Berkeley Outlet, a destination for secondhand goods in West Berkeley, will close in the coming months. Credit: Nathan Dalton

Paul Neidert still has the receipts. All of them. Every single one he鈥檚 written out by hand since he began selling used furniture and other salvaged goods in April 1978 can be found in a cabinet behind his desk at Berkeley Outlet, his vast warehouse in West Berkeley.聽

While it may be surprising that a company still has nearly 50 years of receipts on hand, to Neidert it鈥檚 just business as usual.聽

鈥淚鈥檓 a hoarder,鈥?he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 throw anything away.鈥?/p>

But Neidert will soon write his final receipt, as he is finally ready to close up his second-hand shop, nine months after his wife, Kjersten, passed away from pancreatic cancer. At 84, Neidert can鈥檛 move around as well as he used to and isn鈥檛 nearly as strong as he once was, a must for a business that deals in large and heavy objects. And when he was offered what he called a 鈥渞idiculous amount of money鈥?for the warehouse near the railroad tracks at the west end of Heinz Street, he decided it was time to call it quits. Neidert will continue to open Berkeley Outlet鈥檚 doors every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until the building sale is finalized in late September or early October.聽

Neidert describes Berkeley Outlet as a 鈥渉oarder鈥檚 delight.鈥?It鈥檚 stocked with rows and rows of metal cabinets, desks, shelves, chairs, stools and other furniture. There are piles of reclaimed floor joists and old growth Douglas fir beams, stacks of pallets, pegboards, plywood and other lumber. There are pipes and metal rods and drawers full of screws and nuts and bolts. There are rusty wrenches for a dollar a piece聽 and metal drums full of casters. There are bicycle tire inner tubes and stacks of plastic buckets, lightbulbs long past their prime and old lamps and lighting fixtures. There are dozens of vintage computer keyboards and mice and boxes full of electronic cables. There are Dumas flasks and centrifuge tubes and other glassware and so much more.聽

鈥淪omebody was throwing that away,鈥?Neidert said, pointing to a length of white tubing coiled up in the rafters. 鈥淎nd I said, 鈥極h, you should never throw any tubing like that away, especially when I have a place I can put it.鈥?And it鈥檚 been sitting quietly up there for three or four years.鈥?/p>

Neidert seems to believe nothing聽 that works should go to the landfill.

He founded Berkeley Outlet in 1978, but Neidert鈥檚 fascination with stockpiling stuff began long before that. Growing up in Kansas City, he always collected the most paper for his school鈥檚 annual paper sale.聽

鈥淭he schools made some money,鈥?he said. 鈥淏ut it was a chance for me to hoard.鈥?/p>

After getting out of the Army in 1966, Neidert moved to San Francisco, where his brother lived. He moved across the Bay and took classes at UC Berkeley until his GI bill ran out. But he realized he didn鈥檛 need a university for his planned career.聽

鈥淚t no longer seemed lucrative to be at Berkeley,鈥?he said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have the GI Bill subsidizing me, and I found that I liked the used business, the hoarding business.鈥?/p>

Berkeley Outlet鈥檚 first location was at 800 Heinz Avenue, the former site of the Durkee Foods cannery. Neidert鈥檚 business occupied most of the ground floor, while the rest of the building was occupied by 鈥溾€妝oung artists and people struggling to live a more creative, alternative lifestyle,鈥?according to Edward Moore, who operated his burgeoning law practice out of the building.

Neidert and his wife threw the best parties, many of which took place on the rooftop, where the partygoers could see the San Francisco skyline across the Bay. The location made for particularly thrilling Fourth of July gatherings.聽

鈥淭hey were like the trunk of the tree,鈥?said Suzanne Pettigrew, who lived at the cannery. 鈥淢any friendships grew out of that connection.鈥澛?/p>

Neidert served as an inspiration to the many young artists who lived and worked at the cannery.聽

鈥淗e saw the potential in everything,鈥?said Pettigrew. 鈥淗e would see a piece of wood and see it as a tabletop or know what kind of screws would work on which base. He really knew how things were put together. I always admired his inquisitive mind.鈥?/p>

After the Durkee building was sold, Neidert moved his business down the street to 740 Heinz Avenue before buying his current warehouse at 711 Heinz Avenue. Each time, Neidert moved every piece of furniture by hand.

鈥淚 learned from him how much you can accomplish by simply putting one foot in front of the other,鈥?said Moore, who watched Neidert move out of the cannery.

鈥淗e just loves to move his furniture,鈥?said Pettigrew with a laugh.聽

Neidert loves everything about the business, it seems. He loves collecting discarded items and fixing things. He loves chatting with customers and haggling over prices.

鈥淎nd in this business, you get to go to the scrap yard,鈥?he said before pulling up photos of his recent visit to Custom Alloy Scrap Sales in Oakland. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 entertainment for me.鈥?/p>

Curious collectors and deal seekers who want to visit Berkeley Outlet in its final weeks should make sure to bring cash or a checkbook, as Neidert is currently not accepting credit card payments. Whatever he doesn鈥檛 sell, Neidert will likely move to Vacaville, where he owns six and a half acres. And if the spirit moves him, he may even set up a little roadside salvage yard and continue selling his treasures. The hoarding business is one that鈥檚 hard to quit.