I once did something similar to this; while e-goldmine is essentially "local" to me, I've never ordered anything from them!
Instead, I go to this other place in south Phoenix, called "Apache Reclamation and Electronics" (it's where I found my $100.00 Altair - no kidding).
Sometimes they get in things from tech benches and whatnot, and because they don't want to sort them they sell them to you at "scrap" prices; so, one day I went out into their back "yard" area outside, and found a box (plastic bin) of waterlogged components (it had rained). Some were ok, some was trashed; some were rusted but would clean up.
Anyhow, I took it in and asked how much; $80.00 later and many hours sorting and googling components, I probably ended up with $500.00 worth of stuff; a ton of various IC's (many 74xx TTL stuff, plus about 50 ULN motor driver ICs, tons of small PNP transistors, etc), lots of resistors, several 8-bit CPUs (6809, 8080, etc), diodes, and other things. Plus the plastic bin/box.
It's a great place to shop and browse; prepare to get dirty and dangerous, though - I've been going for almost 20 years now, ever since I moved to the Phoenix area, and sometimes I wonder if something is going to fall on me or otherwise injure me. They sell tons of surplus and old parts (they have one neglected back-room filled with NOS vacuum tubes!); as well as old/surplus/broken equipment (they've had an old industrial 50 watt CO2 laser sitting around for about 10 years now). It isn't as cool to wander as the aisles of Equipment Exchange (another favority Phoenix haunt), but at least an individual can purchase most things there (EE sells mainly lab/fab equipment - for example, you can buy old industrial robots or wave soldering lines).
