Nothing Perks-Up the Day Like a Box in the Mail from...

bill schwab · Jun 17, 2006

Today it was ArtCraft... (early too! Thanks Mike!) Yesterday it was Pictorico. Monday it may be B&S or B&H, etc. It never fails. When the postal carrier brings a box to my door, I feel like a kid again. Nothing beats the rumble of the diesel and squeal of brakes on the big, brown UPS truck as it stops in front of my house. The guy knows me as I always meet him at the curb. Even though it symbolizes a drop in my already small bank account, it is still a thrill to cut open that box and part the popcorn packing to reveal the treasure inside. Time to brew some more Palladium Chloride, Ferric and Potassium Oxalate. Wooo Hooo!

Am I the only one that still gets this thrill after all these years?

Bill

reellis67 · Jun 17, 2006

Nope! I get jazzed when a package arrives too. It's like the key to the doors of opportunity landing in your hands.

- Randy

DBP · Jun 17, 2006

My favorite boxes are the lot buys from eBay and orders of miscellaneous stuff from AS&S (www.sciplus.com). It's so much more fun to open the box when you are not quite sure what is there. BTW, AS&S currently has stocks of Magicubes and Flipflashes if anyone is looking.

Curt · Jun 17, 2006

The door bell rings and you run to the door and open it, it's like a Holiday, you take the package in your arms and say thank you then close the door and rush to open the package with that new camera, what a deal you got, the camera and lens, oh boy, oh boy; you open the box and WOW it's those film hangers you ordered the same day because you were so hyped to get the camera and lens you had to buy something you didn't need. Well crap that's a bust, maybe tomorrow it'll come. That feeling?

bill schwab · Jun 17, 2006

Curt said:
That feeling?

Yeah.... That's the feeling.

david b · Jun 17, 2006

Hey Bill, what about the package I sent you?

bill schwab · Jun 17, 2006

david b said:
Hey Bill, what about the package I sent you?

Oh yeah baby! Forgot about that one! It falls under the nice surprise category. It has been a good mail week.

Thank you again David!

Bill

Davec101 · Jun 18, 2006

Hi Bill

What did you order from pictorico, if you dont mind me asking, do you use their OHP film for digital contacts?

Dave Parker · Jun 18, 2006

I love it every single time, sorry, just a kid at heart!

Oh boy, Christmas in July!

R.

bill schwab · Jun 18, 2006

Davec101 said:
if you dont mind me asking, do you use their OHP film for digital contacts?

Hi Dave,

Not to get into a topic best not discussed here ... yes. I have been experimenting a lot with the process.

B.

Curt · Jun 18, 2006

Any luck with the d.....l negatives? Do you have the book by Burk...? It's one way to get a big negative for work. Would like to hear of your experiences. I have a lot of Azo that I haven't use and at one time was thinking of a project using Pictorico as a negative for it.

Regards,
Curt

Go analog, Go

seadrive · Jun 18, 2006

I have a post office box, so for me, it's opening the box and finding a lovely yellow "you have a package" slip. If the box is full of mail, it's like an Easter egg hunt. Yellow, yellow, where's the yellow?

Then, I get to wait on the line, wondering if it's the Xtol from B&H, the film from JandC, or some little thing I picked up on eBay two weeks ago, and have completely forgotten about. When the guy or gal brings the box in from the back room, I have about 10 seconds to figure out what it is from the size and shape of the box, before I can clearly read the return address.

Yeah, I'd say I'm still a kid!

medform-norm · Jun 19, 2006

I guess there's no shopping like home shopping. Just think about it, it was not so long ago that we went out to stores and fairs to buy these kinds of things and boxes of joy only were deliverd by Santa Claus. I asked our mail man the other day if he didn't just love his job, delivering boxes to people who always show a friendly if not idiotically excited face at the door. I got the impression he didn't quite get it, though, he just handed me our new TP Junior Special with two Cookes lenses with a shrug of shoulders and left.

jimgalli · Jun 19, 2006

"Oh-oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a coming down the street, And I think it's got something spethial for MMMMeeee!"

Always been that way in Tonopah Nevada.

DBP · Jun 19, 2006

jimgalli said:
"Oh-oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a coming down the street, And I think it's got something spethial for MMMMeeee!"

Always been that way in Tonopah Nevada.

And many other places. Many of the houses in this neighborhood were built from kits supplied by mail order from Sears. There are just more mail order places today and they are easier to find.

Ole · Jun 20, 2006

My big weakness is the "mystery boxes" from ebay. You know - the blurry picture, description something like "lots of old camera stuff - don't know if it works or even what it is?"

Last time I couldn't find my cable release I bought one of those for a winning bid much less than the postage. I now have 12 cable releases in a wide range of lengths! And a single-plate adapter for international back - one each in 9x12cm, 4x5", 10x15cm and 13x18cm. A big stack of various lens boards. About 30 different lens hoods. And lots of the "don't know what it is"-es.

Iv've just bought another one of those packs - I know there's two iris lens mounts in it, and "some other stuff like lenses".

JBrunner · Jun 20, 2006

OOoooh... its from Bostick & Sullivan. Tiny little brown bottles..... and some paper.......Hmmmm....wonder what to do with this......

medform-norm · Jun 20, 2006

Ole said:
Iv've just bought another one of those packs - I know there's two iris lens mounts in it, and "some other stuff like lenses".

So it hasn't arrived yet? When it does, please tell me what the other stuff was, just as a small courtesy for outbidding me. And something else: would you have enough cameras to fit all the iris mounts on that you must have collected by now? You better watch out or they start outnumbering your collection of lenses.

Norm - who's still very pleased with the Cooke you got for him.

Ole · Jun 20, 2006

medform-norm said:
So it hasn't arrived yet?

I don't know, since I haven't arrived home yet!

I didn't intentionally outbid you - since the auction ended when I was asleep, I used a free sniping service to enter my bid. I think I've discovered a tendency that there are some people who will bid on anything I bid on, so I try to not give them enough time to find out what I think is good. I've lost several lenses I was interested in to late bids by the same four or five people. One of them had been listed for the fourth time without selling, but the moment I placed a bid it was suddenly "attractive".

I will let you know what all of it is, as soon as I know myself!

I think one of the irises should be small enough to mount on a Gandolfi lensboard, allowing me to use some very fine old lenses on my best 5x7" camera.

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