Business man giving away 200 monitors

A Carson City businessman hopes to be able to give away 200 13-inch computer monitors in time for Christmas.

Gene Erskine, who has owned the House of Drake for 20 years, said he has all sorts of monitors, which work with personal computers.

"We've got some VGA, some SVGA and some touchscreen monitors," he said.

Erskine started out with 300 monitors he obtained from a failed company in Phoenix.

"They said they were going to haul them to the dump and asked me if I wanted them," he said. "I sent down a truck."

Erskine managed sell 100 of the monitors, but still has two storage units filled with them.

"Anybody can have one who wants one," he said. "They are boxed and wrapped in skin pack. All someone has to do is come out and pick one up."

He said he will have the monitors on a table in front of the store.

"I don't even want to sell them," he said. "I just want to give them away. Maybe people who can't afford a Christmas gift would like to get one of these."

He said there will also be 100 C-band, big-dish satellite receivers.

Erskine founded the House of Drake 20 years ago after leaving Southern California, where he operated a satellite dish lot before tiring of the traffic and congestion.

He encountered Western Nevada when he was wiring Holiday Lodges for the Olympics in Squaw Valley.

"I originally wanted to settle in Tahoe, but there were just too many trees," he said. "I didn't see how you could get a good signal there."

He has turned the operation of the store over to his son, Scott.

"He's doing great," Erskine said. "I'm just the handyman nowadays."

What: Monitor giveaway

When: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Where: The House of Drake

For information: Call 882-2221