5x7 Sheet Film on eBay, Only 73 Years Past Exp Date!

[seadrive]

Film gets better as it ages, right?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290029782146

You can't make this stuff up!

 

[mtnbkr]

I'm sure there are collectors of Kodak "stuff" that would buy this for their collection and not for use. You see the same thing in the firearms community. Folks buy unopened boxes of ammo for a gun or chambering no longer made and pay a premium for it in the process. They also buy antique cans of gun oil, etc.

Chris

 

[htmlguru4242]

Wow; I'd bet that you'd still be able to get some type of an image off of that, but you never know; it'd be cooler as just a collectors item.

Though it is "Super Speed"; what'd you figure, maybe ISO 100 or so?

 

[wildbill]

I'm sure there are collectors of Kodak "stuff" that would buy this for their collection and not for use. You see the same thing in the firearms community. Folks buy unopened boxes of ammo for a gun or chambering no longer made and pay a premium for it in the process. They also buy antique cans of gun oil, etc.

Chris

On my July trip back to Michigan this summer, my dad spotted a rabbit in the backyard that needed to be exterminated. He grabbed the 20 gauge and one round from a box off the shelf. My friend who's a serious grouse hunter grabbed the box and say's "that's a box of red 20 gauge shells in paper casings worth about $300. That's a collector's item!" For those of you who know the colors, red means 12 gauge these days. Oops

 

[Ole]

I'm sure there are collectors of Kodak "stuff" that would buy this for their collection and not for use.

So there's hope for my AGFA colour films then - expired in 1957?

I'd be very, very careful around old ammunition. I've seen what can happen with WWII explosives, and I don't trust that stuff at all. Not as fas as I can throw it, nor from a distance where I could throw anything at it. 100 meters is about the minimum distance I'd like between myself and "collector's ammunition"...

 

[mtnbkr]

So there's hope for my AGFA colour films then - expired in 1957?
I'd be very, very careful around old ammunition. I've seen what can happen with WWII explosives, and I don't trust that stuff at all. Not as fas as I can throw it, nor from a distance where I could throw anything at it. 100 meters is about the minimum distance I'd like between myself and "collector's ammunition"...

Old ammunition such as used in rifles, shotguns, handguns, etc is very stable and safe even after a hundred years. Artillery shells, on the other hand, devolved into very unstable explosive compounds and should be avoided as you say. The difference is in the propellents and explosives used. Small arms ammo (rifles, etc) use smokeless powder that is not an explosive per se. True black powder can be touchy, but no more so after a few decades than it is right now. The stuff used in artillery shells (TNT, etc) is a totally different beast. Dynamite for example, can sweat nitroglycerine and should be avoided.

"that's a box of red 20 gauge shells in paper casings worth about $300.

Eight years ago, when I took posession of my grandfather's old 20 gauge and a partial box of RED PAPER shells, I immediately shot them all up at the range.

Chris

 

[Ole]

Early smokeless gunpowder contained nitrocellulose, the same stuff that's in the "exploding film reels". Not nice - or stable - at all when it ages. I have no idea what's in more modern cartridges.

Dynamite should be avoided, I agree.

TNT is a totally different compound, and tends to be either stable or inert. I've seen a 1942 vintage block of TNT blown to pieces by a firing cap - it took 2 sticks of octyl before we finally managed to set it off.

Tangentially, and "retracking", I'm glad that the box of 9x12cm colour film said "safety film" in big blue letters!

 

[MattCarey]

I can't comment...I have a 70 year old bottle of valve oil for trumpets on my shelf...

Matt

 

[Lachlan Young]

What speed was the Eastman Portrait film?

Thanks,

Lachlan