[Milsurplus] Canadian Surplus

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Well, in my case, I didn't get lunch unless I brought it.  And I dealt 
directly with the widow, who as it happened was apparantly closer to my age than to 
her dead husband's.  But the first trip I made I picked out a stack of stuff, 
told her what I thought I could eventually get for it, and what I would pay 
for it.  And she let me have it for the offer.  I think she probably talked to 
Max next door at Madison Electronics and he must have told her that was a fair 
price as she generally accepted my offers from then on without any haggling.

In a message dated 7/22/2008 11:48:48 PM Central Daylight Time, 
kargo_cult at msn.com writes: 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <WA5CAB at cs.com>
> To: <Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:44 PM
> Subject:  non-Canadian Surplus Stores
> 
> 
> >That's interesting.  I wonder how many radio surplus stores ended up
> >"invitation only" with the widow?  I cleaned out one here in Houston in the 
> 80's.
> >It's basically what got me started in the surplus business (not what got me
> >started as a ham and a surplus radio collector - our neighbor W5MO is 
> responsible
> >for that circa 1961 when I started to LSU).
> 
> There was a ham friend of the widow's husband who was the widow's
> rep in that he priced the stuff mostly by the lot, and at a smallish 
> fraction
> of retail value, naturally. Then there was another elderly ham, W7BCT,
> James Barrows SK, who knew both these people from way back. Helen
> Zinn and friend Ray would decide when they felt another visit okay, then
> let Jim know, and he would contact my friend John Nelson AA7W and me.
> Unfortunately, the visits were never frequently enough for me. At most, 3 or
> 4 a summer. Then the hours were limited, something like 09:30 to 15:00,
> whereas i would have enjoyed digging while there was still daylight to help.
> Then there was the obligatory lunch break, which i just as well would have 
> skipped, with ham
> sandwiches and coffee served by the widow, and conversation. Considering the 
> hours were so limited
> and visits so
> infrequent, the lunch break couldn't pass fast enuff for me. I suppose i was
> on a way different schedule than them. I will always wonder what 
> undiscovered
> goodies were packed away in the crates and heavy Navy metal trunks  in
> the basement. I remember stacks of MN-26s, a dyno-modulator for the TA-12,
> part of an instrument panel for some bomber aircraft, and stacks and stacks 
> of
> crates and metal boxes. And so many paper items i could have written Wm.
> Zinn's biography for his obituary. -Hue
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480   
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