Absolutely massive vintage camera auction, Adelaide 13/14/15 Sept

[Dr Croubie]

Holy hell. Just thought I'd check Scammell's website to see if anything's listed on next Monday's auction worth buying.
And instead I come across what looks like half a museum worth of old microscopes and cameras, so big it's spread across three days:
First looks to be all microscopes and stuff on the 13th.
Second is magic lanterns, literally hundreds of slides (I even noticed a nice carbon road bike with Dura Ace componentry I might nab) on the 14th.
Third are cameras. So many cameras. I count over 20 Rolleiflex/cord TLRs, SL35 and 66, a few Leicas (including a Leica 1f that they claim is 1 of only 20 made, if it's true then their $1500-2000 estimate might get blown out by a bit). A veritable plethora of 1/2 and 1/4 plate camers. Hell, there's even a Graflex Big Bertha with a 40" f/8 lens.

I'm very tempted not to share, keep it all to myself and not get outbid, but I've got a house and mortgage (even if I sold said house I couldn't afford all the stuff here), and a week before that I'm paying a guy good money to stab me in the face and chisel out some teeth, so my spending shall be somewhat curtailed (down to $0), and if anyone here reading this end up buying anything at least I'll be happy knowing it's going to a good home (and hopefully getting used, as they should).
I'll probably be there to inspect though, it's a GAS wet-dream...

 

[SMBooth]

Christ, where does all that stuff come from.

 

[paul ewins]

Apparently there was piece on local TV about it. The story I was told is that the owner is 74 and last year was hit by a truck, losing an arm and a leg. As a result he can't manage to care for the collection anymore and has decided to sell it all. There are some pieces I'd be interested in if only there were decent photographs to properly identify them. As it is I just regard it as lucky that I live in another state and thus can't attend and spend more money.

 

[Ghostman]

Is this auction local to Australia? The website doesn't seem to offer any information on who is eligible to bid.

 

[darcyjohnperkins]

A few underestimates, in my opinion, as well as MANY, MANY over-estimates...

 

[Dr Croubie]

Is this auction local to Australia? The website doesn't seem to offer any information on who is eligible to bid.

From what I've read of the T&Cs, there's nothing stopping you from bidding from anywhere.
Except that generally you have to pick the item up within a day after the auction (I'm sure you could send a courier, but you'd have to pay them to pack it up for shipping). Or I could pick up anything, but I can't promise I won't play with it first...

 

[Lowly]

OMG!!!!!!!! It must have been a sight to see all that stuff in the one house!

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

The inimitable SMBooth will be there with his lunch money. He's already got a different camera for every day of the week. Now needs to upscale to a new camera for every day of the month. :

A carbon fibre road bike with DuraAce!? Oh-ooooh. Right, the gloves are off Doc, keep away, keep right away so I can check this pup out.

Um...where are the photos, folks??

 

[Dr Croubie]

Bike is here, they reckon $15-1800. Too bad I just bought my (NOS) Giant TCR with Ultegra gears and 105 brakes in the xmas-sales last year for that price.

There's way to much stuff on that site, it's going to be a massive warehouse rummage by the looks. Try typing a few keywords into the search box. 'rollei' turns up 150 results, 'camera' gets 200 hits, 'leitz' gets 170 (including some grab-bags of what they're calling "parts", I can see some lenses and visoflex gear estimated under $100, if there's an LTM lens in there it'll be worth more than the box), and 'zeiss' gets 100 hits.
Just inspecting is going to be a fun day out for the family (or leave the missus at home to work on her phd, i'll quietly slip out and pack the falcon full of goodies...)

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

It's possible this fellow is a well-known collector in specific collectors' circles? Where, pray tell, would he have kept all this stuff? Likely a lot of very rare stuff that could potentially make him a mint — good for him; if the accident thing is true the money might help to modifying his house to improve accessibility. Sounds very bad to come off in an accident like that.

 

[Dr Croubie]

From what I can see, it's called the Dr Garry Scroop collection, and a bit of googling turns up that he's an adjunct professor of health sciences at UniSA, which certainly explains the microscope collection. I suppose from there he went to cameras via taking macro shots (hence the Leica 1f and a Rolleicopi. I'd never heard of one but it looks like a microscope-mounted Rollei TLR). And that's how any collection starts, but he obviously had the means (and the storage) to carry it through to the extreme.
I hadn't seen that news special (I tend to watch tv not very much, only cartoons, and especially not much on the commercial stations), but I did see that there's also a facebook page dedicated to the auction, and a recent link to the news story there.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Google Scholar would probably reveal a whole lot more if he is an Adjunct (or Associate) Professor. Very interesting tidbit.

There are a few pictures of goodies on the FB page... that I don't have a clue what I'm looking at! They no doubt pre-date me by a century, or more. And the bikes!? So many bikes! He sure is in-gear...sorry...

 

[Johnkpap]

Hi Everyone

Just letting you know I attended the Auction on Sunday, the
turnout was alot less than I was Expecting. The room was only Half full !!!
There Was alot of online bidding which pushed up the prices on a number of lots.
overall somer things went higher than I expected, but alot of stuff went quite low in price.

I am now the proud owner of a Like new Rollei SL 66 outfit and a Phaubel Makina Type 3 Press camera Outfit

My buy of the day was a Boxed Leica Mini Tripod for $30.00

I Didn't hang around for the Polaroid stuff as nothing really got me Excited.

Did any one else attend and spend Big ??

Johnkpap

 

[Joachim_I]

Congratulations, I am a big fan of the SL66 system.

 

[Johnkpap]

The the rollei Sl66 is a very uncomon camera, I have only in the past seen 2 other ones for sale in Adelaide
one was traded at James Place, was very very used and had been a Studio camera. The other example was at
the Adelaide Photo Market this too was very Rough with lots of dents....I passed on that one too.

I am now learning how much anything for the camera costs !!!! lenses are $400 upwards for a nice Example.

Johnkpap

 

[Lowly]

I was thinking of putting a bid on some of the Rolleiflex TLRs, but then would have had to organise a courier. Do you have some numbers on how much they went for? If they went cheap, we might see some on e**y.

 

[Johnkpap]

If you go to Scammells

http://www.scammellauctions.com.au/...id/523358a048618eff37b3fe57793b76ca/archive/1

The Auction Cat is still avaliable....I wrote down all the Sale Price of most Items, if you give me a lot number I can look at my sheet.

Most of the 2.8 lens TLR's went for over $1000 the TeleRollei and the Wide Rollei went for :-$1200 and $2000

The Rollei Underwater Rolleimarin II in Housing ect went for ....$3200

Most prices were quite reasonable as as everything was about as good as they get condition wise..... But some went much higher a price than anyone expected.

My Rollei SL66 outfit is "New in Box !!!" Condition and you would be hard pressed to find another......Yes I am going to devalue it an Take Photos

Johnkpap

 

[Lowly]

OK, good to know the seller got about market value for the collection.

A NIB SL66 - got to be happy with that! I've got a few Rollei 6008 cameras and lenses. As practical as they are, I still appreciate fine mechanical cameras like the SL66 and TLRs.

 

[polyglot]

I'm glad I didn't know this was on. Interesting that we've had two huge camera-collections auctioned off in Adelaide in under a month.