Surplus... (was Re: Damn fools)

At 10:09 PM 08/21/1999 -0700, Sellam wrote: Perhaps true, but not unusual in the business from my experience, (keeping in mind that my travils have centered around the NorthWest) although the sledge hammer approach might be a bit extreme. Case in point: a local surplus dealer (now retired) whom I dealt with for many years and considered a bit of a friend, while he often let me in on 'deals' on items he knew I might be interested in, we would just as often absolutely refuse to budge on a price for an item that I considered totally outrageous, and that I suspect that he knew he would probably never see paid. Over the years we had some rather animated discussions, (probably described as arguments by people less familar with his methods of dealing) which I still fondly remember as quite entertaining/amusing/frustrating/etc... Sadly, in most cases nothing short of a simultaneous act of God and both houses of Congress would ever persuade him to change his mind, and eventually you would find the item in pieces scattered around the store. But you know, once you got to know him you also found out that it was nearly impossible to 'insult' him with an offer, and on occasion you might even get a surprise as long as the item in question did not have a price tag. Once that hit, it was cast in stone! He also had regular (quarterly I think) half-price sales, but the usual buzz amoung the 'regulars' in the weeks preceeding a sale would be the speculation (more often than not, correct) on what items would suddenly go AWOL during the sale, only to reappear again the week after. Once, not too long before his retirement I finally just asked him why he operated like this. The answer was as direct as it was annoying. He had (and implied that this existed throughout all 'serious' surplus dealers) a list not unlike a automotive 'blue book' detailing easily resold components and their values. After some 30+ years in the surplus business (he must have been successful at it, as his store was only ever open three days a week) he knew 'on sight' what components were available from almost any item, and from that it was assigned a value. From there, assuming that the item could be obtained for the (considered) nominal 5%-15% of that assigned value it went into stock, and was tagged at anywhere from 5%-10% under that value (for something that was a real pain to strip down) to 25%-100% over the value (for easily stripped or high demand items) and placed on the floor until the time/inclination/need to strip it down came along. Simply enough, if the tagged amount was not offered by the time came to strip it down... It ended up in pieces. And sometimes, there may have only been a small fraction of the total item that was considered to be 'of value', so the rest of would either end up as parts scattered around the store or straight off in to the dumpster of recycling bin. Imagine my shock and horror one day when I stopped in to find the totally gutted chassis of a large, late model VAX CPU sitting against the wall! That one never even made it onto the floor intact! Anyone want to venture a guess what the 'items of interest' were??? Believe it or not, the power supplies and blowers! (straight off to a DEC reseller) Boards scattered around everywhere, front console on a shelf, and the card cage/backplane off into the can since it was too large for its value... (AARGH!) Curiously enough, I am neither defending or critisizing the practice... Just relating my experiences and what I have been told by those who should know... Actually, with this and a few other things that I've learned this week about common 'business practices', I'm becoming massively disallusioned with the whole structure of 'modern business'. Just convinces me that much more that I don't want to get involved with it amy more than I have to... (where vintage computers are concerned... and some other things, but that is yet another story...) B^} -jim --- jimw(a)computergarage.org The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174