Ken, what was the state of the film holder businesses? Were holders being made up until recently? I thought they were long out of production.
No, not being manufactured recently as far as I know.
I called Calumet last year when I was looking to buy a new set of 8x10s. Worked my way up through several customer support people over the course of about an hour. The final supervisor person told me that the film holder business had been purchased from a one-man operation. When that person retired, it was sold to Calumet. Sounded similar to Fred Picker.
At that time they had already stopped all manufacturing for all three consolidated lines. Any of you who hang out on eBay might have noticed a jump in the asking prices for near-mint 8x10 holders. That's why. I now have 17 very good ones, having filled out my set from auctions before the prices rose too much.
Some may also remember not too long ago that Calumet was advertising new Fidelity 4x5 holders right here on APUG for half-price. Last month I checked and their eBay outlet was still listing individual ones, as well as a huge lot of something like 1,600. (Perhaps a business opportunity for someone now??)
I was also told that the most recent manufacturing occurred a while back when the price of used online 5x7 holders jumped. At one point they were auctioning for USD $100-$150 each. Calumet cranked up a production run and began offering new ones for around USD $60 each, as I recall. They were supplied in the old 13x18-cm packaging boxes with hand-lettered tape that said 5x7 covering it. That tamed the used market. I had already filled out my 5x7s as well from an APUG seller and now have 15 nice ones.
Toyo does continue to manufacture 8x10s. Don't know about other formats. But their holders were already considered a little higher quality than Fidelity. And last time I looked that meant they were retailing for around USD $200 each. That hurts...
Ken
