Oscars surplus in Toronto
 

Do any of you Southern Ontario guys remember an Oscars surplus at 270 Spadina Ave in Toronto? I recently bought a box of holsters that originally came thru them.

I did frequent all of the surplus stores when I first went to Borden in 1981, but I don't recall this one. Does anyone remember them and when they closed? Bought a few things from Hero surplus....still have some of them 40 years later.

Oscar’s was a typical surplus store in downtown Toronto. It was about 1980 that the store was sold and he moved to an industrial unit in Downsview: Dufferin and Finch area as I recall, where he dealt in wholesale military surplus soft goods. I often went there to pick through the mounds of soft goods. He was an affable dealer, a survivor of tough times in WW2 Europe. As with many surplus dealers he had a wife who hovered in the background in the later years to make sure he didn’t be too generous in his dealings. I still use a drill press branded with his logo: the beginning the importation of Chinese tools that began to come to Canada in the 1980’s. I don’t recall ever knowing his last name.

Thanks Brian.

The old time surplus stores...sure do miss them. We still have my favorite surplus yard, but the owner can not live forever, and there are no succession plans.

Hero? Or Hercules ?

Probably Hercules. If so it was on the east side of Yonge Street just north of Wellesley. The building is still there but its army surplus days are long gone. It was a classic with barrels of SMLE's, No.4's, torched Brens and Bars for $15 to $25 apiece. Oddly they had the worst torch cut Sten I've ever seen hung on a hook behind the counter and they wouldn't bring it down, sell it or even let you touch it. Up a wide squeaky wooden staircase and at the back of the second floor were bins of surplus that seemed to get added to weekly.

About three doors down was 'Nicks' who had bundles of NOS '37 pattern web, but only ones side of those L-straps.

Long Extinct Surplus Stores
 

I also remember Save More by Moss Park and King Sol on King Street West. I used to be able to make a day-trip of hitting all of the downtown surplus stores by taking the Voyageur Bus to and from Ottawa. It would be a long day, but worth the time.

I even recall the days when Ottawa had three militaria stores! John's War Surplus in Pembroke was also a pretty good place to find stuff.

You guys are right...Hercules. I bought a no1mk3 barrelled action for $5 or $10, and they had crates of 2" mortar rounds in the varnish for $2 each. Bought a bunch of other things there, but that is what I remember.
I also remember walking around killing time and ended up walking by Levy Auto parts. It was a Saturday so they were closed, but at least I can say "I remember when....."

Fleshing out the surplus stores in yesterday Toronto was the one on the south side of King Street (Queen Street?) just east of Bathurst, King Sol's maybe? Upstairs was a treasure trove of 19 set parts and even the first ever No.19 Amplified set I'd run across...it confused the heck out of me. The problem was you needed to go to the store when the boss wasn't there so the skinny guy would let you at it. To this day I figure he was pocketing the cash we gave him.

There was also another one on the other side of Yonge near Parliament that had Irving parachute harnesses, Oliver and 1903 Pattern leather bandoleers and once, a Dalton dead reckoning computer.

I seem to recall Hercules had an artillery rangefinder for around $300 near the front entrance. Way too rich for me back then...that was two weeks pay. Even today I would not expect to spend a lot more than that.

So back to the present.......
 

Toronto being the hub....... what stores do we have that are worth while visiting?

I have been lucky doing smaller antique shops and asking for anything military...got lots of ashtrays made from brass shell casing.....the odd helmet, Canadian machete (WW 2), etc. and usually a lot cheaper than at a military flea market....... focus on the small town along the St Lawrence..... or even remote areas inland....... you may have to scrounge around once inside.....

Do we still have the big surplus store on Steele in the airport area???

Amazing, I remember that well. All I wanted was the tripod and as you can imagine I got nowhere with them.

I remember “Nicks” older store before they moved to the current location. Heaps of stuff everywhere and piled up on top of each other. I made my way down to the basement and it was packed floor to ceiling with webbing and rotten cardboard boxes. I crawled around through most of it but then decided I’d had enough when I noticed everything in the back corners was covered in rat poop and pee. The block of buildings his store was in was “old Toronto” 3 story commercial buildings. I can only imagine just how many sets of eyes were watching as I crawled around.