14 Jun
2000
14 Jun
'00
5:07 a.m.
I guess the moral of the story is, don't be afraid
to reach out,
even if
you're confronted with an apparently insurmountable barrier (as I once
thought I was).
So it can be with surplus dealers. Ask them about something you're
hunting
for. Offer to help with a problem they might be having. Try to build up a
good working relationship, at least, if not outright friendship. You never
know where it will lead, and the risk is minimal.
The idea is to have some fun, and realistically every place and every owner
will be different, with the formation of a "good" relationship based on
different kinds of acts. Never trying to cheat them, being helpfull,
respectfull, and actually putting some cash in their hands from time to
time is common to about all of them. I spent all day at a place today
setting up a test system for monitors, and then testing monitors (between
digging in every pile I could reach), and generally I get very good
treatment from them.
This is a bit different from buying stuff for yourself though, its more
like ploughing the snow off the roads.