We Will Buy EVERYTHING in this Mom & Pop Computer Store

[Shahrad]

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Ever walk into a small computer shop and think “who is buying all these old products?” Well we did, and that weighed on us. Sleepless nights turned into exhausting days of wondering “just what is in that small computer shop?” It became such a problem that we found ourselves with no other option than to walk in, close the door behind us, and tell the owner “we’ll take everything you’ve got”. That’s what we did. We were forced to, if you really think about it. Just what are we going to get? Will there be RTX 4090s, or old Voodoos? 13th gen i9s or Socket 1 486s? Thunderbolt 4 cables or serial port connectors?

[Nightpaws]

Found this pretty interesting and it was a good watch with the dynamic between the shop keeper and Linus.

 

I was curious what motivated it and why this particular shop was chosen as that wasn't clear to me. Just because? A friend? Shop closing up? It felt like there was part of the story missing, but otherwise an interesting watch.

[djenson]

This has been the first LTT video in a while what I've genuinely really enjoyed. Funny, didn't feel like it was over before it started or was going on forever, and overall a really good idea from whomever suggested it. 

 

Great job LTT team.

[Silent Node]

32 minutes ago, Nightpaws said:

Found this pretty interesting and it was a good watch with the dynamic between the shop keeper and Linus.

 

I was curious what motivated it and why this particular shop was chosen as that wasn't clear to me. Just because? A friend? Shop closing up? It felt like there was part of the story missing, but otherwise an interesting watch.

I was thinking the exact same thing. The place is still in business, and makes no mention of an imminent closure. ( https://www.bbb.org/ca/bc/surrey/profile/computer-repair/blacklab-computers-ltd-0037-1248319 )

[Birblover12]

47 minutes ago, Nightpaws said:

I was curious what motivated it and why this particular shop was chosen as that wasn't clear to me. Just because? A friend? Shop closing up? It felt like there was part of the story missing, but otherwise an interesting watch.

Yeah, seems super strange. My best guess is that it's the first shop they called that would allow filming and also buying out literally everything. Interesting none the less on them taking the MrBeast route of content lol.

 

EDIT: Wasn't this the same store from Scrapyard Wars many years ago that someone bought a whole PC from or something? If so, that'd make a lot of sense.

[Andrew_C]

19 minutes ago, djenson said:

This has been the first LTT video in a while what I've genuinely really enjoyed. Funny, didn't feel like it was over before it started or was going on forever, and overall a really good idea from whomever suggested it. 

 

Great job LTT team.

My last visit to the forum was 6 years ago. I had to stop by to say that I couldn't agree more.

[TannerMcCoolman]

1 hour ago, Nightpaws said:

Found this pretty interesting and it was a good watch with the dynamic between the shop keeper and Linus.

 

I was curious what motivated it and why this particular shop was chosen as that wasn't clear to me. Just because? A friend? Shop closing up? It felt like there was part of the story missing, but otherwise an interesting watch.

We actually had this place scoped out for a while. My understanding is that Linus or another writer stumbled across it and had an idea for a video. When I went in to talk to him about it late last winter, Keith seemed to not only be game, but was also just really entertaining to talk to. Guy is always cracking jokes and they almost always land. I told him we'd be in touch, gave him my contact info, then proceeded to not respond for 6 months so we'd be sure to catch him by surprise. To my knowledge, he's got no plans of closing down, nor did we have any contact with him outside of this video concept. It also really helped make the decision easy to do this shop because he has a 4.7 star rating on google maps with nearly 200 reviews and still uses an ISP provided email address, which I personally take as a sign that someone is doing something right in their small business because it means that their clients have been returning for so long that it's difficult to change emails. 

[Needfuldoer]

Linus actually got a good deal on that G4 Cube, if it works and the power supply and speakers are included.

[yupimrandy]

17 minutes ago, TannerMcCoolman said:

We actually had this place scoped out for a while. My understanding is that Linus or another writer stumbled across it and had an idea for a video. When I went in to talk to him about it late last winter, Keith seemed to not only be game, but was also just really entertaining to talk to. Guy is always cracking jokes and they almost always land. I told him we'd be in touch, gave him my contact info, then proceeded to not respond for 6 months so we'd be sure to catch him by surprise. To my knowledge, he's got no plans of closing down, nor did we have any contact with him outside of this video concept. It also really helped make the decision easy to do this shop because he has a 4.7 star rating on google maps with nearly 200 reviews and still uses an ISP provided email address, which I personally take as a sign that someone is doing something right in their small business because it means that their clients have been returning for so long that it's difficult to change emails. 

Do you guys have any plans with all the merchandise? I remember watching JayzTwoCents video where he invites fans to buy his old hardware at a deep discount.

Though something I thought would be more fun and entertaining to watch would be to invite fans for a free "shopping spree". 5 or 10 go in at a time into a warehouse full of the merch spread on tables and they have 10 minutes or so to grab 10 items they want/need. As they're going around Linus asks them what in the world they could possibly use/need that for.  

[Birblover12]

Also I just realized, what are they going to do with all of the stuff? Best case scenario I'd hope it'd be responsibly recycled, or they just keep it till the end of time. Made me think back to Linus's idea of opening a store and selling stuff at a cheap price, so they can free up inventory space and give people cool stuff for low costs. Not sure exactly just how much stuff they got, but looked like a lot just in cables and boxes alone.

[JeffJK]

I would like to see them attempt to use all the products as they were intended.

[BondiBlue]

1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

Linus actually got a good deal on that G4 Cube, if it works and the power supply and speakers are included.

The power supply alone is worth what he paid for it in some cases. It's crazy how much people will pay for them, but they've definitely gone up in value quite a lot over the years. 

[ToboRobot]

1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

Linus actually got a good deal on that G4 Cube, if it works and the power supply and speakers are included.

It's one of the few computers that is art.  https://www.moma.org/collection/works/82134

Like the NeXTcube imo

[ToboRobot]

1 hour ago, TannerMcCoolman said:

We actually had this place scoped out for a while. My understanding is that Linus or another writer stumbled across it and had an idea for a video. When I went in to talk to him about it late last winter, Keith seemed to not only be game, but was also just really entertaining to talk to. Guy is always cracking jokes and they almost always land. I told him we'd be in touch, gave him my contact info, then proceeded to not respond for 6 months so we'd be sure to catch him by surprise. To my knowledge, he's got no plans of closing down, nor did we have any contact with him outside of this video concept. It also really helped make the decision easy to do this shop because he has a 4.7 star rating on google maps with nearly 200 reviews and still uses an ISP provided email address, which I personally take as a sign that someone is doing something right in their small business because it means that their clients have been returning for so long that it's difficult to change emails. 

This sounds familiar, was it discussed on the WAN show?

[bucklingspring]

39 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

This sounds familiar, was it discussed on the WAN show?

It was discussed on Wan last week, if I recall correctly.

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, ToboRobot said:

It's one of the few computers that is art.  https://www.moma.org/collection/works/82134

Like the NeXTcube imo

I hope that thing eventually finds its way into Horst's hands, maybe for a "what were they thinking?!" retrospective video. The Cube was definitely a case of form over function, and it really didn't fit into Apple's product strategy at the time. (It was much more expensive than an iMac, roughly the same price as a Power Mac G4, but with far less expandability. It only had an AGP slot and the built-in PC Card-like AirPort slot. That's it, everything else had to be external on the USB 1.1 or FireWire 400 ports.)

[djksm]

hmmm linus is mrbeast now??

[Loldarian]

Lol, neat video!

[LloydLynx]

4 hours ago, Birblover12 said:

Also I just realized, what are they going to do with all of the stuff? Best case scenario I'd hope it'd be responsibly recycled, or they just keep it till the end of time. Made me think back to Linus's idea of opening a store and selling stuff at a cheap price, so they can free up inventory space and give people cool stuff for low costs. Not sure exactly just how much stuff they got, but looked like a lot just in cables and boxes alone.

They'd better spare all the things that have nostalgia or novelty value.

[DanHolli]

Any chance we can get some of this stuff? I'd love to get those UPSs or G4 cube

[vascuionel]

Entertaining video, nice job!

As expected Linus was generous with the budget, I really hope the sponsor paid for it all.

[Mark Rathgeber]

Unfortunately I wasn't involved in this one, but I've frequented Black Lab quite often in the late 2000's. It helped that I worked literally across the street from there, but not having a car in combination with it being the only computer store in my neighbourhood made it an obvious choice. Keith is a stand up dude and I hope he decides to restock and continue operating.

[William Payne]

I liked this video. I have a nostalgic curiosity in stuff like this. It would be cool to have a completely working era correct computer like what my school class had when I was a kid. Not sure what I would do with it though. 

[Ottoman420]

I liked this vid, had a stupid smile on my face most of the way through, I get the impression Linus wants to help this guy modernize but i also think now would be a good time for that owner to hand it down to a son/family member or something.

 

You just know he is going to go restock with serial to serial cables and usb2 hdd enclosures and tv adapater cards to cater to the 3 or 4 techies who still run this stuff.

 

Anyway nice guy, not a nice darts player

 

 

[William Payne]

15 minutes ago, Ottoman420 said:

I liked this vid, had a stupid smile on my face most of the way through, I get the impression Linus wants to help this guy modernize but i also think now would be a good time for that owner to hand it down to a son/family member or something.

 

You just know he is going to go restock with serial to serial cables and usb2 hdd enclosures and tv adapater cards to cater to the 3 or 4 techies who still run this stuff.

 

Anyway nice guy, not a nice darts player

 

 

 

What is funny is I know older people than the guy in that video who are up to date with modern computer technology. Though you are also very correct in that many seem to stop at a certain point and never bother with anything newer.