Has anyone had the role of getting rid of someone else's camera equipment?

[rayonline_nz]

With covid it has made me think about my own gear, not that I have that much. Over the years I have sold various items. Some stuff I got preowned I didn't take a hit, others bought new took a substantial hit. I also hear in the media or from the camera store that a photographer passed away and family and other people were helping to sell the equipment online or to a camera store.

So have any of you got involved either directly or indirectly buying or selling or even just the organization of the stuff?


Cheers.

 

[gone]

I volunteer in a thrift store as the Camera Guy, and fix 'em if they're broke, clean them up, etc. Everything we have was someone's stuff at one time until they gave it to us. In the past I've bought lenses and cameras at yard sales, sold them for a little profit and donated that. My method was to treat the gear as if I was going to use it, and set reasonable prices on things.

I always use eBay, occasionally I'll put a listing here. It's a PITA in a way, lots of smallish items to photograph, type up the ads, shipping, etc, but it re purposes things for very little effort. Selling someone's estate would be similar, and the heirs would be happy to have someone help them that's a photographer.

 

[Rick A]

Over the years I have sold a few collections to help settle estates. It's a tough job to go through and appraise everything, organize it all, then try to maximize the sales. I do it for a small percentage of the sales(normally), sometimes for free just to help out in times of need. I have also bought out entire lots if the price is right so I can cherry pick things I want for myself, then dispose of the remainder for cheap.

 

[mgb74]

This is an issue with any "specialized" equipment that is left to the uninformed (I don't mean that in a pejorative way) to deal with. I've helped a few people deal with cameras that were left to them when their spouses died. It can be difficult as you have to weigh the level of effort, elapsed time, and certainty. KEH is the easy way out (at least in US) but can leave a lot of money on the table.

 

[Valerie]

Several times I've been given boxes of gear (usually darkroom equipment). Usually I find a student to pass things along to. At the moment I am still trying to find a home for books and enlarger belonging to an old friend who closed his darkroom. (Anyone want a Durst AC800 AF???)

 

[bdial]

I've assisted friends selling off stuff, as well as volunteering with a non-profit selling donated stuff.
It's a lot of work to find prices and organize the stuff, but I'd say there is a payoff. Even if you sell it at wholesale prices to a shop or other reseller, if you present them with an organized collection, you are likely to get a better price, since it means less work for for them in sorting it all out. Also, there is a cost in keeping and storing the stuff, which a lot of people ignore.

The key thing is being honest with yourself and whomever you are assisting in accessing condition and value. A battered AE-1 that has been sitting in someone's damp basement for 15 years isn't going to command much money even though it may have cost the original owner a goodly sum to buy.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It was suggested to me that with my equipment, receipts, warranties, a leave a document explaining the value of the equipment at the date of the document describing the value, the value change of my equipment. Further a list of places that will offer to buy the equipment at half the value such as KEH so that whoever has to deal with the equipment starts with some knowledge as of the date of the document.

 

[Dan Fromm]

I've sold photographic gear for friends twice, once a Retina IIIC and a couple of crap lenses from my mother-in-law's estate and once a Nikon RF, 35 mm lens for it, a Corfield Periflex and a few odds and ends for a friend who'd received a death sentence (pancreatic). I had the Retina CLA'd before putting it up on eBay, sold the Nikon gear and the Perflex as is on eBay.

The Retina brought good money and more than paid back the CLA. The Nikon, lens and Periflex brought more than expected. MIL's executor was happy, so was friend.

My friend and neighbor Charlie Barringer had a huge collection that included many real collector's items, such as a "Barry Lyndon" lens and a Gigantar. Many many Contax RFs with 50/1.5 Sonnars, ... After Charlie got his death sentence (esophogeal), he discussed how his estate should dispose of his equipment with everyone who'd pay attention. In the end, Westlicht bought nearly all of it, good, bad and indifferent. The widow was happy not to have to sell it off piece at a time, wasn't so happy with what Westlicht paid.

 

[Rob Skeoch]

I sold some gear for a friend whose uncle had died and left her the stuff. Two weird pieces that I put on ebay. It would be a pain to sell a bunch of stuff this way, but two items were fine.
I've told my wife when I die DO NOT TAKE THE GEAR TO A LOCAL CAMERA STORE, as they will rip you off. Just call John at KEH and sell everything to them. The local store will not give you what it's worth.

 

[abruzzi]

such as a "Barry Lyndon" lens and a Gigantar.

Wow, seriously? A Zeiss ƒ.7 lens? That must have brought a fortune, I thought only 10 were made, most for NASA.

EDIT: ok I just googled Gigantar--I'd never heard of that one! I didn't know that an ƒ.33 lens was even physically possible.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Wow, seriously? A Zeiss ƒ.7 lens? That must have brought a fortune, I thought only 10 were made, most for NASA.

EDIT: ok I just googled Gigantar--I'd never heard of that one! I didn't know that an ƒ.33 lens was even physically possible.

Absolutely possible. Some oil immersion microscope objectives are that fast. But in air, forget it, the limit is f/0.5.

Super Q Gigantar. A large joke, but a serious collector bought it for 90,000 euros plus the buyer's premium. Collectors ...

The Barry Lyndon lens brought 60,000 euros, again plus the buyer's premium.

Shifting all of Charie's treasures took Westlicht several years.

 

[dxqcanada]

I am going to go through that scenario in a couple of months ... a great friend/mentor of mine just passed away. He was a photographer, audiophile, woodworker, machinist, and clock restorer. I have known him for 25 years ... so I know I will be asked to assist with all the things that he has left. It will not be a pleasant thing, but I know it has to be done.
... anyone need a very large almost complete Durst Laborator 138 enlarger ?

 

[DonW]

I did it for a close buddies widow. I sold a lot of it here, some local to photo buddies and the rest sold to a camera store.

It was a LOT of work!

 

[randyB]

Disposing of a family members possessions is always difficult. Here in my location, Mid-Tennessee, there has been a large increase of estate sales of the elderly who have passed, many from Covid. The trend is for the family to enter the home and divide what they want as allowed by law and the rest sold at an estate sale. Many of the sale planners don't have a clue as to the value of photo equipment, either pricing it too low or far too high. I've watched the planners go to eBay for a price only to enter the wrong info and come up with a crazy price. On the few times that I've offered my expertise to the planners I've been met with a less than enthusiastic response. It is a bit unnerving walking thru a persons home seeing everything for sale realizing that this same scenario might happen to me.

 

[MattKing]

I spent years giving legal advice to executors.
I used to suggest to them that if the deceased had friends that they shared interests with - whether photography, music, model trains or whatever - then they were often good sources for resources about who to ask, even if they couldn't do the work themselves.

 

[Sirius Glass]

When an amateur radio operator aka a ham gives up the hobby or dies, they become a "silent key". I tell people who are giving up their license that even though everything people say about a silent key, it is not worth becoming one.

 

[Down Under]

Much much good advice in this thread, especially so from #9 and #13. My sentiments exactly.

I too have had the dubious honor (ha!!) of dealing with cameras from several deceased estates in the past.

Dealing with the family members was the most difficult task of all. Some believed every old camera in a collection was worth a mint. After listening to their arguments, I sent the disagreeing rels off to Ebay to check completed sales, which worked to an extent - as we know, Ebay prices are often all over the place, and auction returns on half-decent gear can be ridiculously high. So this tack didn't always work well for me.

If too many disagreements, I suggested we call in a highly reputable camera shop owner from Melbourne to evaluate the collection. Did this two times and it worked well. The estates paid A$250 plus travel costs. Faced with an expert (who started off by reassuring the family he was not interested in buying any of the cameras, so as to be completely impartial) the relations all came to the party quickly, and we were able to agree on final prices.

(Added later) I forgot to say this expert compiled a list and later emailed us written valuations of each and every item. Which made his fee well worth paying by the estate trustee and my tasks much easier afterwards.

The expert also resolved a personal problem I had with one estate, when I found a Rolleicord Vb kit I badly wanted. To my surprise, while evaluating this collection he decided the 'cord was too decrepit to be sold for the usual high prices, and put a very low value on it (I had no influence at all in this). With the family's agreement, I then listed the entire lot on Ebay and almost all of it eventually sold - most of the cameras i were 1960s to 1980s amateur models (notably a mind-boggling number of for-parts-only Instamatics!!) and took some time to clear, but in the medium to long term almost all went to new homes. It was all a bit like trying to dispose of unwanted litters of kittens and puppies, but it worked...

Anyway, to cut to the quick of my story, we put the Rolleicord on Ebay for the usual Rollei TLR high price. Nobody bit. At that time old Rolleis were not in great demand, and this one was (and still is) definitely a user model, if mechanically sound. After most of the sale was done the family had lost interest, so we pulled the few remaining Ebay ads and the family donated the remaining gear to local charity shops. They then kindly offered me the Rolleicord at a 'peppercorn' price and I took it. It's one of my favorite and most-used film cameras, so I did okay enough from the situation, although if I had put a dollar price on the time I spent cleaning and fixing up the collection before selling, writing Ebay ads (I let a family member who everybody trusted handle the sales and packing of all sold equipment), it would have added up to many hundreds of hours, endless meetings over coffee and cakes and occasionally stiff whiskies at the family's dining table, and having to negotiate every little point with demanding and argumentative rels, I would be a very rich man from the experience, and the estate would be much poorer. Which of course nobody wanted.

The two other estates I had to deal with weren't as difficult, but there were similar problems - usually to do with one family member in the group who was convinced that every old fungus-riddled thing in the dusty boxes in the back bedroom or the garage is worth a fortune. Leicas, old Contaxes, anything by Rollei (the 'cords currently sell for almost as high prices as the 'flexes, at least here in Australia) and the upper range 35mm and medium format gear, yes. Old consumer snapshot cameras from the '60s and '70s, no way, even if young shooters are now madly keen to buy a five pack of hideously expensive film so they can take the new camera out and show it off to the yuppie set.

My advice to anyone having to do all this, is to be sure to set the conditions of your involvement beforehand and stick to them, to the letter. Also consider bringing in expert help (my camera shop owner friend gave excellent impartial advice and saved me buckets of tears). Or find a reliable secondhand dealer and let them take the best of the lot on consignment. - Or use Ebay as an easy if expensive way to clear the stock.

One thing is guaranteed. After one such episode, you will vow to all the gods in the heavens to never, ever do it again. Until the next time...