Apex Surplus

A Warehouse That Doesn’t Quit

Apex Surplus runs several buildings deep on San Fernando Road, plus an open yard out back where oversized pieces sit exposed to the weather. The Slater family has been piling up electronic and mechanical castoffs here since the late 1950s, and the backlog shows in every direction you look. Aisles stack ten to fifteen feet high with bins of switches, connectors, circuit boards, transformers, and spools of wire sold by the pound. There’s no clean signage system pointing you toward what you want. You find things by looking, asking, or getting lucky.

What Fills the Shelves

The inventory runs wider than “electronics.” Aircraft cockpit parts, military communication gear from WWII through Vietnam, decommissioned test equipment, vintage TV and studio gear, ham radio sets, and steampunk-ready hardware all sit within a few aisles of each other. Prop houses and art departments come here for pieces that read as convincingly old, or convincingly strange, on camera. Hobbyists come to finish builds that would otherwise stall out waiting on a part nobody makes anymore. Engineers and longtime collectors describe it as one of the last surplus houses of its size and depth left on either coast.

Buying, Renting, or Just Looking

Some of what’s on the shelves is for sale outright. Some of it, especially the rarer film-ready pieces, is rental-only, held back for productions that need a particular look for a shoot. Staff can tell you which is which if you track one of them down, though nothing is marked clearly enough to sort it out on your own. Prices on the sale side lean cheap. Regulars often mention walking out with an armful of parts for a fraction of what the same items would cost new, when a new equivalent even exists.

Set Aside Real Time

This isn’t a browse-in-twenty-minutes kind of stop. The sheer volume of stock means a first visit can easily run an hour or two, longer if you’re hunting one item or just enjoy digging. Go in with a plan if you need a particular part. Go in without one if you just want to see what six-plus decades of accumulated electronics looks like stacked inside a working warehouse. Both approaches work here, and neither will feel rushed.

What to Know Before You Go

Apex keeps weekday hours only and closes by mid-afternoon, so this isn’t a weekend errand you can pencil in at the last minute. Expect dust, unlabeled bins, and wire spools that have spent real time sitting outside in the sun (the wire underneath is generally fine once you get past the top layer). The staff, several of them family members who’ve run the place for decades, are friendly and knowledgeable once you flag one down, and they’re used to walking newcomers through the basics of how the store works. Wear clothes you don’t mind getting a little dirty, bring a flashlight if you plan to dig into the darker corners, and budget more time than you think you’ll need. For anyone who likes hardware stores, salvage yards, or the appeal of finding something nobody else stocks anymore, an afternoon at Apex is hard to beat.