Crown surplus closing in Calgary

[r.morrison]

Well....as life would have it, another Canadian, if not International Institution closes its doors after 71 years. Crown Surplus of Calgary Alberta has sadly announced it's shutting the doors. Hanno will be posting a News broadcast shortly.
I personally have been affiliated with Crown for over 50 years. Having lived in Calgary for 12 years, it was the "go to" place for army surplus. You could find the damndest stuff in there. WW11 camo nets, still tied up with the original bailing cord for $29.95. God, there's a smell I can never, ever get rid of. Those were the days where items that we'd be killing each other for on Ebay, were piled up there higgly piggly for pennies on the dollar. I remember buying my first deactivated Bren and Sten guns there, when people knew how to properly deactivate a firearm! One thing I have to pay tribute to, was the late owner, Gordon Cumming. When I first started going there in the early 1970's, Gordon had put together a small museum off to one side of the store. I stand to be corrected...but there were 4 WW11 Tanks in this museum. I recall one of them being a "Churchill". The entire area was decorated with flags, posters, uniforms, weapons....just everything! Many years later, Gordon sold off the tanks, for lack of interest in the museum. Eventually years later when the Museum of the Regiments opened their doors, they had to go scrounging around Europe to find one. One item that has always been every collector's dream, was the Canadian Bofors Gun parked just outside the front of the store. Many a man has tried to buy it and unfortunately no success to anyone. So if any member is going to Calgary at any time soon, it would be a good idea to pop in and see if you can pick up a few deals before it's too late. And for others, just pop in for nostalgia's purpose.
Going to Crown Surplus was like going to Rome....you just had to visit the Vatican!
To the Cummings Family....."thanks for the memories!"
Robert

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here you go, Robert:

Calgary military surplus store closing after 71 years https://ca.news.yahoo.com/calgary-mi...160000015.html

71 years is a long time for a business, especially this type. My favourite dump store closed down decades ago

[barriefield-brian]

Sad to hear that. Enjoyed visiting it while in Calgary. Brian

[Bruce MacMillan]

I feel those of us of the baby boomer generation had the best access to war surplus. Just 2 or 3 decades after the war ended warehouses full of stuff (neat stuff) became available cheap. In Vancouver the biggies were 3 Vets and Army & Navy. Lee-Enfields in cosmoline sold for $5. Besides Crown another large one was Sabre Industries in Winterpeg.

[Gordons]

Crown surplus in Calgary is selling off a lot of old surplus, 2 Ford Cmps, 1 Chev cmp rough shape, 1950's M37, M152, Bofor 40mm barrel, a lot of old old surplus, tools, deactivated Bren's and sten's, and a nice somplete Bofor 40mm

[Gordons]

a few pic of the Bofor and barrel

[rob love]

Are the vehicles and gun listed anywhere? Are there prices associated with them? I think I saw a listing for a Jeep MB for the princely sum of $75,000, which is kind of unrealistic.

I had a firm price on that Bofors a dozen or more years back, but when I went to act on it, the price had gone way up. In the end I found one for considerably less.

[Gordons]

Nothing listed that I saw, it seems to be verbal, I just happened to be in Calgary and picked up local paper and read the story that John was closing, so I stopped in to see what was for sale.

Originally Posted by rob love

Are the vehicles and gun listed anywhere? Are there prices associated with them? I think I saw a listing for a Jeep MB for the princely sum of $75,000, which is kind of unrealistic.

I had a firm price on that Bofors a dozen or more years back, but when I went to act on it, the price had gone way up. In the end I found one for considerably less.