WeirdStuff Warehouse

Spread over 27,000 square feet, the WeirdStuff Warehouse is a treasure trove of old (and occasionally newish) technology in the midst of Silicon Valley, surrounded by the cutting edge research labs of Amazon, NASA and Lockheed Martin.

The sprawling, slightly ramshackle retail establishment (which also sells online) was the brainchild of Chuck Schuetz. In 1986, Schuetz started reselling the unwanted electronics of various corporations, all of which were chucking away outdated but perfectly functional equipment. And so began the warehouse, which now attracts everyone from tech-obsessed tinkerers to kids hunting for cheap parts to intrigued tourists.

The range of items in sale is truly impressive, so much so that rummaging here is like rummaging through a museum of Silicon Valley innovation, some if it era-defining and some of it almost instantly forgotten.

There are disk drives and motherboards, desktops and laptops, Blackberries and modems, cables and server racks, printers, and books about Windows 2000. There are CDs for operating systems too old for even your grandmother to need, and electronic typewriters that most kids wouldn’t even recognize.

So if you want to build a robot from the 1990s or just want a trip down technology’s memory lane, the WeirdStuff Warehouse is the place to start. And who knows, maybe in 10 years you’ll be able to pick up one of those super-dated iPhone X contraptions for less than 20 bucks.

Update April 2018: The WeirdStuff Warehouse is closed as of April 9, 2018.