Rob wrote:

Halted is one of, if not the last, surplus stores in the
Valley. I've always visited when in the area.

This kind of stores (much smaller of course) have closed decades ago here.
They need supply and demand, and both of them are diminishing.

The supply has changed and moved. There are now huge components markets
in China and Korea that sell manufacturing surplus the way Halted and Poly-Paks
used to do.

The military surplus is still coming out of the pipe, though, and I am seeing
lots of people bidding on test equipment and junk at the military auctions,
but I am not seeing where it's going. It's definitely less interesting than
it was when I was a kid... lots of generic computer equipment now.

The owner says that he lost the profitable business because people search
the internet before buying something, and the only business left basically
was low-value stuff.

Or stuff that people needed urgently. As hardware has become more reliable
and cheap enough that people could keep spares, there is less of that than
there used to be.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."