Boeing Surplus Closing... for the better...........

[g-wright at att.net]

-------------- Original message from Richard <legalize at xmission.com>: -------------- 


> IMO, its Boeing's store and they can pack it up and ship it to the 
> moon if they want to. 
> 
> Instead of trying to *stop* the closure of the store, IMO it would be 
> better to lobby for a one-time fire sale "everything must go!" event 
> with big discounts. 
> -- 
> "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download 
> 
> 
> Legalize Adulthood! 


I have been going there almost daily, since the early 70's.  when you could buy 
Aircraft fasteners, computer hardware, test gear, and anything  in between.

PDP 8a's where 25.00 and PDP 11's where 45.00. if it was a large rack 
system, just name your price.  ( I have 3 PDP 11/60's,  5 racks each)

The store has been going down hill ever since.  Most of the good  stuff
never makes it to  surplus.

In the past 5 years, only "Boeing has beens"  have worked there. I have heard 
that the system  has 175 employees.

Over the years this has just been a monkey on Boeings back and they 
*never* should have been  involve in a retail business.  They staff this with people 
that could only function in a Boeing Mold.  These folks should never been 
involved with the public. The folks that did care and wanted to help where stopped
by the turf  wars and Boeing policy.

I tried over the year to at least slow down the trashing of vintage items. 
No one cared. You could go in  there and see carcass of vintage items.
They would only put out what would sell quickly. Lately I found  7
HP suite cases with HP 79xx Alignment tools and packs.  They where
empty. They could get 25.00 for the suite cases. So they trashed
the rest. 

They love to sell 3 ring binders for .25 each.  If  you watched closely 
there where 100's of DEC, HP, Cray, TEK, Sun, Motorola binders from the 
70's and 80's. covering both computers and test gear. All empty.  

As for really good test gear, that was offered up to a  local company first
and what was left went to the store. I could go further on this but won't. 

As for the things that this "list" would be interested in. They had what they
called  pre-sort. if it was newer and/or sold quickly, send it to the store, if not 
scrap it.  They would set out DEC and Data General systems, empty.  They 
could sell the boards by the pound and did not have to worry about
anything.

 I saw some Dumb terminals (VT100) setting in the back this summer and asked
to make sure the came out to the store. I was told its was easier to scrap them.
No  TEK or Dumb  terminals would be brought out to the retail store.

They have a large amount of old computer boards going trough there 
each month. all go to scrap. 

You can go in there on a Saturday morning and see 7  to 10  $60,000.00
a year employees setting around drinking coffee and talking to one another
with out any care about the customer.  How much surplus do you have to
sell  to cover one Saturday

In the last couple of years they basicly have been watching  10-15 ebay
sellers that are at the front door each day and catered to them. Putting
everthing out first thing and then sat back and watched the  rush when 
the door opened.


The best thing that could happen is for the company to put everything in lot
bids so someone, that at least cares a little, has the items. 

As for the fire sale, everyone is headed for the door. Through the 1st of the 
year all Boeing employees only have 6 to 8 weeks left to work. So I would
just  wait for the first lot bids and follow  the winner home. 


Just my  .02 cents worth

- jerry 


Jerry wright
JLC inc
g-wrigtht at att.net