Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

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ray_parkhurst
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Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Just read that they've decided to cancel the remaining Sunnyvale electronics swaps for rest of 2020. If the shutdown situation improves it might pick up again in March. That makes a full year of cancelations. When the swap picks up again in March (is there a crossing fingers emoticon?) I expect a huge amount of surplus to be available, both due to lack of sales this year and the new business closures that have put more material on the market. It may even be like it was after the Tech crash! All that stuff has to go somewhere.

The Redondo Beach swap is "pending" for Aug and Sep, and still "on" from Oct. That doesn't mean much since the situation in LA area is much worse than in the Bay Area, so I expect the pending months to be canceled, but I will remain hopeful.

🤞 🤞
Last edited by ray_parkhurst on Thu Aug 06, 2020 8:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

Alan Wood
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Re: Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by Alan Wood »

Ray

There is an emoji "HAND WITH INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CROSSED": 🤞

See 129310 on this page:
http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/supplem ... raphs.html

If the emoji is visible, it means that the recent forum upgrade allows us to use all sorts of Unicode characters.

Alan Wood

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ray_parkhurst
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Re: Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Alan Wood wrote:
Thu Aug 06, 2020 8:37 am
Ray

There is an emoji "HAND WITH INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CROSSED": 🤞

See 129310 on this page:
http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/supplem ... raphs.html

If the emoji is visible, it means that the recent forum upgrade allows us to use all sorts of Unicode characters.

Alan Wood
Cool, thanks Alan.

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ray_parkhurst
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Re: Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by ray_parkhurst »

They finally officially canceled the Redondo Beach electronics swap for both August and September, but "on" for October. We'll see, and if things look better by then I may be making a Halloween visit to the LA area!

On a different note, we've been watching the Santa Cruz fire carefully as its smoke is blanketing the South Bay Area. We're at the mercy of the specific wind direction. The fires are WSW from us, so as long as we get winds from the West or WNW our air is clear. Any wind from the S and we get choked. It's so specific that I have stood outside and been in fresh clean air, yet looking South toward San Jose I can see thick smoke clouds passing over the downtown area. Very unpredictable, and dangerous for folks with respiratory problems. Anyway, lots happening in CA right now.

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ray_parkhurst
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Re: Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by ray_parkhurst »

The electronics swap gave me an opportunity to buy surplus optics, mechanics, tools, plus many surprises. The virus shut down the swap for the whole year of 2020. Hopefully the virus will not have a devastating 2nd wave, or worse a mutation or other multiplying factor, and the swap will come back next March.

In the meantime, I've discovered another source for interesting stuff: estate sales. I was never a big estate sale guy, only occasionally going to them when something in particular caught my fancy in the description, or I happened to chance across one while doing weekend errands. But as it turns out, estate sales are considered OK to have during the pandemic. Often much of the sale is outside, so fewer worries about contamination of enclosed spaces, and most of the organizers limit the number of folks allowed inside to a reasonable number. This means there is a line waiting to go in, but it's not usually too long except for large and well-advertised sales. I have been especially lucky with tools at these sales, scoring many small hand tools that have been put to immediate use.

Last weekend I went to a phenomenal sale in Fremont. The gentleman who had passed away was a machinist and watchmaker, and had a garage full of his tools. I went back 3 times after hauling stuff to the car each time!

The extremely sad and ironic thing about these sales is that the deceased have been disproportionately taken by C19, and there seem to be far more sales this year than last at this time. I had expected this but seeing it happen is quite an eye opener. Similarly I suppose, once the full weight of the shutdown comes to bear on the local economy, and the many zombie businesses start to close and go through bankruptcy and liquidation in the next couple years, the surplus market will boom again. Most of the surplus stores had already gone out of business before the pandemic, and where there were perhaps 10 a few years ago, there is only one open to the public, and perhaps 4 others across the wider Bay Area (Santa Rosa down to Gilroy) that are wholesale or internet only. I expect they will all likely see booming business by the end of 2021.

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Re: Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Looks like my Estate Sale substitution for the Electronics Swap has come to an end. CA is shut down yet again. In some ways it's less restrictive, as many businesses which had to close in March seem able to stay open now, but in other ways it's more restrictive, with literally zero socialization allowed except for essential services. For instance, it's illegal for me to talk with my neighbor, unless we are at a grocery store, etc.

One thing I sincerely missed during the earlier shutdown was shopping at used Record stores, and so far it looks like they are going to stay open. Perhaps others find such pursuits essential as well. But similar to the March shutdown, all the non-drive-thru Starbucks appear to be closed. It's a weird mix, and I'm sure it will change over time, but that's what I noticed today as I did some essential shopping for musical and video entertainment.

I do see that from the perspective of Constitutional liberties, there has been some learning. The orders are not legislative, so they must be strictly limited in length. The socialization ban also recognizes the protected First Amendment religious and free speech rights, so worship and protest are allowed. It's a great step forward.

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Re: Electronics Swap canceled for 2020

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Well, the shutdown order of 6-Dec made very little actual change to the Bay Area. When it was announced there was a huge flurry of activity, with the freeways packed like it was a Friday commute rush hour. Next day it was a ghost town again, slower than before the new order, yet within a couple days things had returned to the ~50% of normal traffic and nearly zero rush hour increases that we've been experiencing since April.

One specific thing that didn't change as expected was that Estate Sales are continuing nearly as normal. There have been as many as before the new shutdown order.

As of Fri/Sat midnight, the CA State order kicked-in in the Bay Area, bringing more restrictions. I expected to see the Sunday Estate Sales be canceled, but indeed they went on as planned. The organizers are being careful to limit the number of people in any confined area to 10, and that is apparently within the scope of the shutdown order.

So it appears that in some ways this new shutdown order is less limiting than the one in March, allowing businesses to continue operating rather than shutting them down completely, though at reduced capacity. I guess this is "progress", and incorporates the protocols of masks and social distancing that folks have gotten used to over the last months.

On the more restrictive side, travel is much more limited than before. I had a planned househunting trip to OR, but I'm not sure if it will be practical now given that OR is "suggesting" a 14 day quarantine for anyone coming into the state, and CA is requiring similar quarantine for folks coming into / returning to CA. I may need to wait until after the order expires in early Jan to make the trip, which is just fine.

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