This place was amazing, and worth a whole afternoon every time I went there. The owner was even more interesting, and a whole story in his own right. (I just looked at his wikipedia entry- wasn't aware there have been features on him! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Grothus)
He was not just an interesting person, but had a fantastic memory for what was in the place (though I think that was quite selective.) I came in one day looking for an aluminum plate I could use as a heatsink, but I was hoping for something with rounded edges so it wouldn't cut my car seat (for my overly-hot laptop.) He squinted for a few seconds, and then walked directly to a giant pile of random metal debris, and threw a bunch of things aside, reached in up to his shoulder, and pulled out _exactly_ the piece I needed, including chamfered edges on one side.
I am sad places like this are going away quickly. I made a map a long time ago dedicated to documenting places like The Black Hole - scraphounds are welcome to update it with interesting destinations. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1Y1XmPsqClK...
I grew up in Los Alamos and remember shopping at that location when it was a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. There is much more detail here about its subsequent incarnation as the Black Hole and the activism of the man who owned it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Grothus
Surplus stores have been replaced by online auctions.[1] If you have something really obscure, you might find a buyer on online. Piling the stuff up locally means most of it sits there for years.
Weird Stuff Warehouse. Haltek. HSC. All gone. Excess Solutions moved online.
Jameco took down their "open to public" sign.
Anchor Electronics [2] is perhaps the only remaining electronics surplus place in Silicon Valley you can visit in person.
Many of those online auction sites are still surplus warehouses, but they just don’t need to operate as retail operations. You can still visit and inspect the goods when they’re listed.
A favourite in Australia that emerged over the last ten or so years is Grays Online [1], which sell everything from estate sales and office equipment, to military vehicles and mining machinery.
(Mentioning the name often made people think I was into alien conspiracies, which had some parallels to the subject of this post.)
He was not just an interesting person, but had a fantastic memory for what was in the place (though I think that was quite selective.) I came in one day looking for an aluminum plate I could use as a heatsink, but I was hoping for something with rounded edges so it wouldn't cut my car seat (for my overly-hot laptop.) He squinted for a few seconds, and then walked directly to a giant pile of random metal debris, and threw a bunch of things aside, reached in up to his shoulder, and pulled out _exactly_ the piece I needed, including chamfered edges on one side.
I am sad places like this are going away quickly. I made a map a long time ago dedicated to documenting places like The Black Hole - scraphounds are welcome to update it with interesting destinations. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1Y1XmPsqClK...
edit: wonder if that means they sold everything
Weird Stuff Warehouse. Haltek. HSC. All gone. Excess Solutions moved online. Jameco took down their "open to public" sign. Anchor Electronics [2] is perhaps the only remaining electronics surplus place in Silicon Valley you can visit in person.
[1] https://svdisposition.com
[2] https://anchor-electronics.com/
A favourite in Australia that emerged over the last ten or so years is Grays Online [1], which sell everything from estate sales and office equipment, to military vehicles and mining machinery.
(Mentioning the name often made people think I was into alien conspiracies, which had some parallels to the subject of this post.)
[1] https://www.graysonline.com