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The First Saturday Sale
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I remember when I first got into computers in 1988. Dallas had this giant outdoor HAM Radio and Computer swap meet that was legendary to nerds across the United States and took place once a month and was called appropriately enough "The First Saturday Sale" people from all over the country attended this outdoor spectacle buying and selling anything that was involved with HAM Radio, Radio Control, and Computer Parts. This swap meet had been around since the 1960’s but prior to computers has mostly been a Ham Radio and CB Radio event that had limited but devoted numbers who always showed up rain or shine. This was the early days of 386-486 quality computer goods and long before people started selling new wholesale computer parts at electronics swap meets. It was simply a collection of large parking lots near downtown Dallas that all connected and if you wanted to sell parts you pulled into a parking spot and paid $10 to hawk whatever trash or treasures you had, most people got there early enough to go buy some really good stuff and then bring it back to their car to re-sell to the novices and neophytes who arrived around daybreak looking for great deals with pockets full of money. By the time the sun came up it was miles of geeks, nerds, and dweebs. If you got there any later than midnight on Friday 12:00am you stood a great chance of missing out some real treasures. All the good stuff was gone by 3:00 am.
It never failed to amaze me, seeing this army of nerds (myself included) out in force so early armed with flashlights and black coffee. People crawled through piles of circuit boards and rummaged through the backs of bobtail trucks full of anything electrical/electronic imaginable. I once looked at this giant wiring assembly for something strange and I asked “What the hell is that”....and was told ..."Oh...this is the guidance system from a HARM missile it’s $50 and I'll throw in some 286 motherboards if you buy it”. It was not uncommon to find surplus Government and Military electronics that had accidentaly made their way into the public sector.
I tromped around out there in the dark in all kinds of weather for years searching for whatever deals could be found. I found my share of deals and disasters. Back in the day when SCSI and ESDI hard drives were high dollar ( 600-700 meg server drives could easily cost $2500 ) finding ones that worked for a cheap price at the outdoor sale was like finding the Hope Diamond at a thrift store. I usually went to the electronics sale with my buddy Joe who repaired hard drives and had a degree in electronics he could spot a deal a mile away and I learned plenty watching him navigate through piles of garbage computer parts and he had a knack for always finding the stuff that had actual resale value. Joe and I saw this dude standing by the open trunk of his car around 2:00am and went over to see what he had......he had 10 dead Full Height Hitachi ESDI hard drives and would take $200 for everything....Joe looked carefully at each of the drives, the revisions of the circuit boards, and even the color of the cabling on the stepper motors. Joe said "We'll give you $150 for everything" the guy agreed and Joe elbowed me in the ribs to pay the man. As we walked away Joe was almost in tears......"Oh My God! Dude we just struck the fuckin mother lode" he informed me that “Brand New” the drives could be sold for around $1000 each any day of the week. I informed him that they all were dead and I was out $150 bucks. Joe told me that he'd looked at the manufacturer dates on the drives and they were all made 3 years ago….just so happens that Hitachi had a 5 year replacement warranty on their high dollar drives and we would be getting 10 new drives for the 10 dead ones we now had in a duffle bag. Life was good.
It took a couple of weeks to sort out the returns (RMA's) and get the replacement drives. One by one they all arrived….brand spanking new Hitachi 670 meg ESDI drives factory fresh and factory boxed. We put an ad in the Dallas Morning News computer section and listed them at $850 each with warranty and had them all sold within (4) days. We split the $8500 down the middle.
I have used that 3-5 year warranty trick that I learned from Joe on numerous occasions:
Once at the First Saturday Sale in the early 90’s I bought (20) Elographics touch screen monitors (the kind you see in kiosks) that all cracked screens from some guy who drove them down from Chicago. I got the lot for $250 and did some research to learn Elographics had 3yr replacement warranties on this specific model touch screen. I got all new touch screens and then wound up selling all 20 back to Elographics for $375 each.
Most recently I bought some dead Quantum DLT Tape Drives (40/80)……that interestingly enough were still under warranty and all I had to do was pay shipping back to Quantum, the whole deal cost me $55 to get new drives back and I sold them on eBay for $500 each.
Sure I’ve bought some real crap in hopes of making a small fortune only to learn there was no market or no value in the items……or even worse that they were stolen! On several occasions I've put ads in local newspapers stating "I buy any and all computer equipment CASH $$$ 24 hrs a day" you would not believe some of the responses I've gotten and some of the stuff I've seen. I once purchased a couple of new Toshiba notebooks with accessories for $400 each from an individual only to be contacted by the local police a few days later and told to bring all the gear around to the police station. The detective promised he would try to get my money but said I should have questioned what a 14yr old was doing with new notebooks for sale.
I prefer remembering the good deals.
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