About 1973 or 4 when I was 13 or 14 a small shop opened in town.
He bought damaged and overstock kits and resold them.
He had a kid whos job it was to inventory the damaged kits to make sure they were complete, then he'd strap 5 or 6 together and sell the bunch for .50 to $2.00.
I'd buy them buy the hundreds
The owner got himself into some coke problems and the shop closed around 76 or 77.
Jump ahead to a present day. I land a job with the County, My boss is a couple of years older than me but from the same town, we get to talking one day and lo and behold he was the kid in that shop who inventoried the kits and got them ready for sale.
When the shop closed he got ALL the inventory. 500 kits or more, most still wrapped.
Some 30 yrs old and older.
We are seroiusly considering ebay for some of the collection.
30 years later and I'm building again....
Kits from the same shop, My boss has been feeding my habit for months now.
I have a supply that could possibly last for years.