I've been shopping at K&K Surplus for um... I dunno? Certainly more than twenty years. I go there as a hobbyist usually, only rarely buying larger quantities for paying jobs. I buy steel and other metal stock, occasionally tools or random odds and ends of hardware.
Despite that I've never spent more than a couple of hundred dollars on any one trip, the staff are always helpful and patient with me. They have a small cut charge and they will cut anything - ANYTHING - that they have for sale. If it can be forklifted onto your flatbed, they can cut it.
They are always patient with me, despite that other buyers are getting hundreds of pounds of steel or whatever, even though I may only be getting one stick of angle or tubing or whatever, perhaps a chunk of brass. If you need chunky bits of stock, they've usually got "drops" cut from customer pieces lying around the yard or the main store-room, at very reasonable prices.
I like that they've got clean steel at one price and rusty steel at another, if I'm doing a small job and don't mind hitting the piece with an angle grinder, I can pinch pennies if I want to, or I can spend a little more and save time - the point is having the choice.
I like that they've got piles of random scrapped / recyclable hardware that I can paw through (do be careful, it's a working metal yard, it's full of filthy sharp edges, bring gloves and boots and don't be careless). If you show up in flip-flops, shorts, etc, they will hopefully not let you in.
I like that they will wheel and deal if you're reasonable and there's a reason to give you a break. Don't be That Guy who walks up to the counter with one $5 item and says, "can I have a discount?" and he's not even over 50. But if you've collected a bunch of odds and ends with no prices on them from the scrap yard, they will give you a good deal on the pile. Be reasonable and they will be too. They've always been good to me.
And while I haven't been there in ages (I need to go right now which is why I was thinking about them and wrote this) they used to be open at least part of the day on Saturdays, which was darned convenient for those of us working regular day schedules during the week. Not many scrap / surplus yards are open on Saturdays. read more
