Note: This article was originally published on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 4:45 in the morning and has been updated.
Unlike stealing items such as blankets and pillows from airplanes — as was the topic of this article — you can attend what are known as surplus sales where you can purchase just about anything which has to do with commercial aviation.
Surplus Sales: Buy Way Cool Items Instead of Stealing Them — Like a Landing Gear
I attended a surplus sale at what was then known as the Delta Heritage Museum — now the Delta Flight Museum — at the world headquarters of Delta Air Lines in October of 2012; and they had virtually anything of which you can think on sale.
Guess what? If you want the opportunity to purchase some really unusual items, surplus sales regularly occur at the Delta Flight Museum on the second Friday of each month from 9:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon in the Museum Support Building beside the Delta DC-9 aircraft parked in the back of the parking lot behind Hangar 1. These sales are a fundraiser for the Delta Flight Museum; and feature vintage and surplus items that are not available in the Museum Store. They are a treasure hunt each time, as you never know what you will find.
The next sale at the Delta Flight Museum is on Friday, June 13, 2025; and you can preview some of the items that are on sale. For example, you could get four packages of Delta paper napkins for one dollar. How about Medallion airplane tags for ten dollars each? You can even purchase a check-in desk that is used at the airport for only $150.00 that is “Great for a bar! Good height and size”.
Treasure hunt can be an understatement for this shopping experience. Here are some of the way cool — pardon the lack of proper grammar based on ebullience — items I found at the surplus sale which I attended:
For $125.00, you could have purchased a row of three economy class seats on which you can sit in your own home. On the day I was there was enough of a selection to fill your own aircraft.
Want to feel like a member of the flight crew? You could purchase your very own crew rest for only $475.00 — apparently marked down.
This galley setup cost $50.00 — but apparently the carts, doors and other “accessories” are not included. Do not expect a coffee maker or an oven to be included, either.
If you ever wanted your own lavatory, urine luck — this one was available for only $50.00. Although neither the toilet nor the blue liquid which fills it is apparently included in the price; but you can smoke in it without being concerned about violating federal law.
This landing gear of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft could have been yours for only $1,500.00 — or probably less money if your offer was good enough, as it had to be moved that day.
Final Boarding Call
Airlines other than Delta Air Lines have surplus sales as well.
Be aware that shipping is not available on surplus sale items — including aircraft parts and furniture. If you want to purchase the above items, you need to ensure that you have a vehicle which could haul them away, as if you plan to purchase an item of a larger size, then you should arrive at the surplus sale with a vehicle of an appropriately larger size. All items purchased at the surplus sale must be removed on that day.
The next surplus sale will occur in the Museum Support Building beside the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 757 aircraft parked next to the gate entrance of the Delta Flight Museum on Friday, June 13, 2025 from 9:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon Eastern Daylight Time.
Although I know that you would certainly not steal anything, it is important to note that you can purchase blankets and pillows at surplus sales as well — and model airplanes, plates and silverware, and all sorts of other things…
Delta Flight Museum
1060 Delta Boulevard
Building B, Department 914
Atlanta, Georgia 30354-1989
404-715-7886
Fax: 404-715-2037
museum.delta@delta.com
Plenty of free parking is available on site; but you will be required to pass through security at the entrance of the corporate headquarters campus of Delta Air Lines.
All photographs ©2012 and ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
