The STORE time Forgot!

San Mateo Electronics. I love this place for all the wrong reasons. Its a old electronics place that dates back to the 60's. If you look close you can still find items that haven't sold since first bought who know's when? For some reson I cant seem to find a one stop Electronics shop. Since the Electronis shop HDB in Redwoodcity went out of business NOW
When ever I get into a electronic project I got to do the penisula treasure hunt. That's Fry's Raido Shack,San Mateo Electronics, It's like I end up getting one or 2 items from each place to get the job done. But this Place tops the list,

Do you remember these?????
RCA Tube Tester??? Yea you never know when your gonna need to run down and test some tubes! LOL I remember these at the Supermarket. They were by the register and when my Mom would be paying I would be all over these playing with th e switches Ect. And did you notice the OLD Apple computer.

Here is some Old stock. Look at the lower bottom of the package. Riverside California. How long ago did they make electronic items like this in the US? LOL
Im guessing these are from the late 60's or early 70's The store is full of stuff like this

And the best of all is the people that work there. This one guy I always go to has been there for ever and know s the place like the back of his hand. Its like to work there you have to be part of some secret club.
#1 You have to live in your mother bacement
#2 You have to know the "Dungon Masters Guide" word for word cover to cover
#3 You have to listen to THE BONE raido station and look like you fit in at a Star Trek Convention
#4 You must have a large comic book collection.
#5 You MUST love electronics.

God love these people True American's

I wonder if I can get the parts I need to fix my rotary dial phone...

Looks a bit like my dad's garage. He'll prototype stuff using a Commodore 64 and just random stuff that has to span 30+ years. He used to have a handful of oscilloscopes and one time too. Pretty sure a few of them needed to warm up before you could use them. It was great for my various car stereo projects though, no shortage of bits and tools.

There's a place kind of like that here in Dallas - not quite that old school - http://www.tannerelectronics.com/
Always fun to go in there and see what's new...

In Arizona we have Apache Salvage and Reclamation. It is about 70% salvage/used stuff and 30% old inventory stuff. If you shop there often you will all sorts of hard to get stuff... like an X-Ray machine, diffusion tube, etc...

I remember when they had tube testers at your local department store. Our local one, as a kid, was "Grant's". Remember when they had store run "grills" in the stores like this and K-mart?

We have a place like that in Orlando called Skycraft. Mostly overpriced junk, but sometimes useful if you need something and don't want to wait on ordering it. I used to travel to Silicon Valley once a month back in the 90's. A place in Sunnyvale called Wierd Stuff had a lot of misc surplus electronic junk. Fry's was totally amazing to me back then when I first saw it. And the now defunct Computer Literacy bookstore was my favorite spot to visit when I was there.

Switch #58 on the plexy pannel is a water proof switch this is used as a Hatch relice button on many Super Air and Air Nautiques. I have on on my boat and its funny how you can find off the wall stuff like that at a store like this

Same type of store in San Rafael for you north bay folks. http://www.electronicplus.com/

Anyone wanna buy an Intellivision game for $2000?..... It's a classic!!