Cleaning House

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

Alright, I promise I won't keep harping on this, but I have a few things to share with regards the last posting about "The End of the Line" for a hobby department when a mom and pop hardware store closed up this month.

First, to my great amazement, that single posting  has been the single most-viewed entry of this entire blog.    It's more than 25 times as much as I had expected. Unbelievable!

Second, I've been sharing on Facebook the countdown to the store's closing, and encouraging my rocketry friends in the area to go score some supplies before it was too late.  I guess I either struck a nerve, or I have been succeeding in my efforts.  

Third, there were some vintage model airplanes that hung from the rafters for years that were priced to sell. They were gone as of yesterday.  Someone went after them. Good for them!

A good friend of mine who has been a vendor at area launches for years drove to see the store today and what was left.  He shared a photo of the shelf where the rocketry items have been on display for years... totally bare!


Now, I don't know if he swooped in and bought EVERYTHING that was left.. or if he was expecting to see everything that I had seen yesterday when I was there.  Perhaps it was another rocketeer who though it was a bargain.  Or maybe it was a competing hobby shop down the road a bit that made a move for EVERYTHING, and is intending on reselling it all in their store.***

But I do know that someone had made a deal with the store. They were going to take everything that was left on the last day...which by my calendar, is tomorrow.  The owner had speculated for me that "He" (the mysterious man who had made the offer), would be putting it on sale at flea markets. 

 But that doesn't ring true with me, cause I don't think these are the things that most people would be shopping for in a flea market, nor displaying at one.

(I say this as I have just scored a box of bulk motors last week from someone who had bought them at an antiques store specifically for resale.)

I think it more likely that someone who heard of my efforts to publicize the great sale moved in sooner than expected.

As a result, it's gone.  And we may never know who got it all. (But I promise you, I'll keep my ear to the ground to see if I hear any reports of the stuff surfacing.)

This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer saying, "So long, Joe..."

***EDIT:  I now know...I heard from my friend that he made a deal for everything to save it from either the landfill or some dark, disorganized warehouse.***

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