Considering Buying an Abandoned Computer Store – Seeking Advice

[Plasma]

Hi all,

I recently stumbled upon an intriguing opportunity: an abandoned computer store. The store spans approximately 6,000 square feet and houses equipment dating back to the late 1990s. Here are the key details:

• Inventory: The store is fully stocked with an assortment of items, including:
  • Monitors (including ViewSonic models)
  • Late '90s PC expansion cards
  • Enterprise computers from Dell
  • Beige PC towers
  • CIB Software
• Market Potential: Now, my expertise lies mainly in consumer PCs from the late '90s. However, I’m curious about the market for late '90s servers and workstations. Are there collectors or enthusiasts who would appreciate these?
• Purchasing Offer: The seller is offering to sell the entire lot in one go. Given the vast inventory, I’m hesitant to commit without understanding its value. Unfortunately, a comprehensive inventory would take weeks.

So, I turn to you for advice:

1. Market Assessment: Is there a demand for late '90s servers and workstations? Any insights on potential buyers or use cases?
2. Valuation: How can I estimate the worth of this store's inventory? Are there any benchmarks or resources I should consult?

Thank you in advance for your input.

Impossible to even get a ballpark on the inventory value without photos.

The question you should be asking is what is the potential profit per hour of labor. Probably not much.

If you have the option to purchase just the desirable items, that will yield better results.

 

[Unknown_K]

In most places the independent computer store went extinct around the turn of the century because, let's be frank, your standard mom-and-pop computer store's entire business model was based around getting small bulk discounts on orders from Computer Shopper and justifying their markup solely on being "local". (I mean, sure, a *good* store would be able to offer the novice customer a little bit of handholding, but even by the late 80's the commidification of the PC and its increasing presense in big box stores made the margins pretty small.) We don't know if this store was just selling "cheap junk" or was the bestest-bestest gold-plated A1 computer store in town, but, really, in the end it hardly mattered. Between mere mortals getting comfortable with the idea of mail ordering PCs (increasingly shopped for online, not just out of magazines or TV ads) and their local edge getting undercut by the Office Depots and Best Buys independant computer stores were pretty much hosed.

That said, it is nonetheless suspicious/unlikely that a store that *did* have anything particularly valuable in stock would just close without at least having a fire sale, either publically or behind the scenes. There *could* be treasure in there, but I'm very much onboard in thinking there's nothing in there but a toxic mix of Dell GX1s, eMachines, and, if they did customs, mostly empty parts bins and a few boxed Asus cases.

Local computer stores went extinct because they couldn't compete with kids building machines custom ordered with mail order parts as needed with no overhead on the low end and Bestbuy with massive buying power on the high end (plus credit plans).

Late 90's computer were not cheap enough to ditch and buy replacements so there was some money to be made with repairs, upgrades, fixing the OS etc. But anybody buying stock of anything they couldn't sell in a few months was screwed because of rapidly dropping prices.

Those CRT's NIB would be worth something if they were not falling apart and water damaged from the looks of it.

 

[VERAULT]

Maybe you’ve just had better luck, but in my experience Dells from that era were unreliable, especially the power supplies, and that case design as used on the GX1 (and several other contemporary models) was just *awful*. It was a bad copy of the cases Apple used on the 7200-7600 PowerPC Macintoshes, IE, a rickety pile of too thin metal and flimsy plastic, except not even as well executed.

I’m frankly surprised they haven’t crumbled to dust like the Apple machines have. I guess maybe they used slightly better grade plastic and only the casting was worse.

The psu issues I have seen were after the warranty had expired however.

I felt the same way about the case.. But look at it this way. Those macs are as fragile as candle wax and the Dell is still fine. They wont crumble either as that seems to be an Apple only thing for the most part (severe brittleness). I have a really nice late 90s macintosh monitor which is just a crt and board at this point as the entire plastic chassis is essentially gone.

 

[Zare]

Without the sum in $ and pictures you are blind in the dark. There may be enough of the higher demand items in good shape to afford everything in bulk and take the rest to a junkyard. CRTs seem like the most valuable thing there.

Btw, regarding small local computer stores, those lasted here until the early 2000s, because of the open piracy we used to have. By open I mean businesses used pirate copies. The first raid was in about 2004 in a biggest print shop in town, they used all illegal Microsoft/Adobe/Macromedia software. Since then, companies were submitted to use legal copies, and big computer stores got extra $ for selling licences. Before that raid, a customer needing hundreds of $ for legal software would get his computer in a local shop because the shop will get the pirate copy for him and ensure it works correctly on his hardware at no charge - as an incetive to buy the hardware there. This is why local stores lasted a lot in competition with the bigger by-the-book stores. And why they tackled quite expensive hardware they wouldn't normally come in contact with.

 

[rreinke]

In particular, did the store have a "going out of business sale" during its final open days? If so, chances are that the good stuff is already gone.

Nope, the owner just closed up shop one day and never returned, according to the guy who owns the building.

 

[rreinke]

Without the sum in $ and pictures you are blind in the dark. There may be enough of the higher demand items in good shape to afford everything in bulk and take the rest to a junkyard. CRTs seem like the most valuable thing there.

Btw, regarding small local computer stores, those lasted here until the early 2000s, because of the open piracy we used to have. By open I mean businesses used pirate copies. The first raid was in about 2004 in a biggest print shop in town, they used all illegal Microsoft/Adobe/Macromedia software. Since then, companies were submitted to use legal copies, and big computer stores got extra $ for selling licences. Before that raid, a customer needing hundreds of $ for legal software would get his computer in a local shop because the shop will get the pirate copy for him and ensure it works correctly on his hardware at no charge - as an incetive to buy the hardware there. This is why local stores lasted a lot in competition with the bigger by-the-book stores. And why they tackled quite expensive hardware they wouldn't normally come in contact with.

I posted a video walkthrough in my earlier post.

 

[Unknown_K]

Without the sum in $ and pictures you are blind in the dark. There may be enough of the higher demand items in good shape to afford everything in bulk and take the rest to a junkyard. CRTs seem like the most valuable thing there.

Btw, regarding small local computer stores, those lasted here until the early 2000s, because of the open piracy we used to have. By open I mean businesses used pirate copies. The first raid was in about 2004 in a biggest print shop in town, they used all illegal Microsoft/Adobe/Macromedia software. Since then, companies were submitted to use legal copies, and big computer stores got extra $ for selling licences. Before that raid, a customer needing hundreds of $ for legal software would get his computer in a local shop because the shop will get the pirate copy for him and ensure it works correctly on his hardware at no charge - as an incetive to buy the hardware there. This is why local stores lasted a lot in competition with the bigger by-the-book stores. And why they tackled quite expensive hardware they wouldn't normally come in contact with.

We had piracy here as well when most computer systems sold in the Cleveland Ohio area came with Microsoft Office in the 90's that was pirated. Adding that bundle helped sell computers.

I don't think all CRT's are in high demand, just the top end gear with good resolution and refresh or maybe OEM models that are the same as the machine you just built. I mentioned Sony Trinitrons because everybody liked them back in the day and they even did sync on green for Mac users. A NIB widescreen Trinitron (kind of rare) would be worth some money to gamers.

 

[Plasma]

Any NIB CRT will sell, doesn't matter what it is. The supply is drying up.

 

[milasoft]

After watching the video...

You have a lot of unopened inventory which is good, new in plastic software, unopened scanners, monitors and towers.

The monitors are obsolete by now, the software is outdated and the hardware inside the towers (the ones that aren't empty cases) is also obsolete.

Short unprofessional answer: You could sell the software online or at yard sales, ever so slowly. You could list the towers on local sites (shipping would likely exceed worth), and sell the scanners and cd writers for minimal profit. The rest is basically junk that you'd spend your years trying to recoup profit depending on what you'd pay for the property.

There is one solution but it's not one for profit: Build small systems with the old monitors and motherboards, and give to low income families. There's a lot of new in box merchandise which might seem enticing, but the world had pretty much moved on from that era.

The servers and workstations might be another story.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Anything from the 90s is going to be underpowered when compared to today's systems--and there's a possibility that it won't run software required for modern applications. You've going to have a hard time selling any of that stuff, even to the less-privileged. You could well cherry-pick some stuff for the retro community, but that community is pretty small and somewhat stingy when it comes to purchasing items. Of course, if you had a pallet-load of Apple I boards, that would be a different matter. My take is that the world has moved on to laptops, tablets and mobile phones. By and large, you'll end up hauling much of the stuff to the local e-waste disposal facility.

 

[Plasma]

Somehow I missed the video earlier. This store looks very familiar, I think it was posted before with pics taken through the window.

Most of that stuff is worthless. Take the shrinkwrapped hardware (Windows Sound System = $$$) and software in the front of the store, and any CRTs with the box intact. Leave the rest.

 

[VERAULT]

From what I see in the video some things would sell... albeit slowly. But as was mentioned by others in this post. They should be paying YOU to clear this place out and thats not a joke. They are going to have to pay someone.

 

[channelmaniac]

Computer Reset was an example of how hard it can be to sell decades old stock once the big ticket items either sell or once you've satisfied the demand you flood the market and while you manage to bring the price down you also hurt your own bottom line. Then you are left with tons of E-waste that new or used, nobody will pay for and ultimately you end up writing it off because you will never break even on it. Only so many people are interested in Microsoft Money.

Computer Reset had zero e-waste spend. 37 dumpsters? Yes. An incredible amount of trash? Yes. E-waste in dumpsters? Oh heck no!

There were scrappers that took the unwanted and sold it off to places that bought metals. Towards the end there was a company that came in and took out CRT tubes to turn them into industrial glazes; an infamous YouTube personality came and loaded his van full of terminals; and Free Geek brought 2 U-Haul trucks to take computing gear back to MN. I still have the t-shirt from their visit.

CR was never about selling big ticket items. It was a blow-out at below brother-in-law rates to empty a building. The last 6 months it was switched to All You Can Eat flat pricing that dropped in price as the warehouse was further emptied. A lot of it ended up on eBay where sellers did pretty well for themselves selling and shipping things that no volunteer wanted to take liability for.

Source of above info? Me. I was one of 3 key holders for the building.

Now, OP can make buck if he / she negotiates the price properly. Sealed NIB items will sell for a premium. Some people want those items for their collection and others will want them for their own strange reasons like doing unboxing videos. NIB software such as games will sell like hotcakes. Programming languages and popular applications will sell well. Utilities, AV, and other misc. stuff, not well at all. Accessories will be hit and miss with rarer and more popular ones selling, but mice, modems, switch boxes, printers, and more will not. Most ribbons, inks, tapes, and other things that deteriorate over time will be trash. We found at CR that a large number of backup tapes and their drives had melted belts, melted rollers, and media that tended to stick together on spools. Motherboards, I/O with clock/calendar, and other items with batteries will need to be carefully inspected for damage. Varta is the destroyer of all things PC. Similarly Macs must be checked for Maxell, destroyer of worlds, where those incredibly corrosive lithium batteries like to show off their destructive capabilities. Things will also need to be checked for leaking or cracked caps too as the older systems will have plague era caps.

Still, for the right price there's money to be made. Even the damaged items (batteries, caps, etc...) can be sold to the right collector / restorer if priced to their liking.

 

[channelmaniac]

Those CRT's NIB would be worth something if they were not falling apart and water damaged from the looks of it.

If they are NIB, they should be wrapped in plastic and protected. Even if not, at Computer Reset there was around 16 Apple II color composite monitors found out back of the building covered in leaves and trash for many years. Almost all of them displayed a raster and an image on the screen.

 

[NeXT]

I was the person who was tasked initially with selling the remains of Rawn's Buy and Sell's massive inventory of old computer hardware when it was sold to the hackery in 2010. I still got photos of that job and the warehouse crammed with 20something pallets, each at least six feet tall. I worked on that lot on and off for two years and after about ten months sales really began to slump. By 2012 we could still sell you a IIe package for $200 with disk drive, monitor and 80 column card but even that wasn't flying off shelves and into the mail. Eventually it was costing more to employ me than we were making back in sales and I was let go.
It's been nearly 15 years and when I go to the hackery there is still items from that sale they have never been able to sell. We did indeed though end up recycling a large quantity of software, documentation and generic PC's that we couldn't even give away in bundles. (I distinctly remember in 2012 our ebay store couldn't sell unopened retail copies of Microsoft Works because reasons ebay was being stupid about, so we were forced to junk them all)

 

[syzygy]

A guy just up and leaves and is never seen again. The store remains vacant for years...it is implied that it has remained vacant for at least 20+ years. I looked at the video and it looks to me that there are areas that have been plundered.

These are huge red flags to me. Frankly, it is also a red flag that the OP wanders in with this "new opportunity", when this stuff has been sitting around there for decades.

I am also suspicious n that the OP just doesn't want to see all this go to the land fill and really isn't intent upon making money.

Suspicious by nature, I would be doing a search on law suits filed by the building owner as well as the guy who left and never came back and anything else that is connected with the whole mess. Until I fully understood the nature of this situation, and had 100% confidence that I could legally purchase the contents with no fear of creditors, law suits, whatever. I would not go further. If I could go further, I would contact and pay for a lawyer.

If I were to go even further, I would calculate how much it would cost me to move and store everything and also account for removing the garbage. Then I would affix a price on known nib items at about 30% of what they have sold for recently. I would then offer about 15% of the total of only those items that I could estimate as a reasonable total for what I could anticipate selling in a year. Something along those lines.

If the building owner didn't go for that I would walk away.

That is the approach I would take....and yes, I am suspicious and risk averse.

Too much effort? Yes, maybe. Too much risk vs. too little reward - possibly, but then there is not even a hint of what kind of $$$ is being discussed.

 

[NeXT]

Looking at the video it's pretty clear this is the Computer Factory Outlet store in Norman, Oklahoma.
Photos of that place has been bouncing around the internet and Reddit for at least four years now as multiple people have harassed the owner to open up and let them in but indeed, the place was locked in legal limbo for quite a while. If you are careful enough looking at the video and various photographs looking through the window over the last four years you can see things have moved around, there are boxes in places there were not previously and there's more clutter scattered around the floor like things were being ransacked so it's been picked over more than once.
Considering how many individuals have already gone through the building I too agree that unless the seller can provide proof of residual value, don't offer much more than what it would cost to have the building cleared.

 

[VERAULT]

Looking at the video it's pretty clear this is the Computer Factory Outlet store in Norman, Oklahoma.
Photos of that place has been bouncing around the internet and Reddit for at least four years now as multiple people have harassed the owner to open up and let them in but indeed, the place was locked in legal limbo for quite a while. If you are careful enough looking at the video and various photographs looking through the window over the last four years you can see things have moved around, there are boxes in places there were not previously and there's more clutter scattered around the floor like things were being ransacked so it's been picked over more than once.
Considering how many individuals have already gone through the building I too agree that unless the seller can provide proof of residual value, don't offer much more than what it would cost to have the building cleared.

Sounds like a situation to stay very very clear of...

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Somehow I missed the video earlier.

Just saw it myself... or just skimmed it, anyway. And...

Most of that stuff is worthless.

I agree, this place is a trash out. Sure, there's a few boxed goodies, but most of the shrink-wrapped item I see are garbage like ethernet hubs, network cards, and modems. There are a few boxed scanners and printers, which are "interesting", but basically useless, some odds and ends like ZIP drives and tape backups (that probably don't work anymore)...

And beyond that, it's also crystal clear that the place has been thoroughly ransacked. There's trash *everywhere* and there's clearly been some looting going on that's involved people grabbing stuff off shelves/out of cabinets/etc and dumping them out on the floor. The back room is full of open/incomplete computers literally half-buried in trash, and while I see tons of low value junk like cables and loose network cards the thing I don't see is any large stashes of things like CPUs, RAM, etc.

(When the camera went past the row of rack servers it was clear they were gutted down to bare motherboards, without even CPUs installed. All of those systems are scrap metal, full stop, outside the low level of interest you *might* be able to drum up on eBay if you were willing to curate the whole mess and sit and hold listings for a *long* time..)

Honestly, looking at what's going on in the backroom this place stinks to me like part of their business was acting as a local Dell warranty service provider/installer/etc, and that a fair amount of the inventory they have back there is customer returns. There's a *lot* of unboxed and incomplete (and by extension, very possibly broken) systems, they have literal heaps of proprietary Dell junk on the floor and in shelves (and man, I sure called it when I brought up Optiplex GX1s...) that might have been useful back in the day if they were doing a lot of repairs/refurbishment work but is less than worthless now. (In the front room they have systems with "Refurbished" tags on them for sale, which seems like pretty strong support for this interpretation.) All these proprietary fragments are useless to anyone *not* trying to repair a specific late-90's or early 2000's Dell, so... unless you want to be one of those perpetual eBay stores that lists stuff like this at wishing prices for years hoping someone will eventually come along that happens to need, I dunno, a PCI riser for a GX1 that happens to be a critical part of their hospital's MRI machine or whatever and is willing to pay through the nose for it I'd say it's all basically zero value.

Looking at the video it's pretty clear this is the Computer Factory Outlet store in Norman, Oklahoma.

Yeah, you totally nailed it, and yes, this place has been trashed, possibly repeatedly, since the pictures that made the rounds in 2020 were taken.

Honestly, the way it's trashed kind of reads to me more like malicious mischief and/or someone looking for actual "valuables" (cash or whatever) than someone actually trying to comb the store for desirable eBay bait. (Although, I dunno, they could be the reason there's all those empty CPU sockets in the back room?)

There is one solution but it's not one for profit: Build small systems with the old monitors and motherboards, and give to low income families.

This stuff is all 2001-vintage at best; not only is it too slow to do *anything* with today, it's trivial to find 2008-2012 (or better) computers for "just as free" which are actually useable. This junk has almost no practical value.

Computer Reset at least had a lot of stuff from the 1980s (and even earlier), which was really the focus of most of the attention it received. I mean, sure, I get it, there are actually people out there nostalgic for the Windows 9x-XP era and they do pay money for desirable items, but... again, comparing to Computer Reset, the entire contents of this store is basically what was left over at Computer Reset right near the end after all the interesting stuff had been sold out. (I'm just basing this on what I saw on LGR's last video from the place before the sale was over, of course, but I feel like it's a pretty fair comparison.)

Anyway. Yeah. I wouldn't touch this with a ten meter cattle prod.

 

[the3dfxdude]

Wow. I remember this one being in the news. If the 2020 photos, vs today are any indication, it does seem to have attracted at least mischievous people when it spread in the news. Kind of makes me wonder media drawing attention to finds are only causing harm...

I only see trouble buying the inventory out. This isn't like CR. This place certainly was completely neglected, then ransacked, where no one could stop it, because ownership has been in question.

If there is a legitimate owner, and they aren't trying to sell the entire lot; correct me if I'm wrong, the video isn't really clear. If there are boxed CRT monitors, complete in packaging. That can be useful. So if you can confirm that, and you can store them, that is something. But only if this is really a legitimate transaction and they will part with a small selection at a fair price. Otherwise stay away. I saw almost nothing worth spending time on.