[Milsurplus] Apex Electronics

[Peter Gottlieb]

Being in the right place at the right time, pure luck, can yield a bonanza.  
I've heard of many more such events than I've had a chance to participate in, 
the latter being few and far between.  I've never had a fantastic haul 
opportunity and missed several by a hair, unfortunately.  I missed an entire 
Bell System step-by-step office being demolished, including cord boards, 
switching system, motor generators, a huge room full of spare parts, power 
supplies, cable, hundreds of phones still in boxes.  I caught the tail end of a 
surplus store in NYC going into dumpsters.  I missed a small warehouse of older 
Tek, HP etc. gear which ended up being put into compactors by a front end 
loader.  And more.


On 2/2/2011 8:38 PM, J. Forster wrote:
> I've seen surplus store owners lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on
> precious metal futures.
>
> The "I'll trash it first" attitude is common.
>
> Some years ago, there was a chemical research company in Boston. I went to
> their bankrupcy auction. They had a couple of rooms full of nice chemical
> glassware.
>
> The auctioneer refused my bid of $10, ridiculing it and said he'd rather
> see it in the dumpster. I left - and came back the next day and filled my
> car from the dumpster, twice, for free.
>
> Go figure.
>
> -John
>
> ===============
>
>
>
>
>> Many stores have gone bankrupt or closed over the decades and in a good
>> number
>> of cases the inventory becomes landfill.  How many rare radios or special
>> tubes
>> have met this fate because the store owner's attitude was "if you don't
>> give me
>> what *I* feel it's worth it will go to the grave with me"?  How many of
>> their
>> families lived meal-to-meal because of this attitude?
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/2/2011 7:55 PM, Ian Wilson wrote:
>>> I've visited Apex a few times over the past 5 years. On my first visit I
>>> was
>>> able to gain
>>> entry to a room containing many tubes. The room was in the scary
>>> condition
>>> typical of
>>> Apex - sky visible through parts of the roof, partial collapses in some
>>> places, precariously
>>> stacked metal objects with sharp corners...
>>>
>>> Some interesting stuff in there, including a number of 250TH-type tubes
>>> in
>>> the spring
>>> carriers. I eventually collected a few things I thought interesting but
>>> not
>>> rare (803s, 812s,
>>> things like that). My plan was to purchase these things, look up some
>>> tubes
>>> that weren't
>>> well known to me at the time, and return on a future road trip. This
>>> plan
>>> was thwarted by
>>> being asked for an astonishing amount - protective amnesia has set in,
>>> but
>>> the average
>>> must have been around $50/tube. Since they only take cash I was able to
>>> weasel out.
>>>
>>> I don't imagine the state of the room has improved in the past couple of
>>> years.
>>>
>>> I still drop by once a year or so but haven't spent a cent there since
>>> that
>>> first visit.
>>>
>>> 73, ian K3IMW
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> Milsurplus mailing list
>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
>>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>>>
>>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>>
>>>
>>> -----
>>> No virus found in this message.
>>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>>> Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3418 - Release Date: 02/02/11
>>>
>>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Milsurplus mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3418 - Release Date: 02/02/11
>
>