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Enlarger prices

Mainecoonmaniac

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I don't know if it's my imagination, but on Ebay, it seems that enlarger prices have shot up. I remember 10 years ago, they were ending up in the scrap heap.
 

NB23

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Mainecoonmaniac said:
I don't know if it's my imagination, but on Ebay, it seems that enlarger prices have shot up. I remember 10 years ago, they were ending up in the scrap heap.
Click to expand...

5-6 years ago. In my backstreet I saw and watched a fine 4x5 enlarger slowly rust for an entire week and finally being thrown inside the garbage truck.
 

koraks

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Darkroom equipment and photo gear in general moves pretty easily these days. It's certainly much easier to fetch a decent price when selling kit than a couple of years ago.
 

Paul Howell

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The best place to buy an enlarger is Shopgoodwill.com just to need to wait until one is listed at a store you can get to as most stores will not ship. Smaller darkroom gear is going for good money. I just saw a time o lite going for close to $50 + shipping.
 

gone

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Is there anything that hasn't gotten more expensive? Jeez Marie, it looks pretty crazy out there in Consumer Land (sorta like Disneyland, but not as expensive).

Still, eBay is, unfortunately, probably not a good model for figuring prices. I've been on there so long, I've seen things go up, then down, over and over. In the end, we have to face reality. They ain't making most of this film stuff anymore, if you have a good enlarger or camera, keep it.

Every enlarger I've owned was very difficult/impossible to resell later due to the high costs of shipping. The post office in the US no longer offers slow, cheap parcel post shipping, people are stuck paying priority mail or UPS prices, which are quite high.
 
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MarkS

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Perhaps it's that so many were scrapped, that values for the remaining ones have gone up.
And used values tend to track new values. I think LPL and Omega/Arkay still offer new ones, and they're not cheap.
OTOH, fine used enlarging lenses are still inexpensive.
 
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Mainecoonmaniac

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As for my enlarger story, I got my Beseler 45MXT almost 40 years ago. I got it in my twenties while an undergrad. I still have my darkroom at mom's place and still use it. I got my second 45MXT at a thrift store almost 10 years ago at a thrift store with a Zone V 16x20 print washer and other accessories. I found an Omega enlarger on the that someone left on the street a few years back. Nobody knew what it was nor wanted it. Then last year, I received 2 Beseler 23Cs with a ton of darkroom accessories. My garage is filled with darkroom I gotta Ebay. Now I'm retired, I've got no excuse.
 

MattKing

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MarkS said:
I think LPL and Omega/Arkay still offer new ones, and they're not cheap.
Click to expand...

Actually, LPL and Beseler.
Plus Devere and Kaiser Keinzle.
 
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Mainecoonmaniac

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Mainecoonmaniac

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Enlargers are specialized equipment which are expensive to manufacture. When I got my 45MXT with Dichro 45S head back in the mid 80s, it was thousands of dollars. I still use it. Though it was expensive, I can’t say that I’m still using inkjet printers I bought in the early 2000s.
 

VinceInMT

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Well, yes, some stuff isn’t made to last or is superseded by other technology. Or, people just want something new. Cars are a perfect example. People replace cars way before they are worn out. I’m still driving my ‘83 Volvo wagon that I bought in the later 80s and see no more reason to replace it than my Beseler enlarger.
 

Sirius Glass

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Years ago I found my Chromega Dichroic II 4"x5" enlarger and Arkay 28" wide drum drier on Craig's List.
 
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VinceInMT

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In the above, it’s should be shopgoodwill.com although the link with the photo does work.

This one is unusual in that they will ship as with most enlargers they are pickup only. If I wanted this one they are quoting $60.08 to ship from Maryland to Montana.

That said, I have made LOTS of purchases through this site with zero complaints. No photographic gear but lots of audio equipment and related media.
 

Paul Howell

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I've bought cameras when the site first came on line, got a lot of Miranda gear at the time, I only buy what is cheap as there is a no return policy.
 
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Mainecoonmaniac

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I'm sure your Volvo wagon is like an old friend. If you're like me, I don't need the latest and the greatest. If it works, why get a new one? I hate to say this, but my almost 40 year old enlarger is familiar and I know it inside and out. I've repaired it through out the years and it's still working fine.
 

MarkS

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I've used many enlargers in a long career in the studios and the labs. For my home darkroom, I bought an Omega D-II over thirty years ago. It was probably made around the time of the Korean War. I'd upgraded the light source and lenses when I bought it, and everything still works well. Quality gear lasts a long time if you take care of it. And, perhaps, keeps it used value.
 

Tim Stapp

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I purchased my Beseler CB7 a few years ago, just before the prices started to climb. If I recall correctly, I paid $20 for it. I also have two 23 CIIs, one with the color head. Total cost for both was $40.

Darkroom equipment has definitely gone up. Inflation or the available options shrinking???
 

MattKing

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Inflation doesn't really apply as a principle when one is talking about used goods that people try to find at near give-away prices .
In a more normal used equipment market, where there are reasonable numbers of people seeking to buy from reasonable amounts of readily accessed products, inflationary factors probably play a role.
 

redbandit

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there have always been a big price on enlargers with ebay. Its very easy to see the low cost ones as "local pickup only" and rusty junkers going for 250$ PLUS 300$ for shipping.
 

eli griggs

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Mainecoonmaniac said:
I don't know if it's my imagination, but on Ebay, it seems that enlarger prices have shot up. I remember 10 years ago, they were ending up in the scrap heap.
Click to expand...

When shopping for a new enlarger, remember to check for out of square Omega or Bessler 45 or 23c II framed, they can have racked verticals and cross pieces if badly handled or ever dropped, especially with head on.

The D and E Omegas also have 'delicate' nylon gear cogs and I once snapped a tooth loose pulling/pushing from the top of the enlarger, as I tried to lay it into the back of our car or truck.

If you just want a simple enlarger, the Durst M60 will do up to 6" x 9", as I recall, and has a single column, the Omega B will also do up to medium format and is a single column tool l, as well.

If only 35mm and smaller, and no bigger than an 11" x 14" print, I love my Leitz Valloy II, with it's helical focusing and condenser head. Make sure it has the bronze anti-Newton rings spacer which mounts on top of the condenser, it's important.

Ask around at various schools that have media departments and wet darkrooms, they may have good enlargers that were taken out of service, sitting around and may let them go cheap, just to reclaim space.

One of my Omega D enlarger, for parts, was part of a local university which at some point upgraded to new kit.

I got it for $20US from a formal student that had been given it at school.
 

Chuck_P

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momus said:
s there anything that hasn't gotten more expensive? Jeez Marie, it looks pretty crazy out there in Consumer Land
Click to expand...

Well, I'm paying over $6 for a carton of 18 extra large eggs....
 

Zathras

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If you're referring to the old push/pull D-II, It could be even older. I have this model and it has steel parts on it that are
usually made of brass or aluminum. I asked Harry Taylor about this and he told me that my enlarger was most likely
made for the U.S. military during World War II. This makes sense to me since brass and aluminum were needed for
the production of ammunition and aircraft. It's a great old enlarger and I'll never let it go.
 
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