[HeyLaughingBoy]

Good point that I hadn't thought of. I figured that the reason I hadn't seen any pulls in recent memory was because I didn't work in the segment of industry that was so cost-sensitive any more.

While we only used DIPs at that time, most of the pulls that I remember weren't removed from sockets: they had clearly been desoldered.

[Joel_Mckay]

Surplus driven hobby projects are very different from commercial/industrial products.

There are also valid reasons aerospace companies often change chip pin plating.

https://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm

Workmanship is important to some folks... =3

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Oh, this wasn't for hobby projects; I just worked for a cheapskate :-)