MAKE | Argo electronics – Surplus electronics in NYC

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By Phillip Torrone
Posted 2008/02/25 @ 2:00 pm
Category Electronics, General

Argo electronics is one of my favorite (weekly) stops on Canal street in New York City. Canal street is historically known for tiny packed-together stores filled with goods from China and street merchants hocking knock off handbags, Rolex watches to pirated DVDs, but there are a few electronic and electronic surplus places that are a treasure trove of goodness. In the past I’ve found things like $1 laser pointers, $3 VCR motors (good for robots) and boxes of power supplies. Whatever the prices say on the bins are negotiable, and you likely should… More photos – Link.

Editor’s note: This post kicks off our first of a few “mobile posts” which will appear on MAKE – sponsored by Windows Mobile. Only the links and voice that appear in the mobile post box (below) are part of the campaign on MAKE – pt.

In the Maker Shed

11 Responses to Argo electronics – Surplus electronics in NYC

Steve on February 25th, 2008 at 3:09 pm said:

Wow, they still have the same inventory that they had in 1972 when I lived there!

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NYCBuilder47 on February 25th, 2008 at 3:24 pm said:

Whoa, I am going to stop there this week!

Thanks Pete!

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samuel gamlin on February 25th, 2008 at 4:37 pm said:

that should be the visit the NYC advert

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Lenny Nero on February 25th, 2008 at 6:05 pm said:

Not only the same inventory…but the same horrible prices. This place, canal surplus and canal plastics used to be favorite haunts… but ebay has made it so much easier to find electronics goodies for more reasonable prices.

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Lux on February 25th, 2008 at 6:50 pm said:

Any similar kind of stores around Boston?

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Collin Cunningham on February 25th, 2008 at 7:07 pm said:

I thought 269 was the only electronics shop on Canal.
I’ll bring my bargaining shoes.

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Randy on February 28th, 2008 at 12:24 am said:

The selection is kinda blah… and the prices often tend to be reflective on how much the staff feels they like you that day. It’s still the best NYC has to offer that I know of.

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Paul G on March 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm said:

I used to go here with my dad when I was a kid – 70′s. Thanks for reminding everyone it still exists.

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- Jordan on July 1st, 2009 at 6:17 am said:
  
  Do not trust the salespeople in this store. I bought two “fully functional” dell sx270s from this store about 1 week ago. They were missing a hard drive and ram, but they assured me that the computers “should work.” So I bought them, plugged them in at home, AND NOTHING HAPPENED.
  
  I opened up the case and noticed that almost every capacitor was blown on the mobo. How they could call this “working” is beyond me.
  
  I was about to file in small claims when I realized that they wrote “Final Sale” on my receipt, and had only verbally assured me that they were functional.
  
  Please be careful when shopping here and be sure to get them to write anything and everything they claim onto the receipt.
  
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Henry Lee on October 14th, 2011 at 6:49 am said:

This place is an overpriced DUMP, and the guy working (likely the owner?) was a major A*HOLE. A lot of the ‘stuff’ looks like crap that was retrieved from garbage cans, then thrown into boxes to re-sell. I was looking for a couple of small 12V ac transformer/adapters, and he tried to charge me $4.00 each. (I can buy the same brand new on the internet for $2.50 each.) When I asked to negotiate, he said “get out of my face.”

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Steve on April 7th, 2012 at 5:42 pm said:

This place must have gone waaaay downhill since the time this article was posted. It was filled with totally useless junk – none of it seemed like much value at all for Makers unless broken mirrors and baskets of broken ceramic pieces are what you’re looking for.

Don’t waste your time!

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