minimum of effort.
Quinn's, for all its 'techie charm,' was a horrendous mess in
terms of organization. They badly needed to put things like test gear in one
dedicated area, and various types of components in others. They also needed
(equally badly!) a lot more square footage than they had at the
Quinn's touched a lot of people in their time, most far better known than I’ll ever be; George Morrow, Bill Godbout, and numerous other computer pioneer's names can be found among their past customers. Mike Quinn himself, and his employees, helped the 'computer revolution' in many ways. I think it is safe to say that the world of personal computing, at least in the Bay Area, would have been wildly different had it not been for the Man and the Place.
No surplus store can last forever. That's a given. However, Quinn's gave it a bloody good try. I'm sure they will be remembered and spoken of in Bay Area electronics circles for years to come.
If you've read this far, please take a moment to remember Mike and his store. Although I didn't know Mike that well before he passed on (I was too young and ignorant at the time to appreciate who I was talking to), I'd like to think, wherever he is now, he'd appreciate it.
Thanks, Mike, Vinnie, and Jay. For everything.
Haltek Electronics, formerly at 1062 Linda Vista Ave., Mountain View, CA.
FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS? Read for yourself and decide. Closed 28-Apr-00
The circumstances under which this closing took place were, I'm told, not pleasant. It seems that Haltek's landlord, who apparently decided to demonstrate what a GPF (Greedy Pinhead Fsck) s/he/it could be, started working behind Haltek's back to find another tenant. Haltek was never told about this until the last moment.
One was, apparently, found, and it was one that offered to pay about twice what Haltek could afford. The land-ass, in essence, told Haltek to pack up and leave. No arguments, no negotiation, no helping them to find another spot. It was a matter of "I've found someone that'll pay twice what you will. Get out!"
This entire event bothers me deeply, not so much because we lost a good surplus store, that would likely have kept on going indefinitely, but because what happened was done entirely in the name of greed and in an underhanded manner to boot.
Please don't get me wrong, BTW. I don't have a problem with anyone earning enough to make a decent living, or with companies turning a reasonable profit. What I DO have a serious problem with is the mindset of much of our current culture, which seems to worship the Almighty Dollar above all other values.
A fellow scrounger in the Bay Area has informed me that there is more to the Haltek story than meets the eye. I'm attaching a relevant excerpt from his E-mail to me below. Thanks to Dave DiGiacomo.