Can't believe the price of this film

mtjade2007 · Jul 9, 2011

I just ran into ebay. Have not been there for a long time. I am surprised to find this item:

http://cgi.ebay.com/KODAK-VERICOLOR...93?pt=UK_Photography_Film&hash=item2564388999

It is a single roll of Kodak VERICOLOR III 220 expired in 1998 sold at GBP $4.99 plus shipping of GBP $2.49. Wow, I can't believe I saw it. Is it insane or is it a trend at such a price? Did a search again. There are only a handful of 220 films for sale. Does it mean expired 220 films have dried up? Glad that I still have plenty of it in my freezer.

Bob-D659 · Jul 9, 2011

Some people have more money than brains.

Even better, ten years ago brand new Nikon rear lens caps were selling at $5 over retail, shipping extra.

mts · Jul 9, 2011

Well, it's clearly collector film. Like 3 cent stamps that sell for outrageous prices today. I suppose running it through a camera and processing it would ruin its value. Come to think of it, I may have a few valuable rolls in the bottom of my freezer.

Photo Engineer · Jul 9, 2011

Vericolor III at this point should be a bit foggy. I may have a dozen rolls or so hereabouts. I would not buy them.

They need the old formalin Stabilizer.

PE

2F/2F · Jul 9, 2011

mtjade2007 said:
I just ran into ebay. Have not been there for a long time. I am surprised to find this item:

http://cgi.ebay.com/KODAK-VERICOLOR...93?pt=UK_Photography_Film&hash=item2564388999

It is a single roll of Kodak VERICOLOR III 220 expired in 1998 sold at GBP $4.99 plus shipping of GBP $2.49. Wow, I can't believe I saw it. Is it insane or is it a trend at such a price? Did a search again. There are only a handful of 220 films for sale. Does it mean expired 220 films have dried up? Glad that I still have plenty of it in my freezer.

Maybe somebody just didn't know anything when they bid. But maybe it was a fake sale to create a false E-Bay sales history, which is something that many people use to determine an item's value. Spend some time creating a fake market for an item that you want to get rid of. There is one camera seller on E-Bay who I am almost certain must be doing this. I asked him why the price of a particular camera was four times the market value, and an hour later the item sold with Buy It Now and he sent me a snotty response.

cdholden · Jul 10, 2011

2F/2F said:
Spend some time creating a fake market for an item that you want to get rid of. There is one camera seller on E-Bay who I am almost certain must be doing this. I asked him why the price of a particular camera was four times the market value, and an hour later the item sold with Buy It Now and he sent me a snotty response.

And the guy who recently listed a "rare" 18" Verito for $4,400. Yep... over 4x.

Klainmeister · Jul 10, 2011

I like how it's advertised as great for Lomo photography......can you use 220 film with a red window back?

mtjade2007 · Jul 10, 2011

It is obvious that there are very few 220 films for sale on ebay. Not only expired 220s are gone the fresh ones are missing too. Actually the film sales on ebay are way down from the hay days. There are not many 120s either. Is this good or bad?

polyglot · Jul 10, 2011

eBay used to be a good way to buy good, cheap film but eBay fees (listing fee plus 8% final value fee plus about 3% paypal - how the hell anyone except eBay makes money on eBay I'm not certain) have gone up to the point where it's back to being cheaper in online stores.

And GBP5 for a roll of film? That's NOTHING, believe me; come to Australia sometime and see. Urging the use of 220 film in a Holga with a red window is a little more disingenuous though!

AlbertZeroK · Jul 10, 2011

I still find deals all the time on ebay. But you have to look for them. But I also see ALOT of inflated prices in film. I'd say 75% of buy it now pricing is greater than adorama or b&h!

Shawn Rahman · Jul 10, 2011

You guys have it all wrong! As the ad says - it is "perfect" for Lomography!

ricardo12458 · Jul 14, 2011

Shawn Rahman said:
You guys have it all wrong! As the ad says - it is "perfect" for Lomography!

I don't do Lomography, though I have a lot of old, expired films.

semi-ambivalent · Jul 14, 2011

Bob-D659 said:
Some people have more money than brains.

Even better, ten years ago brand new Nikon rear lens caps were selling at $5 over retail, shipping extra.

Collecting is not a rational endeavor (try buying a first generation Campagnolo Super Record rear derailleur). In the case of film, as PE noted, there's practical aspects to consider unless that film was going to sit in a display cabinet forever. But if you can sleep at night knowing what you've paid I say follow your heart; yuppie epiphanies drive the world's economies. (As an aside, few seem to apply their worth metrics to automobiles, an "investment" that usually loses half its value in five years. Go figure.)

Aristophanes · Jul 15, 2011

semi-ambivalent said:
Collecting is not a rational endeavor

But it is rational. The current neurological basis for artifact collection is that it assists memory thereby aiding longevity.

It only becomes irrational when positioned against a purely artificial human construct like personal finances.

In the collective, this is the reason why we have museums and art galleries, very often with free admission. They assist our collective memory and enhance survival.

semi-ambivalent · Jul 17, 2011

Aristophanes said:
But it is rational. The current neurological basis for artifact collection is that it assists memory thereby aiding longevity.

It only becomes irrational when positioned against a purely artificial human construct like personal finances.

In the collective, this is the reason why we have museums and art galleries, very often with free admission. They assist our collective memory and enhance survival.

I disagree. 1) My memory would be assisted no more by owning four Nikon Fs than by owning one, unless I had always owned them and they were part of my lived past. 2) Money, strictly, is irrelevant here. The price one pays for a lens is not the point; the point is that one paid perhaps a great deal because, e.g., that lens has a serial number the same as a similar lens you already own, incremented by one. It assigns "extra" physical value to a mathematical construct and not to the object itself. 3) People collect to possess. As soon as my local museum lets me walk out with a Maria Martinez wedding vase I'll include them as assisting me as a collector. What I see is that, to enhance survival, people visit museums only to loot them. Otherwise, museums are a reflection of a (genteel) populace that has already satisfied the "baser" needs of survival. See Maslow. 4) I'm not a psychologist, but bleeding people to adjust the humors also used to be current.

Athiril · Jul 17, 2011

And Vanbar has Provia 400X for $38/roll

Can't believe the price of this film

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