Alternatives for gear since the demise of Photographic Trader

hoffy · May 31, 2014

OK, its been a few years since the demise of Photographic Trader magazine. While I wasn't a constant buyer, there were more then 1 occasion when its weird news print smell graced my home (geez, though, it was hard to navigate all those ads).

Needless to say, there was an awful lot of equipment in those pages - surely those sellers must have started advertising elsewhere. Does anyone know what that elsewhere is?

Cheers

Dr Croubie · May 31, 2014

Classifieds here, fleabay, gumtree?
There's not much local stuff around in either of them, at least not much to justify a magazine worth. Fleabay is great for small things like lenses, shipping costs (especially from the US) preclude most big things though (says the guy who just got an 8x10 from the EU, but that was free shipping).

There's bugger all on gumtree though, and what is there is rather 'optimistically priced' as the most polite I can think of (the ones that aren't, like an enlarger with 11x14" easel for $20 in belair a few weeks ago, go within minutes).
I'm so sick of seeing 35mm fixed-lens P&Ss from the late 90s being described as 'vintage' for over $100 there though.

Otherwise I think the most of the gear goes to the shops, like L&P or CameraHouse, or it's estate stuff that goes in a garage sale or to an auction house...

jjphoto · Jun 1, 2014

Overclockers

I've never been able to figure out how it works, there's some strange public bidding system that goes on that I can't quite get used to, but there's lots of stuff for sale there and it's probably the busiest of the Australian forums for buying and selling photo gear.

Dead Link Removed

Camera Market

Straight forward. Advertise your stuff, see what happens.

http://www.cameramarket.com.au/

Australian Photography Forum, Classifieds

This had the classifieds section closed for a long time but is back open, or at least I think so, I haven't used it recently.

http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/forumdisplay.php?185-Ausphotography-Classifieds

Another Australian forum, but down at this moment, also has a classifieds section.

http://www.photoforum.com.au/

hoffy · Jun 1, 2014

Thanks - I suppose those forums don't have the big influx of older gear that you used to see in Photographic Trader - but then again, I do suspect that a lot of the time that magazine was the same people trying to flog off the same overpriced gear again and again.

Camera trader should work, but there are no more then a few hundred ads, with a lot of it being digital based gear.

Tom1956 · Jun 1, 2014

You Australians have a great country, little as I actually know about it. But you poor slobs sure are mighty isolated when it comes to photographic goodies.

jjphoto · Jun 1, 2014

Tom1956 said:
You Australians have a great country, little as I actually know about it. But you poor slobs sure are mighty isolated when it comes to photographic goodies.

Sad but true.

To OP, I think Ye Olde Book of Faces has a few groups for second hand gear. Not sure how useful or busy they are as I have no Face on the aforementioned Book.

hoffy · Jun 1, 2014

Yes, we are isolated. That's why we get mighty peeved when we see some decent gear for sale at a good price, followed by the famous phrase "CONUS only".....

Tom1956 · Jun 1, 2014

"Poor slob" is a term of endearment. After all, Austrailians are Americans too. Just another chunk of it exactly 1/2 away around the world. A satellite can get there in 45 minutes.

hoffy · Jun 1, 2014

Hah! We probably would react better to "you poor bastards". Slob doesn't tend to bode well as a term of endearment from where I come from at least

(Sorry - I actually edited it out of the prior post.....)

Tom1956 · Jun 1, 2014

Believe me, friend--in North Carolina when you call someone a poor slob it connotes warm and caring thoughts. Calling someone what you said is less friendly, cold and uncaring, even profane.

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 1, 2014

hoffy said:
OK, its been a few years since the demise of Photographic Trader magazine. While I wasn't a constant buyer, there were more then 1 occasion when its weird news print smell graced my home (geez, though, it was hard to navigate all those ads).

Needless to say, there was an awful lot of equipment in those pages - surely those sellers must have started advertising elsewhere. Does anyone know what that elsewhere is?

Cheers

"Something smells" also had a novel meaning for people scanning the pages of Photographic Trader and finding their stolen equipment listed there. :confused:

Truzi · Jun 1, 2014

I'm in Ohio, and poor "bastard" is a bit more acceptable than "slob" up here, lol.

tokam · Jun 4, 2014

hoffy said:
Yes, we are isolated. That's why we get mighty peeved when we see some decent gear for sale at a good price, followed by the famous phrase "CONUS only".....

I wonder if there is a relatively painless way around this CONUS only situation.

First we have to establish why the restriction. I can think of two reasons initially as:
i) Extra hassle for seller at the US Post Office in sending goods overseas. Customs declaration etc.
ii) Paypal seller protection for seller when sending overseas. I think this is OK but will have to check. Where the seller doesn't accept Paypal
then we have a whole other kettle of fish regarding transferring funds internationally.

If the main objection to non CONUS buyers is the extra work when posting then would it be easier to use one of the mail forwarding companies
in the US such as Shipito. The postal transaction from the sellers end then is a straightforward domestic transaction. I don't know what
onward freight services the forwarders use - USPS or one of the international couriers. Probably cheaper via USPS.

I wonder if it's worth doing a survey in the APUG For Sale columns to assess the response from US sellers and then we could investigate
the mail forwarding outfits for the best way to handle the international part of the transaction. If a practical and popular solution can be found
to give better access to US goods for Australian buyers a 'Sticky' couls be created and posted to the For Sale forum for future use by
sellers and buyer alike.

BrianShaw · Jun 4, 2014

Truzi said:
I'm in Ohio, and poor "bastard" is a bit more acceptable than "slob" up here, lol.

Poor/sad/dear Tom... that slob/bastard/yokel just can't win for losing some days.

Tom1956 · Jun 4, 2014

I don't believe in calling guys a bastard. Ain't no way you can put whipped cream and a cherry on that word to turn it into a term of endearment. Slob is much better. Anybody and everybody is a slob at one time or another and it's no insult.

BrianShaw · Jun 4, 2014

The problem with any of these "rude words" (for lack of a better way to characterize them) when used as a term of endearment is that (a) the interpretation may vary with location, culture, and tradition and (b) somebody somewhere will always end up getting offended. Sometimes there ain't enough whipped cream and cherries to make any slang expression palatable to everyone.

Truzi · Jun 4, 2014

Can we agree "yokel" is the worse? lol.

hoffy · Jun 4, 2014

tokam said:
I wonder if there is a relatively painless way around this CONUS only situation.

First we have to establish why the restriction. I can think of two reasons initially as:
i) Extra hassle for seller at the US Post Office in sending goods overseas. Customs declaration etc.
ii) Paypal seller protection for seller when sending overseas. I think this is OK but will have to check. Where the seller doesn't accept Paypal
then we have a whole other kettle of fish regarding transferring funds internationally.

If the main objection to non CONUS buyers is the extra work when posting then would it be easier to use one of the mail forwarding companies
in the US such as Shipito. The postal transaction from the sellers end then is a straightforward domestic transaction. I don't know what
onward freight services the forwarders use - USPS or one of the international couriers. Probably cheaper via USPS.

I wonder if it's worth doing a survey in the APUG For Sale columns to assess the response from US sellers and then we could investigate
the mail forwarding outfits for the best way to handle the international part of the transaction. If a practical and popular solution can be found
to give better access to US goods for Australian buyers a 'Sticky' couls be created and posted to the For Sale forum for future use by
sellers and buyer alike.

I suppose the bottom line would come down to how much more it will cost to use a forwarding service. I have never used one, but plenty do.

Tom1956 · Jun 4, 2014

Remember though, the US Postal Service could very well be the only US government bureau that isn't rife with malfeasance. Always refreshing to get that from them. They generally do a pretty good job.

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 5, 2014

Sounding more and more like a bogan bash...

Dr Croubie · Jun 5, 2014

Poisson Du Jour said:
Sounding more and more like a bogan bash...

Isn't that the trip to the Grampians?

hoffy · Jun 5, 2014

Bogan is such a broad insult. It nearly seems that if anyone who is a Caucasian in Australia is quickly classified a Bogan

cluttered · Jun 6, 2014

To try to steer this thread back to the original topic, I'm not aware of any good substitute for the old Photographic Trader magazine. I did buy it regularly for the last year or two of its existence, it was interesting but quirky; the ads had very little discernable order, and there was a lot of duplication from issue to issue, but there were occasional gems. Nowadays I use a combination of eBay, local second-hand shops, and occasional purchases while interstate. The annual camera fair (recently in Norwood) is always worthwhile, I managed to get a good haul of darkroom odds and sods for a sane price

NDP_2010 · Jun 6, 2014

Ebay mostly for me; even looking for items from outside Australia; ive had a LF camera, a p6x7, an underwater housing (for film camera) and several other things sent to Aus from overseas through ebay. The postage can be a bit of a killer on some items, but some sellers will list actual postage charges, not just some ridiculous high charges because they are too lazy to change the parameters.

BrianShaw · Jun 6, 2014

cluttered said:
To try to steer this thread back to the original topic, I'm not aware of any good substitute for the old Photographic Trader magazine. I did buy it regularly for the last year or two of its existence, it was interesting but quirky; the ads had very little discernable order, and there was a lot of duplication from issue to issue, but there were occasional gems. Nowadays I use a combination of eBay, local second-hand shops, and occasional purchases while interstate. The annual camera fair (recently in Norwood) is always worthwhile, I managed to get a good haul of darkroom odds and sods for a sane price

Thanks for redirecting the conversation, Mate!

I never used Photographic Trader but once used the ads from the American magazines Popular Photography and Modern Photography and that larger-sized photo newspaper that I can't evn recall its name (I think it may still be in publication). I hated the process of trying to figure out where the best deal was, and who the honest dealers are, etc. Most of the time I'd read and hem-and-haw, then buy at a local camera shop... where I should have started the buying process in the first place. We were fortunate to have many camera stores that offered both new and vintage equipment. Camera shows were fun but frustrating - I always seemed to run into grumpy old guys wtih high prices and nasty attitudes toward my exceedingly realistic and reasonable offers. (The funniest experience I ever had, though, was at a British boot sale when I made a low-ball offer on some camera accessories and prompltly closed the deal with no further discussion. The gent kept looking at me like I was crazy so I asked what was on his mind. His reply was that I just paid many times more than he ever expected to sell that stuff for. He was happy and so was I... a great deal for both of us!) Now I much prefer ebay and the on-line alternatives... even though there are the same questions and issues.

Alternatives for gear since the demise of Photographic Trader

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