Horrible place. The people who work here are very rude and are not okay with helping you. The thriftstore also does not sell anything of value. They were closed the whole first week of school due to an auction, which sold only broken things, and I asked if they had any bikes for sale, because I needed one to get to my new job, and the people who worked here kept telling me to check their Facebook. They kept telling me I would find it on their Facebookz but I already checked multiple times, and there was no reference to anything they sold other than the fact that they were having an auction the first week of classes. When all these students needed things. What would literally be their best week of business.
They have odd hours, so be sure to check their website below venturing up there.
This place has changed a lot since I frequented it 15+ years ago, mostly in terms of what they stock.
"Back in my day", most of the left half of the building upon entering was filled with laptops and desktops past their service periods, or decommissioned for tax purposes. It was a great place to pick up a solid laptop for everyday tasks at rock bottom prices.
There also used to be a lot more desks, and even solid wood professor's desks (bought a huge heavy oak one for $35 that's still in use). Currently it's mostly file cabinets and an odd assortment of chairs in questionable quality. Most of the interesting goods are on display but listed on eBay for purchase.
All in all, you still might find a diamond in the rough occasionally but I feel like Goodwill or Centre Peace may provide more options at this point.
I took my son to visit Lion Surplus and he found a mouse and a computer keyboard and we paid a few dollars for each of them. They had used bikes, chairs, filing cabinets, dressers all for affordable prices! I like that Penn State sells their used items that are still in good shape to the community for decent prices. They also sell bakery items like breads, cookies and cupcakes. We will come back!
Large variety of chairs and tables available with some LCDs and MacBooks and bikes. The price tags are reasonable and as per the condition of the stuff.
Planned to go to the last auction they held. Showed up about half an hour early for the lot of vehicles. They held that lots bids at 11am instead of 1pm without any heads up or communication prior. They just decided to do it earlier the day of. I went the day prior to register. Wasn't told anything about times being updated. The card they handed out stated 1pm. Must be nice to have friends that can persuade you to start the auction earlier so you can get all the vehicles.
They have cheap prize monitors and computers. However, they are a little bit out of date. It might be a good suit for freshman who is a short of money as entry-level devices.
Finally, I got a reason to visit this superb place. Everything goes here for a super cheap price and mostly jave very good quality furniture, electronics and many more.
They normally don't have any guarantee or warranty or products, but they are fine to use and super cheap.
Are you going to find what you're looking for? Hit or miss. It definitely used to be a lot better.
A couple of things made this place less attractive to me than it used to be. The first is that prices have started creeping up. I kid you not, the first home that I owned was a condo, and I furnished it entirely from this place for around $50. A good sofa was like $20, a good chair maybe $10. Almost every single computer that I've owned was obtained from here. I am a tinkerer, so I have been "Frankensteining" computers for years taking parts of this and that to make a functioning desktop. This was certainly the place for that. Prices aren't what they were and are what I would estimate between double to triple that now depending on what you're looking for.
Since the COVID pandemic, their new hours are unattractive to me. I used to get off from work (night shift) at 6:30am, and I could run right over and see what they had that day. Now they open between 7:30 and 8:00 depending on the day making an odd hour or more that I have to waste when I am tired from work and just want to go home.
Now don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of solid deals to be found but there's no guarantee. I used to go constantly but now I really have to think if I want to wait for them to open and wager that I'll find a good deal, or if I am too tired and just want to go home and sleep.
I’m going to upgrade this to five stars. The people that work there are really, really friendly. That means something to me.
Look, there's no guarantee there will be anything interesting here on a given day. That said, I've found some great furniture, tools, and electronics here for very affordable prices. Staff are helpful.
This place is awesome but of course you can tell that by the other reviews. Stop in on a random Tuesday and you might find yourself with a new laptop... Or projector... Or camera... Or bike... I think you get the point here, but the values are unbeatable!
I have waited in line for two hours and I am still in line. I came to buy a monitor but at this point it is pointless. They have no limit on the quantity of something that someone can buy. I saw multiple people walk out with 10 plus monitors and computer towers. This is completely outrageous how they do this. There are students in need of stuff and this place allows people to buy huge amounts of these items without limit in order to resell them at a higher cost. Will most likely never visit this place again due to it's long wait times and its unethical selling practices.
I used to love this place and have probably spent way too much money here, but recently I've noticed the pricing on things have started going up on things I used to buy in bulk. They are also no longer putting anything good out on the floor, they keep it for the auction. I'd like to see some more stuff make it's way out on to the floor.
It has some neat stuff, especially furniture or some computer parts and computers. However do not expect to get a great deal on computer stuff other than keyboards or mice. Everything else is crazy pricey, an old 17 inch monitor with no HDMI and only DVI or vga? How about 55 dollars? Crazy
Students, This is a gold mine for free food. Go during their hours and pick up all you need. As long as you have Penn State ID, No questions asked, you can have anything you need for free. It is a little far from active campus but the Campus shuttle should get you right nearby.
Lion Surplus is located on the Penn State University campus. It is comparable to a second hand store. Basically, anything that has been replaced on campus, or outdated items, or surplus items are sent to this store for selling to the public. Inventory is constantly changing. Prices are great. Well worth a trip to explore, and buy!
Decent place. Decently priced furniture and other assorted things. Technology can be a bit pricey. Equipment typically sell for more than retail price at the tech auctions, not the surplus' fault though. Try to go during normal hours, that's where the deals are.
The stuff is decently priced for the most part. Occasionally you might see the odd overpriced item (usually electronics of some sort), but for the most part they do a decent job at hitting the mark.
Due to ever changing inventory, checking their Facebook page for current inventory is a must, especially if you travel any distance to get there. They usually post new stuff on there or will answer questions.
Consists of a lot of computers and office electronics at reasonable prices. They have a good selection of storage products as well. Customer service was great. They also have a few newer vehicles for sale out front of their location.
Not worth it for electronic equipment and computers. Their computers and other electronic equipment are very old technology (understandable), yet they price this stuff at or just slightly below current retail value for the new-technology counterparts. For instance, they wanted $10 for a regular old 2 button, wired mouse. You could buy this new for about that price with 4-5 buttons. Another example: $325 for a really old tower PC with an Intel Celeron-D CPU (single core and very low quality CPU) and no hard drive (and therefore no OS), which will cost you well over $200 to purchase to make the PC usable. Basically, unless you have an old HD and an OS you can install, you could be out $525 if you fell for this bunk. Then of course, it's still old technology with no warranty. I don't even know how much or what kind/speed of RAM it had because they would not let me open it up to look. But it doesn't matter, I guess, because you can get a brand new tower PC with hard drive, OS, multi-core CPU and warranty these days for about $400 or less! I only wanted to open up the tower just to see just how bad these people were screwing the public. But $325 for an unusable, old PC was enough to infuriate me. I'm not sure who buys this stuff or why they price "surplus" so high, but it's not worth the time end effort to visit this place.
Surplus Penn State computers, furniture, sports equipment, etc. They have a computer auction a couple times a year along with an equipment auction. They also have fleet cars out front to bid on.
I have bought more computer parts here than I can count and for relatively great prices. Definitely check this place out if you need a computer fast or if you like thrifting for electronics.
Five years ago, this place was filled with inspiration and ingenuity. Parts and components filled the shelves to revitalize old equipment or build something new--not to mention the gentleman running the store greeted everyone with a smile and kindly negotiated prices on items for students. My last visits couldn't be further from the past. PSU and management now list nearly everything online to the highest bidder, leaving little left to sift through in-store and skyrocketing prices. If you are in the market for an overused East Halls desk or obsolete cables, this is your place. If you want the Lion Surplus of old, I suggest visiting another University.
It's fun to stop in and see all the odd stuff for sale--and the tremendous amount of money the university wastes. Great place for used furniture--especially desks. Staff is very friendly and helpful, and they will help you load stuff up into your car.
Came out for their annual computer auction. Drove from Harrisburg. Worth the trip even on a weekday. Grabbed a couple computers for $50 each. Also got an Oscilloscope for $10 and some network switches for $5. Great place for deals
There's always something interesting for sale here, and usually CHEAP! there's always file cabinets, chairs, desks, and classroom things like that. But there's also a computer section which is pretty cool. I think they save the really nice monitors and things for their auctions (check their website, they happen a few times a year) but do be wary. I bought a dell optiplex from them, a core i5 complete with 4 gb of ram and a 500gb drive, for $125 -- thinking, hey, I can slap in my video card from a few years ago and have a killer system!!! Well... Despite having a PCI express slot, its totally blocked by the CPU heatsink (?!) And even worse, the power supply connector (which needs swapped out because its not high powered enough) is a proprietary, mini thing, requiring cable splicing of an adapter if you really wanna go that far. The staff doesnt really know this stuff, but just be wary because all sales are final (that's the crappy part). Rad place though.
I believe this is a well kept secret that all students should visit at least once. They have great prices for particular items, especially furniture. Just stay away from the computers.
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