[Germany] Helmut Signer is no more ?!?!

[DC1MC]

So the site is down, they don't answer the emails, the phone still rings, but nobody picks up, what is happening there ?

And if by chance the company closed down, does anybody know what will happen with the stock, they've had some nice things, even most of the time overpriced and I'll hate for them to go to the recycling.
I can host some of these refugees here and I'm pretty sure some other forum members as well.

 Anybody around Aachen to have a look ?

  Cheers,
  DC1MC

[Zucca]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/keithley-2000-bench-kit-(uk)/msg1678688/#msg1678688

They respond to me after 3 days.

[Dr. Frank]

Yes, obviously the Helmut Singer GmbH is closed and since 15th January 2018 'in liquidation'. Search 'Handelsregister Aachen Singer', HRB 15785.
To finally close a GmbH, it's necessary for legal reasons, to 'liquidate' for 1 year, to fulfill possible claims from creditors, so that will happen in January 2019.
There had been some rumors already on microcontroller.net, that he wants to retire, but could not find a successor for the company.

Helmut Singer should be far in his 70ties already. (There's an 8 years old photo from elektor).
I have bought many RF tubes for our RWTH Aachen physics institute about 30 years ago, at his shop, where I met him personally... he's a really fancy person..

A pity, as several 'from stack' devices really were cheap and did indeed work fine, or with slight repairs, like the Fluke 5200A, 1979 vintage, for 225€ incl. shipment.
He had mostly VERY old stuff, and when being 'tested' they were way too expensive.

Frank

[guido]

There have been a number of clearance sales (flohmarkt) last year, early this year. You could also browse through his stock (lager) at the other side of the road. I bought a number of items, to keep me busy for a long while 

• Prema 6040S (needs repair)
• B&K load (needs repair)
• -48V powersupplies for my cesium standards
• 19 inch rack
• general resistance KV divider
• Fluke 750A
• a number of ESI metrology components
• Tek XY monitor for parts

The Prema i got was a customer return because of the problem (don't know when that happened). It had already some repairs done to it and it is very dirty from the inside. Would it have worked, then it was still not in an acceptable state to sell as tested in my opinion. I took it apart completely, will restore it eventually.

There is/was? still a ton of stuff present, not sure how he is going to get rid of it. A lot will be unsaleable, apart from scrap prices. E.g. old telco test devices. The above stuff i got for reasonable prices in my view, but a lot of other gear was still according to his tested prices and i passed. Would be a shame if those parts would be scrapped.

Edit: added a teaser, there was no lid on one of the boxes. Guess the box 

[DC1MC]

So, is it worth doing a trip to Aachen, anybody around Mannheim for a ride share to search trough cadavers  ?

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[guido]

Wonder if you would get the opertunity. He usually only opened the shop only once a month. I think he does not have staff anymore.
I guess he has/will sell the whole lot in one go. Too much hassle otherwise. And keep in mind he still knows his prices. He always did 

I bought quite some stuff, but others bought a lot more at those days. Full vans etc. Anything he wanted to get rid of cheaply (back then) and was interesting is gone i think.
If he would change his prices for a last time before selling the lot, he would sell more (at least to me).

There are not many cadavers. The equipment that was there looked complete. I think they fixed up equipment if somebody wanted to buy something specific.
There is no equipment around that looked like parts units. Anything not sold as-is was scrapped.

Could be that it ends up at an auction company...