[Milsurplus] Re: Surplus stores, then and now

[Patrick Jankowiak]

Two other places now gone:

"Special Sales"
Owned by a nice fellow named Frank, I think. along I-75 in 
Dallas. Once bought a 3KW variable frequency power source there. 
Mostly got stuff from Collins radio and TI I think. As a kid I 
used to get a ride there, get dropped off, and stay the 
afternoon. When I got back from college, it was a used hubcap place.


"Dallas Electronic Surplus"
Owned by a guy named Alex Schragen, who was I beleive, from 
Russia. He got most of his stuff from T.I., and also would spend 
his time stripping the pins anc cards for gold. I saw the 'gold 
room' once. shelves after shelves on all walls from floor to 
ceiling, filled with mayonaise jars , which were in turn filled 
with the gold clipped, scraped, and otherwise removed from the 
surplus.

Surplus Story:
---An interesting story;, I bought a surplus thermal imager 
system from Alex. It was an item about the shape of a ball, an 
about 2' in diameter, I figured it was off an aircraft or 
something. It had a CCD array in a dewar with an optical scanner, 
a cryopump, as well as I.R. TV camera and Peltier coolers from 
Marlow Industries (Richardson TX). Well anyway I wanted it for 
the coolers and fans etc, so I got it and took it to my TV shop 
to play with and disassemble.

About a week later, I get a call from Alex, asking me if I still 
have it. I say sure, and he says that T.I. wants to buy it back, 
and will pay me what it's worth. So I say, well OK but I have 
already taken it apart, it's kind of 'ruined' as far as that's 
concerned. He says it doesn't matter, they only want the CCD. So, 
I say Ok, give them my phone #, maybe they can come remove it at 
my shop, if they'll pay something for it. I can't use the CCD 
anyway as it takes liquid nitrogen or some other coolant.

Well, about 15 minutes later, some guy in a conservative suit and 
tie with two business-casual-looking characters following him 
come into the shop, and I figure, here's a commercial customer 
and his engineers. Time to make business! (The TV shop is a very 
hard business due to fickle consumer patronage. You do well to 
have commercial customers.) So I say "good afternoon, may I help 
you?"

Well, the guy says hello, asks me if I am Mr. Jankowiak, and I 
say Yes, and he gets out his wallet and shows me this FBI ID, and 
introduces the other guys, and tells me he'd appreciate it is I 
would sell the 'surplus item' back to T.I., as it was sold by 
mistake, and they would like to recover it, and if I would be 
understanding about it they'd be happy to pay me for my trouble.

So I say, Oh, you want the CCD, right? At this point, he gets 
this funny look for just an instant, but says yes and offers a 
deal where his friends would remove just that part, and still pay 
me back, and let me keep the rest for free for my trouble.

So I say OK, and show them to it, placed it on a workbench, and 
the one guy went outside to get his tools, and the other guy 
hands me the $25 I paid, in cash, (Alex often charged even 
numbers and 'included' the taxes), and says thanks.

So apparently, Alex told them where to find each one of those 
darn things (were about 7 or 8 as I recall), and how much was 
paid, so they'd be able to get them back..

So they pulled the Dewar, and were going to leave, and the agent 
shakes my hand and says "Thank you for your understanding, Mr. 
Jankowiak". I still remember those words. What could I say? so I 
say, "No problem, had no use for the CCD anyway", and they leave. 
I noticed they rode in a very plain blue chevy station wagon with 
government plates. So I guess he was driving them around, till 
all the things were recovered or found.

Now I'll be clear here, they did not insist on buying it, nor 
threaten, were very polite, and I don't think they would have 
gotten rude, but there'd probably be something in the file if I'd 
refused. heh. In any case, I figured by then the thing was likely 
military and the CCD would be better off taken back to be 
'properly disposed of' if that's what they wanted, and why not, 
if I kept the most -useful- parts (fans, peltier devices.. IR 
vidicon camera) for free?

Patrick