another unique store gone: Above All Electronic Surplus
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All. Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again. cheers, Stewart
On 2019-12-14 11:27 PM, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
(some still marked Turbo XT)
Those will come in handy. ;-) There is a place on North Queen, near Sherway Gardens that has a lot of the Active Surplus stock. I can't think of the name, as I've only been there once.
There is a place on North Queen, near Sherway Gardens that has a lot of the Active Surplus stock. I can't think of the name, as I've only been there once.
A1 Electronics, perhaps? http://a1parts.com/
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 06:36:15 -0500 James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2019-12-14 11:27 PM, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
(some still marked Turbo XT) Those will come in handy. ;-)
*sigh* I fondly remember having to use an actual little black jumper (on the mb) to set Turbo... If only I had one of those handy little switches...
There is a place on North Queen, near Sherway Gardens that has a lot of the Active Surplus stock. I can't think of the name, as I've only been there once.
Oh I am crushed. Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about connecting electronics. I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. *sniff!* Kare On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All.
Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again.
cheers,
Stewart
I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement. On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
Oh I am crushed. Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about connecting electronics. I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. *sniff!* Kare
On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All.
Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again.
cheers,
Stewart
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On the positive side of things... One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is not only doing well but has been quietly expanding. Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga store. Frequently frustrated by Active's not having what I wanted, I'd go to Sayal which always had what I needed and eventually became my first stop in that plaza. That location is still doing well, obviously having outlasted Active. Their main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very close to where Electrosonic used to be) but they also have locations in Markham and near Vaughan Mills. And they've also expanded to Barrie, Cambridge and Burlington. Their stores tend to be very large, which might be the reason they prefer industrial zones to city storefronts. Also: Canada Computers just did a move of its North York location, from a strip mall to Centrepoint Mall (Yonge & Steeles) where it occupies the ENTIRE space formerly used by the Target store. It's immense and when I went there a few weeks ago (though the "official" opening was yesterday) there was plenty of unused area, they could easily fit all of their other Toronto locations into this one spot. - Evan On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 16:30, James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement.
On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
Oh I am crushed. Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about connecting electronics. I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. *sniff!* Kare
On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All.
Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again.
cheers,
Stewart
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-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch or @el56
OK, sorry, I must not have been very clear before, but this is exactly the sort of talk about retailers I was hoping to see around my August visit. So it goes. Hopefully some of it will still be relevant when next I'm able to make the trip. -- Joe On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 07:24:48PM -0500, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
On the positive side of things...
One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is not only doing well but has been quietly expanding.
Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga store. Frequently frustrated by Active's not having what I wanted, I'd go to Sayal which always had what I needed and eventually became my first stop in that plaza.
That location is still doing well, obviously having outlasted Active. Their main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very close to where Electrosonic used to be) but they also have locations in Markham and near Vaughan Mills. And they've also expanded to Barrie, Cambridge and Burlington. Their stores tend to be very large, which might be the reason they prefer industrial zones to city storefronts.
Also: Canada Computers just did a move of its North York location, from a strip mall to Centrepoint Mall (Yonge & Steeles) where it occupies the ENTIRE space formerly used by the Target store. It's immense and when I went there a few weeks ago (though the "official" opening was yesterday) there was plenty of unused area, they could easily fit all of their other Toronto locations into this one spot.
- Evan
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 16:30, James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement.
On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote: > Oh I am crushed. > Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about > connecting electronics. > I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not > find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. > Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. > *sniff!* > Kare > > > > On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote: > >> Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems >> worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store >> Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I >> went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign >> was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the >> door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall >> retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC >> reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac >> Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All. >> >> >> Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again. >> >> >> cheers, >> >> Stewart >> >> >> > > > --- > Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org > Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/ talk
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-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch or @el56
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-- -- Joe On ceding power to tech companies: http://xkcd.com/1118/ man screen | grep -A2 weird A weird imagination is most useful to gain full advantage of all the features.
I'm uptown, so don't know many downtown stores. Sayal , Vic Park/Mcnichol, is where I go for everything. For arduino stuff I used to go to Creatron, on Dundas, but they moved to Birchmount/Sheppard. Long, long ago I recall Active Surplus, with the gorilla outside the store? On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 19:25, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On the positive side of things...
One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is not only doing well but has been quietly expanding.
Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga store. Frequently frustrated by Active's not having what I wanted, I'd go to Sayal which always had what I needed and eventually became my first stop in that plaza.
That location is still doing well, obviously having outlasted Active. Their main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very close to where Electrosonic used to be) but they also have locations in Markham and near Vaughan Mills. And they've also expanded to Barrie, Cambridge and Burlington. Their stores tend to be very large, which might be the reason they prefer industrial zones to city storefronts.
Also: Canada Computers just did a move of its North York location, from a strip mall to Centrepoint Mall (Yonge & Steeles) where it occupies the ENTIRE space formerly used by the Target store. It's immense and when I went there a few weeks ago (though the "official" opening was yesterday) there was plenty of unused area, they could easily fit all of their other Toronto locations into this one spot.
- Evan
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 16:30, James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement.
On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
Oh I am crushed. Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about connecting electronics. I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. *sniff!* Kare
On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All.
Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again.
cheers,
Stewart
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
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-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch or @el56 --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
Last time I was in Sayal ( Vic Park ) the lone staff members was slow and surly. Shame, they had tuns on net stuff. David On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 8:07 PM Don Tai via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I'm uptown, so don't know many downtown stores. Sayal , Vic Park/Mcnichol, is where I go for everything. For arduino stuff I used to go to Creatron, on Dundas, but they moved to Birchmount/Sheppard.
Long, long ago I recall Active Surplus, with the gorilla outside the store?
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 19:25, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On the positive side of things...
One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is not only doing well but has been quietly expanding.
Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga store. Frequently frustrated by Active's not having what I wanted, I'd go to Sayal which always had what I needed and eventually became my first stop in that plaza.
That location is still doing well, obviously having outlasted Active. Their main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very close to where Electrosonic used to be) but they also have locations in Markham and near Vaughan Mills. And they've also expanded to Barrie, Cambridge and Burlington. Their stores tend to be very large, which might be the reason they prefer industrial zones to city storefronts.
Also: Canada Computers just did a move of its North York location, from a strip mall to Centrepoint Mall (Yonge & Steeles) where it occupies the ENTIRE space formerly used by the Target store. It's immense and when I went there a few weeks ago (though the "official" opening was yesterday) there was plenty of unused area, they could easily fit all of their other Toronto locations into this one spot.
- Evan
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 16:30, James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement.
On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
Oh I am crushed. Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about connecting electronics. I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. *sniff!* Kare
On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All.
Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again.
cheers,
Stewart
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-- David Thornton https://wiki.quadratic.net https://github.com/drthornt/ https://twitter.com/northdot9/
Sadly with the days of the internet it's getting easier to buy all those weird and cool stuff online. Plus younger people are just not into the tinkering, it's the mind set of "why build, when I can build" I can't count the days and hours I spent at Active . I'm pretty sure I still have some things I bought there with the idea of building something with it, and never got to it. I wish that Canada Computers would possibly would fill in the gap in a small way to the makers(or the old Radio Shake). I'm in Brampton and our local CC has a few aisle that are just totally empty or just have dozens and dozens of the same product as a filler. Maybe if you are luck you may see one or two boxes of a 3D printer, or filament. Sucks when you want to buy a Raspberry Pi and it costs $11 for shipping. When I jump down to the US to visit family I'm always going into micro center which I look at as a US version of CC with a good selection of a maker area. I can buy a raspberry pi zero ( 1 per visit) for $5(US), I make sure to stop in a few times :) and not only get the pi but stock up on my maker needs. On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 8:04 AM David Thornton via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Last time I was in Sayal ( Vic Park ) the lone staff members was slow and surly. Shame, they had tuns on net stuff.
David
On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 8:07 PM Don Tai via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I'm uptown, so don't know many downtown stores. Sayal , Vic Park/Mcnichol, is where I go for everything. For arduino stuff I used to go to Creatron, on Dundas, but they moved to Birchmount/Sheppard.
Long, long ago I recall Active Surplus, with the gorilla outside the store?
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 19:25, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On the positive side of things...
One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is not only doing well but has been quietly expanding.
Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga store. Frequently frustrated by Active's not having what I wanted, I'd go to Sayal which always had what I needed and eventually became my first stop in that plaza.
That location is still doing well, obviously having outlasted Active. Their main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very close to where Electrosonic used to be) but they also have locations in Markham and near Vaughan Mills. And they've also expanded to Barrie, Cambridge and Burlington. Their stores tend to be very large, which might be the reason they prefer industrial zones to city storefronts.
Also: Canada Computers just did a move of its North York location, from a strip mall to Centrepoint Mall (Yonge & Steeles) where it occupies the ENTIRE space formerly used by the Target store. It's immense and when I went there a few weeks ago (though the "official" opening was yesterday) there was plenty of unused area, they could easily fit all of their other Toronto locations into this one spot.
- Evan
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 16:30, James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement.
On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
Oh I am crushed. Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about connecting electronics. I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. *sniff!* Kare
On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All.
Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again.
cheers,
Stewart
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On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 19:25, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga store. [...] Their main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very close to where Electrosonic used to be)
And, oddly enough, is also across the street from where an Active location used to be before it closed. -- Scott
On 2019-12-15 7:24 p.m., Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is not only doing well but has been quietly expanding.
That's odd - for me, Sayal's a last resort. They might have half the things I want at almost twice the price. Active Electronics (the one up by VP & Steeles, not Active Surplus) used to be much better. Though Active Electronics are gone from Ontario, they're still going in Calgary. Dave Hrynkiw of Solarbotics bought them out. A-1 is still grumpy old A-1. If you want sticks of 1980s speech chips (not the good GI ones) or 1970s discrete ALUs (AMD 2901, 4 whole bits), it's your place. Creatron is still on College, but moved near Augusta. They also have a location on Sheppard by Birchmount. For 3d printery things - DigitMakers: https://www.digitmakers.ca/ (near York U), and MakerWiz - https://makerwiz.com/ (Richmond Hill) If you don't mind mail order: * local, fast (and yes, I used to work there): Elmwood Electronics - https://elmwoodelectronics.ca/ . Local pickup from Bloor and Jane(ish) * not local, but fast and cheap: Universal Solder - https://www.universal-solder.ca/ . They resell the same things that AliExpress and DX do with a very reasonable markup. Shipping is usually well under a week. Since my last DX order took nearly a year to ship, Universal Solder get my money now. cheers, Stewart
On 2019-12-16 11:45 PM, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
That's odd - for me, Sayal's a last resort. They might have half the things I want at almost twice the price. Active Electronics (the one up by VP & Steeles, not Active Surplus) used to be much better.
That's the opposite of my experience. I live in Mississauga, so I went to the location on Matheson, where Active and Sayal were right beside each other. Active was more expensive, but was all new, not surplus. Active was the retail division of Future Electronics, which was an industrial supplier. As for mail order, I used to buy from SD Sales, though there were a couple of others. James Electronics (Jameco) comes to mind. You'd find their ads in electronics and computer magazines. Incidentally, on one occasion I bought a couple of Rapidman calculators. Even though they were made in Toronto (Eaton's used to sell them), I still had to pay duty and federal tax on them, when I picked them up at the post office.
Though Active Electronics are gone from Ontario, they're still going in Calgary. Dave Hrynkiw of Solarbotics bought them out.
Ottawa, too, under their own name, in a little mall on Merivale.
If you don't mind mail order:
dipmicro is still working, shipping from Niagara Falls, ON. They're down from their peak maybe a decade ago, and look like they're trying to shut down, but they've looked like this for a few years now: <http://www.dipmicro.com/store/>
| From: Stewart C. Russell via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems worse: | long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store Above All | Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I blame me, and people like me. We stopped giving them enough business. I used to love Active. I'd go on regular fishing trips there. And the place around the corner on Beverley. Starting in the mid 1970s. We introduced our kids to the place in the late 1980s. Active had a connected store with surplus machine shop equipment. It used to be that electronic stuff was expensive. Repair was possible. It seemed worth gleaning old parts. But eventually, new electronics got inexpensive, complex, and hard to hack. Active got a new lease on life selling to OCAD folks. My daughter reminds me that there was a perennial bin labelled "red things". Lots of acrylic sheets. Second world haemostats and the like. Weird optical devices (military range-finders?). Pixelboards from the TTC. Now about the gorilla. I first saw it in Kitchener, at a somehow related surplus store. I don't know if there were two, or, if one, which store had it first. I can't quite remember, but I think that I bought my 64k RAM board for my Altair at the Kitchener store. It would only work if I installed it just so: I think that it was a clone of a mainstream board, and in cloning it, they had shrunk the board end-to-end by about the width of half a trace on the connector. It can think of a variety of reasons that active might have died: - fewer local manufacturers and hence less surplus - Queen St. real estate got quite valuable - owners got older I went to its last day on Queen and bought a few things that I still use. I have still have an orange price tag that I transplanted to my notebook. Above All was better in a number of ways. But none of them drew me. I visited a few times but bought almost nothing. I came out with a good serving of nostalgia. If I really need an oddball old part, there are lots of internet vendors. After I consider the excessive scrap I already have, kept "just in case".
On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 at 00:01, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I blame me, and people like me. We stopped giving them enough business.
Don't beat yourself up over this. The Internet also sped the decline. These businesses thrived on the oddball, low-volume, specialty stuff that benefits from central warehousing. Stuff that used to be the realm of specialty stores like Raspberry Pis are now on Amazon and a bunch of other online retailers, along with the various patchboards and DIY stuff. People post shopping lists for kits that you can then just assemble in an online shopping cart, and shipping cost is often lower than round-trip bus fare. I think the store I miss the most of this genre was Efston Science on Dufferin
On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 at 00:01, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I blame me, and people like me. We stopped giving them enough business.
Don't beat yourself up over this. The Internet also sped the decline.
I do suspect, also, that the electronics industry has faded away from the T.O. area. Less industry creates less surplus. Last time I was at Active Surplus, quite a few years ago, I found some transistors at 10 for $1.00. The same parts at Home Hardware at College and Spadina were $.10 each. Active surplus just didn't have the "surplus" advantage any more.
These businesses thrived on the oddball, low-volume, specialty stuff that benefits from central warehousing. Stuff that used to be the realm of specialty stores like Raspberry Pis are now on Amazon and a bunch of other online retailers, along with the various patchboards and DIY stuff. People post shopping lists for kits that you can then just assemble in an online shopping cart, and shipping cost is often lower than round-trip bus fare.
I think the store I miss the most of this genre was Efston Science on Dufferin --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2019-12-16 04:31 PM, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 at 00:01, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org <mailto:talk@gtalug.org>> wrote:
I blame me, and people like me. We stopped giving them enough business.
Don't beat yourself up over this. The Internet also sped the decline.
I don't have a problem blaming him. ;-)
On 2019-12-16 12:00 a.m., D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
I used to love Active.
I know: we met there the last night it was open. Graham Greene - former store manager at Active Surplus - now runs The Gorilla Store out of the Science Centre. They sell select surplus from that location, and a tiny location inside Steam Labs/Tool Library on Spadina. I understand that Graham has custody of Professor Banana, aka the gorilla. If you can make it out to Kitchener, K-W Surplus is full of bizarre stuff (look for the Spitfire on the roof, and the tank parked in the parking lot). Their sister store Forest City Surplus in London is not bad either. cheers, Stewart
On 2019-12-16 11:55 PM, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Their sister store Forest City Surplus in London is not bad either.
I used to go to C. M. Peterson (former Premier David Peterson's family) in London, when I was working out of Stratford and Sonic Northern in Sudbury, when I was in Capreol.
participants (12)
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ac -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
D. Joe -
David Thornton -
Digiital aka David -
Don Tai -
Evan Leibovitch -
James Knott -
Karen Lewellen -
mwilson＠Vex.Net -
Scott Allen -
Stewart C. Russell