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Looking for used electronic equiptment in San Francisco area

monahan_z

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
263
Location
San Ramon, CA
I live in the San Francisco bay area. I was wondering if anybody else on this forum who lives around here knows of a "Used electronic stuff" shop where they have from time to time seen S-100 boards and/or boxes. There must be many around in some boxes somewhere considering this is where many were made 30+ years ago.

I would like to browse and would appreciate any suggestions (name, stree, town or web site).
 
Weird Stuff Warehouse occasionally gets stuff in, but it's pretty rare these days. You'll need to talk to someone who can go in back to dig out interesting items. I've seen some older Compupro stuff there, got a Vector 1+ last year and several dumb terminals in prior years.
 
I go there about once a month or so and I never see anything all that old anymore. I've always suspected they got people filtering what comes in for the collectors stuff these days but, they probably always did. They may not get as much gear as they used to as well.

In all my years of going there I have never seen a s-100 system. I have never seen anything in the collectible category actually. I occasionally have gotten nice older Sun things because I suspect they had no idea what they were. Same with DEC and others along that line. I've done ok by them but, someone is getting the good stuff before anyone else gets a chance. It doesn't get put out for sale. Maybe Erik knows where it goes.

Out of all the surplus places that once lived down there Weird Stuff was always one of my least favorites. Higher prices and only the dregs make it onto the floor. Its unfortunate they are the last man standing. Only place worse was Action computer. They overcharged for everything. They aren't really a surplus place anymore but, are still around if in name only.

Oh to have RA Electronics on De La Cruz or Quinn's out by the Oakland airport back . Long gone unfortunately. Those were real surplus shops. Weird Stuff and Halted were always my last choice when finding it anywhere else failed. Used to be one across from Fry's when it was right off Lawrence at 101 that I forget. That one was great too. Its a furniture store now. Anyone remember the name ?
 
Excess used to be down the street from the Fry's in San Jose. They moved to S. Milpitas Blvd in Milpitas.

There are a bunch of those old surplus electronic shops around Sunnyvale/Santa Clara/San Jose. One of them even has lots of old Atari parts... but I didn't see any S100 stuff at any of the ones I visited when in the bay area last month.

I *did* however find a lot of old, rare PROMs, EPROMs, and NVRAM chips. :D
 
This was in Sunnyvale. Back when Fry's was on Kern Ave in the chip themed building. Right across the street was a surplus place. I;ve been trying to remember the name for years. There was a guy that always sold the best Polish Sausages out in front of Fry's there too. Those were great.

What are the other surplus places besides Weirdstuff, Action, and Halted down there still ?
 
Like I mentioned: Excess Solutions in Milpitas.

There are a couple of others I visited last month:

Anchor Electronics: San Jose
Halted
Weirdstuff (Open on Sunday!!!)
Advanced Component Electronics

You have to dig for deals at ACE and Excess but it can be worth it.

Excess had 16 pin dual wipe sockets price a .05 each so I bought 10 tubes. I also bought some parts cabinets just to get the chips inside. I got a lot of old, hard to find chips then left them the parts cabinets to resell. No sense in trying to get those on an airplane home. ;)

Anchor had great prices on old PROMs and I bought as many as I could while there. I also cleaned them out of new old stock NVRAMs (ER-2055) for old Atari arcade games. They had bags of NOS Amp dual wipe sockets in 14, 24, and 28 pins for $1.00 a bag. I bought all I could get since there were between 10 to 30 in a bag.

Weirdstuff is Wierdstuff and pricey on a lot of things but I did pick up a lot of old video and other PC cards to strip for chips that I needed. You have to dig for things there. Be prepared to spend a LOT of time.

Halted was premium pricing on used test gear but I did find some great values on chips and sockets while there. You have to look in the side room where the bulk deals are like 40 pin sockets for $1.00 a tube (12)

While there I bought Halted out of 18 pin dual wipe sockets. They had them priced at 21 for $1.

Excess had 16 pin dual wipe sockets price a .05 each so I bought 10 tubes.

Anchor had great prices on old PROMs and I bought as many as I could while there. I also cleaned them out of new old stock NVRAMs (ER-2055) for old Atari arcade games. They had bags of NOS Amp dual wipe sockets in 14, 24, and 28 pins for $1.00 a bag. I bought all I could get since there were between 10 to 30 in a bag. It's a small store so looking around won't take much time.

ACE has a LARGE amount of EPROMs. I bought them out of 2532 and most of their 1702 EPROMs. I bought a lot but couldn't make a dent in their 2708 stocks and they have most other EPROMs until you get past 8Mb then they drop off. I also bought them out of their 40 pin IDP connectors. Those are the crimp on connectors that plug into 40 pin DIP sockets. You need them to make new cables for Ms. Pac Man CPU daughter boards.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time at ACE. They have a lot of chips for sale. If you don't see what you want, ask. They keep the more expensive items in a private stock room.

I think I'm good for the short term on PROMs and NVRAMs and for the long term on sockets. :D
 
I'm actually after whole machines and boards rather then components. Halted sometimes has interesting stuff on their 'junk' shelves. Picked up a working vt420 with keyboard for $20 but, most of the time they want to much for stuff.

Do ACE or Anchor have systems ?

What I really would love to find is a place like RA Electronics was. Big fenced yard full of everything from mainframes to the occasional piece of a rocket.

Quinn's had lots of whole units too. Bought a whole Sun 3/260 from there once for $30 I think.

Weird Stuff still does but, they want a fortune for it and always have.
 
Where have Quinn's relocated to. I went to their old spot where Godbout was years ago, its a Chinise furnature store now!
 
For components, I'm ordering from overseas more and more.

Futurlec sells 120nsec 27C512s for $2.25 the each new. That's a pretty good price--I'm not saying that you couldn't beat it with some looking, but it wouldn't be easy.
 
Not sure... it was frustrating!

At least they had the parts I was wanting to purchase... They were some hard to find NVRAM chips, but the time was a killer.
 
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