I am not the person to shy away from a good buy, as I’m always in the process of looking for bargain items. *winks* I knew of two surplus shops in Araneta Center: one was HMR Surplus, while the other was MSM Surplus. The former was more “upscale” (due to airconditioning), while the latter was in a newly-occupied stall beside Farmers Market. I have never been inside both of them until today, and I was expecting to buy at least a reasonable price for a functional item we can use in the apartment.
First stop, HMR Surplus. They are occupying a really large space on the ground floor of Telus Buuilding, just behind Araneta Coliseum. They made me leave my bag in the counter, and I was not sure whether they allow usage of cameras inside, so I only have my cellphone camera to work with, thus the less-than-desirable resolution of the photos.
I am not a fan of buying electronic equipment from surplus/secondhand stores, because I’ve seen enough Imbestigador episodes where a fire has started from surplus-bought appliances. I was looking for sleek furniture (closet, storage box or table) because we can’t afford to have bulky pieces. I beelined to the furniture section to see if they have interesting items, and I was happy to see the type of items we wish to have.
But when I searched for the price tag, I was shocked. They were not remotely cheap for a surplus item, and most of them are priced higher than what SM sells. It was not as if they were selling hardwood furniture, but they almost have the same type of modular, pre-assembled materials as SM. Not gonna happen.
But I found one item that I will most probably buy if money were not an issue. I found four stackable drawers on top of each other and they have the exact storage capacity that I needed. I imagined the type of things I would put inside, but at Php 1,790 each, I will not bother buying even one. however, It gave me a good idea of the type of storage I will use because we need as many multifunctional items in our small room.
So I left HMR Surplus and went next to MSM Surplus. I think they have opened barely three weeks month ago, because they still have that loud music playing, which was very typical of newly-opened stores in the Philippines. LOL
They have toys, shoes, bags, picture frames, appliances, household goods and even clothes in their two-storey store. They have a membership of Php 100, which gives the member a 10% discount, but I’m not too sure how much of help that would be. Again, I went straight away to the household goods and saw old lighting fixtures, paintings, and kitchenware. They do not have a lot of furniture, though I saw a little table or two inside. But what caught my eye was this solid black frame from Melannco, which I considered as the perfect size to use as an exhaust fan frame. I don’t think we can do a lot of things inside the apartment, which includes making a hole in the wall big enough to accommodate an exhaust fan. We can use a little more of ventilation and I saw the smallest, 6-ince exhaust fan from Western appliances in farmers.
There was no problem taking photos inside this surplus shop, and as my hands were quite shaky, I did not bother getting macro/detailed shots of other items. I knew right away that I needed this frame, but how expensive this could be? So when I approached the lady upstairs, she took a look at it, flipped it up and down twice and priced in at Php 175. I was hoping it would be for sale at around Php 100, but it was clear that she can price it at php 200 and I’d still get it. And as if she was dubious I would do a small skullduggery, she made it a point to rush downstairs just to inform the cashier of the frame’s price. LOL
After securing the frame, I needed the exhaust fan. Another DIY project in the making and I hope I can do something to make it fit snugly inside the frame.
