[rescue] Campus Surplus Shops (was: SS4 VSIMM?)

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Kurt Huhn writes ...
> On Feb 28, 2004, at 1:45 AM, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> > When I lived in Ohio, the
> > OSU surplus shop was a goldmine.  How about a SPARC LX for $5.  With a
> > keyboard and any cables they had that would fit any connector on it
> > ....
>
> The OSU surplus shop apparently still has treasures from time to time.
> I never get over there though, even though it's right around the corner
> from a smoke shop I frequent.

Yeah, you never know with those guys, but when they have stuff, it's a
screaming deal.

Lessee, what all did I buy there ...

(a) A stack of NEC (I think) '486 PCs.  Not because I wanted lame-o PCs, but
because each one was stuffed with 16-MB FPM Parity SIMMs, plus a hard drive,
plus a NIC.  $5 each.  The SIMMs are in my SPARCclassics.

(b) A stack of SPARCclassics.  Working, albeit with minimal RAM and no HDs,
but what do you want for $5 each?  Got a couple of Sun keyboards, several
SCSI cables, and a 13w3 extension cable free.

(c) A couple of HP X-terms. $5 each.  Work fine.

(d) A 17" NEC multisynch monitor.  $10.  This was the one dud in the whole
experience; after being on for a while, it overheats and shut itself off.
Oh, well.

(e) Bunches of other stuff I've forgotten about.

Their odd policies give the place a certain _je_ne_sais_quoi_, but I don't
know what it is.  They separate every item that comes in: box on the shelf,
keyboard over there, monitor over here, mouse in the mousebox, etc.  Then,
when you buy a box, you can take any accessories that fit it, if you can
find 'em.  They don't sell the accessories separately.  So you see a nice
Sun keyboard in the keyboard bin, but you can't buy it.  You can buy a nasty
$5 Dell '486 and get the Sun keyboard for free, though...

They clearly aren't out to make any money on the stuff, I think they just
want to have it hauled off.  Periodically, they have an "auction" where they
sell everything for whatever it will bring, just to clear it out.

Tuesday mornings are a stitch.  That's when they open after the weekend
re-stocking, and impoverished students are lined up waiting to get a crack
at the PCs....

-Shel