What happens to the gear when a shop closes

[Pjotr27]

Most of the time there is a sale or they sell the whole inventory to a business who is specialized in buying stuff from bankrupts...
In the Netherlands there are a lot of online websites with that stuff.
Most are based on bidding...Sometimes you are lucky, most of the time you pay to much..

[FreddieFerric]

If he filed Chapter 7 the trustee steps into his shoes and takes control of his assets subject to the allowed exemptions the debtor can claim. The trustee can either move to sell those non-exempt assets (if they are valuable enough) or he can simply abandon them (which would leave them in the hands of the debtor). In any event, the debtor is required to send notices to all of his creditors so they can attend the meeting of creditors to assert whatever rights they may have.

If he decided to close up shop and quit business I imagine he arranged a return of whatever floorplan equipment he had and anything that he purchased for his inventory is probably in his garage or basement (or both).

It may be worth tracking him down to see what he has left and make him an offer.