[NLRS] ABC Electronics - kaput

Thu Aug 27 22:15:59 EDT 2015

The work day parking meter prices make Donn's 20 cent capacitors a whole 
lot more expensive. Might as well pay the post office to deliver them 
from Digi-Key, Mouser, Fair Radio, or Dan's Small Parts and Kits. Brown 
truck delivery has become very unreasonably priced.

Dipped silver mica capacitors have a good reputation for long lives with 
decent temperature stability and low loss. There are some at Ax Man, 
most on University where parking off University is not metered.  The 
best route between Ax Man University and ABC was University and 
Hennepin. Snelling a couple blocks east is a good route approaching from 
north or south. I-94 the few times I tried it was moving slower than a 
filled parking lot.

Marking on small dipped silver mica capacitors tends to be shorthand and 
encoded so when shopping Ax Man it might be handy to take a pocket 
capacitance meter to check the values. And to have a magnifier handy 
which they also sell.

Digi-Key and Mouser do carry a good collection of reasonably priced 
dipped silver mica capacitors.

There is an electronics distributor west of downtown Minneapolis along 
MN 55. Do they sell to hams or are they strictly wholesale requiring 
proof of a sales tax permit to buy there? I get varying feelings from 
comments and their web pages. Maybe Dan at Radio City could be talked 
into carrying more components.

Ax Man University the last couple years has had hundreds or thousands of 
packages of SMT parts. Literally a couple bushels of bins with envelopes 
and small plastic boxes of parts.

In recent years shopping at ABX was made mor difficult by the paeking 
meters, a smaller inventory, lights turned off, and no one at the cash 
register available to help find special items, especially transistors 
and ICs.

73, Jerry, K0CQ

On 8/27/2015 8:18 PM, Ray Johnson wrote:
>
>
>
> Just an additional thought on ABC/ Industrial Surplus--
>
> A few years ago, the parent company Industrial Surplus was going to sell
> the building to a condo developer. The deal fell through when the terms
> became unattractive. The counter guy told me that they had secured a
> building in Rosemount and would be moving if the deal went through. It
> didn't.
>
> A few months back, the same guy told me their walk-in ABC business had
> dropped by 30% due to the new parking meters. The parking meters become
> pretty expensive during the Twins games as they are " variable rate" and
> close enough to be walking distance to Target Field. (any parking spaces
> within 1 mile ??)
>
> A real shame------They had nice stock.........
>
> rayj WB0EBG
>
>
> WA2VOI, Donn wrote:
>>
>>
>> It looked as if they have only closed the walk-in store. The rest of
>> the area (behind the "old" store area was still there, and still
>> packed full.
>>
>> E-bay is, I'm sure, more profitable than the store is/was. Just harder
>> to get 1 or 2 $0.20 capacitors from e-bay. :-(
>>
>> 73 Donn
>> WA2VOI/0
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Elmquist" <chrise at pobox.com>
>> To: "WA2VOI, Donn" <wa2voi at mninter.net>
>> Cc: "NLRS" <NLRS at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 10:06 PM
>> Subject: Re: [NLRS] ABC Electronics - kaput
>>
>>
>> End of an era I guess Donn. Hunh. They probably couldn't resist selling
>> the property to a developer in what has now become the high buck "North
>> Loop" area.
>>
>> I was watching a few items on eBay that are from ABC Electronics and
>> those are still active it looks like,
>>
>> http://stores.ebay.com/ABC-ELECTRONICS-2
>>
>> but per tradition, the prices on test equipment or similar are, umm,
>> kind of
>> high.
>>
>> I wonder if they bailed on the store but are keeping an eBay presence?
>>
>> Chris NØJCF
>>
>> On Thursday (08/27/2015 at 04:15PM -0500), WA2VOI, Donn wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Had an unplesent surprise this afternoon... Went down to ABC
>>> Electronics to
>>> look thru their (limited) stock of silver mica caps only to met at
>>> the door
>>> with a sign (actually, TWO signs):
>>>
>>> ABC Electronics is closed.
>>> Stock is at Ax-Max Surplus
>>> 1625 University Ave, St. Paul
>>>
>>> The room is BARE: nothing there at all, not even shelves.
>>>
>>> I didn't go over to Ax-Max... State Fair and all, but we can hope
>>> that the
>>> stuff will be "find-able." One thing about ABC was that you COULD find
>>> stuff without having to look for hours. Ax-Man not so much.
>>>
>>> Oh, well.
>>>
>>> 73 Donn
>>> WA2VOI/0
>>>
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