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03-22-2017, 10:40 AM   #1
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Too many cameras, collection growing by the day

So, being a "camera guy", I have found myself the local estate liquidator for photography gear. It all started about 6 months ago when the father of a good friend of mine passed away and his son brought me a bag full of Pentax 35mm gear in exceptional condition. Having been a Pentax user in the film era, I became nostalgic about the gear as I went through it and since it was all nearly mint, I purchased several of the items myself before listing the rest on Ebay.

More recently, another friend of mine discovered that he has cancer. The doctors attempted to treat it but he is too weak to continue with the treatments so he has been placed into hospice care. The medical bills are hitting him pretty hard and he has a HUGE collection of photo equipment dating back to the mid 1900s so he decided to sell it all to help with the bills. Again, he knew that I was a "camera guy" and that I had helped my other friend with the ebay side of things so he asked for my help.

I started to inventory and assess the condition of the gear that I would be selling and found some of to be in good working condition and other pieces to be in bad shape. He probably had 30-40 Pentax lenses, M42s, SMC-Ms, SMC-As, he even had an 8 element M42 50mm f1.4 that brought in a pretty nice price. He had probably 10 K1000s, a couple ME Supers, a KX, Super Program, ME F, and many others. There is also a bunch of odd Nikon, Mamiya, Canon, and vintage medium format TLR type stuff.

For my trouble of helping him, he has been giving me first crack at any items that I want. At first, I didn't think that I would be spending any money but the more I find in this extensive collection, the more I have been lusting after a few things, some of them things that I already have! I did not already have a mint ME F or 6 x 7 in my collection but I soon will. Just 2 days ago, he gave me a box with a few more K1000s, half a dozen lenses, a KX, and a Super Program in it. I couldn't help but add the KX and SP to their places next to their twins in my collection. I keep telling myself that I can only shoot with two cameras simultaneoulsly (one in each hand) so why to I need 15 of them but I never listen to myself (or my wife). I need to stop buying all of this gear so I can maybe afford to go buy some film and start using some of it!

03-22-2017, 10:42 AM   #2
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Sorry to hear about your friend with cancer, hope he pulls through.

QuoteOriginally posted by ctrout Quote
Too many cameras,
Not possible.
03-22-2017, 11:04 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by ctrout Quote
he has been placed into hospice care.
No pulling through from that.
03-22-2017, 01:02 PM   #4
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I recently lost my Mom to cancer in a very similar situation. My only advice to give, take many pictures while they are well, make as many memories with them as you can so you can reflect on them later when you look back at on your time together, always be positive, and most of all just be there.

I hope the best for your friend and you.

Good luck with the sales, at least if you take some of the gear perhaps it will bring them some peace knowing it is in good hands.

03-22-2017, 02:24 PM - 1 Like   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by W.j.christy Quote
at least if you take some of the gear perhaps it will bring them some peace knowing it is in good hands.
This has been one of his expressed wishes as well. He had an L.C. Smith SxS 12ga. from 1902 that had been his father's. He offered it to me and I initially refused and said that it really should go to his grandson perhaps. He told me that everyone in his family thinks that he's just a hoarder (he is actually) who has nothing but junk and that he would be happy to know that the gun would be out harvesting pheasants and quail over my spaniels for years to come. He is also excited to know that I will be making photos with his gear and then processing them in his tanks and printing them on his enlarger.

Thanks also for the suggestion of making memories and getting them on film. How appropriate that I record our last months together using the hobbies and the toys that brought us together. It was actually ham radio that brought us together, but our many other common interests that has brought us close. That's the trouble with being a "young" (45) man in an old man's hobby (ham radio). You make friends with a lot of 70-90 year olds but have little time to really get to know them. I've only been a ham for just over three years and have already lost as many friends in the hobby.
03-22-2017, 03:03 PM   #6
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It's good of you to help your friend in this time of need.

I have often thought about what should be done with my collected gear if I die suddenly.
I have mentioned to my daughter that dealers might have some interest and noted the nearest ones.
I know my family will receive pennies on the dollar of value, but that's better than throwing it all out.

Chris
03-22-2017, 03:53 PM - 1 Like   #7
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I have let him know that I do not want him to feel obligated to give me anything, that I will pay the going Ebay or market price for anything that I am interested in, the same as I did with my other friend's father's equipment. The agreement is that I will give him what I have paid recently, or what I would have paid for something based on buy it now prices of recently sold items since that is how I usually shop on Ebay. I recently got a nearly perfect KX for $30 shipped (with two broken bodies and 3 broken lenses) and saw another go for $47 shipped, with a working 50mm lens so I gave him $35 for the KX. He was planning on selling the L.C. Smith to Cabela's if I didn't want it. They were offering $1000 so I told him that if he was willing, I would split the difference between their offer and an agreed upon value. In searching online, we discovered that it was worth between $1600-1800 so I offered him $1400. I'm sure that if I wasn't helping him with these items, he would be selling to low-ballers on Craigslist or dealing with the local pawn shops. The last thing that I want to see is him being forced to accept pennies on the dollar for valuable property.

03-24-2017, 04:00 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by ctrout Quote
The last thing that I want to see is him being forced to accept pennies on the dollar for valuable property.
Amen to that. There is an old shooters' joke that runs, "If I die suddenly, the greatest tragedy of all will be my wife selling my guns for what I told her I paid for them."

Much the same applies in photography, except that old cameras do not hold their value the way some old guns do, nor are they as resilient.

QuoteOriginally posted by ChrisPlatt Quote
I know my family will receive pennies on the dollar of value, but that's better than throwing it all out.
I would happily GIVE my film cameras to people I know would shoot them. The amount I have poured into CLA for some of them is certainly more than it would cost to simply buy another, but I don't want to accumulate endless reams of film bodies; I would rather have the ones I've got fixed and make sure that if/when they DO go to other homes, they will be of use to the people who receive them.
03-26-2017, 02:42 AM   #9
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ctrout, I commend you for your willingness to help out friends in need and your honesty in insisting on paying fair market value for those items you chose to acquire from their collections. But honestly, 15 cameras is not too many!

Since returning to film photography in a significant way back in 2009 (I never really left, but it had become a sort of twice yearly ritual of taking film snapshots at Thanksgiving and Christmas and maybe the odd birthday), I have put together a rather extensive collection of film gear, which, at last count, includes over 50 cameras and perhaps 60 or 70 lenses. This may seem like a lot, but I know people whose collections absolutely dwarf mine. So, when is too much too much? I guess whenever you say it is, otherwise, it is what it is. But to me, 15 cameras isn't too much -- it's getting started is what it is.

My collection has grown to the size it is because when I started reacquiring gear, I began by buying items that I liked. Items I had previously owned and was still fond of, or items that I'd never owned, but had always been curious about. So my collection ended up being diverse. I started out in 35mm photography with a Canon AE-1 and had built up a nice Canon FD outfit when I decided to sell it all and switch over to Nikon several years later. I began shooting with Nikon back in about 1989 and continue to be a Nikon shooter to the present. But I always have had a soft spot for Canon FD cameras and lenses, so when I began to reacquire gear, I bought a lot of Canon stuff. The good stuff, like the FTb, the F-1s (both old and new), and the T90. I also bought more Nikon too, since, by 2009, my surviving Nikon kit was rather sparse. It consisted of a single F2 and maybe a half-dozen Nikkor lenses. I also had a soft spot for the Pentax KX because I had used one on a vacation trip to Colorado one winter -- back in about 1990, I guess it was. I had always liked its suite of features -- mostly its depth of field preview, mirror lock up and match needle metering. It was, to me, Pentax's version of the Canon FTb -- a camera that I've always had another soft spot for. So I also began to accumulate Pentax. I now own seven Pentax 35mm SLRs, which includes, not only a nice KX, but an MX and LX as well. Plus I own a Pentax 67, a Brobdingnagian machine if there ever was one, and a camera I've wanted ever since seeing one being used freehand with that big wooden grip by a hearty fellow at an airshow back in the early 80s. I love that camera!

I also wonder what will become of my collection if I were to suddenly not be here one day. I've already had a discussion about this with my daughter -- I even went to the trouble of making a list of all my gear and what fair market prices were for each item, so she would have some idea of what to ask. Otherwise, she would have no clue. And that goes, especially, for my wife, who would be much more likely just to dump the entire collection just to be rid of it. But I think my daughter would be more inclined to try and sell it for what it's worth. Which, let's face it, even for a sizable collection like mine, is not worth nearly as much as it was some 20 or 25 years ago.

I too would happily give my gear away to people I know who would shoot with it, but I don't know anybody like that. Everyone in my extended family has gone digital. I don't think any one of them has used a film camera in years. And even back during the heyday of film, all of my family were P&S users. I am the only one who took up photography as a serious hobby -- and avocation, even. So, I guess it will be the auction block -- or perhaps the buy-it-now block -- for my gear when that day comes. Unless I had enough notice, the way ctrout's friend has, in which case, I'd try to do whatever I could to see that my stuff achieved fair market value.

Last edited by cooltouch; 03-26-2017 at 02:51 AM.
03-26-2017, 05:35 AM   #10
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Isn't the deal supposed to be that when I go I leave behind all the earthly worries about such things as at what price they sell my collections?

Last edited by monochrome; 03-26-2017 at 09:11 AM.
03-26-2017, 08:02 AM   #11
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15 is not too many. My collection has got to be 120+.
03-26-2017, 09:32 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
Isn't the deal supposed to be that when I go I leave behind all the earthly worries about such things as at what price they sell my collections?
For yourself, yes. For loved ones left behind, who may have to try to eke a living or settle debts off the proceeds, no. They need fair value on what they sell off.
03-26-2017, 10:02 AM - 4 Likes   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by pathdoc Quote
For yourself, yes. For loved ones left behind, who may have to try to eke a living or settle debts off the proceeds, no. They need fair value on what they sell off.
Of course, we care about that now - it is an earthly burden that is fully removed.

I have a spreadsheet. I wrote a description of the nomenclature for everything. A person here is already enlisted to help. KEH is listed, and the issues of Mail-in 'repricing' versus conditional valuation.

If liquidating my gear is too difficult, and the value will be that meaningful to my wife, I shouldn't have the gear. I should have paid-up life insurance, no debt to liquidate, and then savings. If I truly care about my wife before the hereafter. Anything less is selfish.

Last edited by monochrome; 03-26-2017 at 10:10 AM.
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