[Milsurplus] Something Refreshing

[Ray Fantini]

I think a lot of time has been spent lamenting on what was once available or the “good old days” but the reality is that we are currently living in the best of times considering what is out there and available via the internet.
Where there was once several stores or sources available my experience has been different. From what I recall back in the late seventies in trips up to the surplus stores on Cannel Street in NY there were electronic surplus stores but what they had was picked over way over priced stuff, if you wanted to buy defective consumer low end radios and the like that was there but not much else and in comparison to Ham fest it was all a joke.
Philadelphia had some stores like H &R and Boyton but once again limited selection and high prices were the norm.
Perhaps the only real surplus dealer I can think of would have to be Fair Radio being they have been in business forever and there mail order operation was always there and offered a good selection, but still at the end of the day Ham Fest were the preferred choice for buying and selling your military radio items. For a period in the eighties and nineties I did get into the government auctions and buying there but today that market has gone crazy in terms of price with people buying to resell.
The problem that I have seen with almost all of the warehouse or big pile dealers is always the same. When they first open and are getting in new stock items and deals can be found but after a while the same thing always appears to happen. The inventory ends up being huge mounds of stuff that no one wants and you have to dig thru all the junk to try to find anything that may be of value but in reality all the items of value have been sold and what’s left is just crap.
At least that’s been my experience. Some dealers like Midwest Electronic Surplus just concentrate on parts and at least with that idea in mind can see where they won’t run into the problem of having a store full of junk no one wants but although I always stop at their store when in Dayton and spend some money don’t see how they can stay in business in this day of whenever I need any part, connector or whatever I can go to EBay, find and order it. Perhaps if I lived closer to them I would do more purchases in person but being six hundred miles away it’s just not happening.
Although I live in a somewhat small town fifty miles from civilization across the bay we still have an electronics parts dealer in our town. They sell relays, NTE component and zip ties and the like but I have not been there in maybe five or six years being everything I use to buy local I now buy on line. The internet has changed everything but that being said I feel that change has been for the better being now we can sell or buy to a huge audience where we were once limited to things like the local or regional overpriced surplus stores or the two or three Ham Fest that were within driving distance.
That period of time right after WW2 with a flood of government surplus will never come back, It’s easy to remember the times we first saw a huge surplus store and the wonder of all that equipment in one place and the unique characters that somehow always were involved in selling it but somehow I would not trade it for the world we have today.


Ray F/KA3EKH

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