For Sale Railroad 35mm slides. THOUSANDS of them.

[tjaded]

I have a HUGE amount of railroad 35mm slides...these came from the estate of someone that was a train fanatic. Being that there are a ton of them, the weight is, well, high! Higher than my postal scale goes. If anyone is interested in these please PM me. The slides themselves are $250, shipping will depend on where they are going. If you happen to live near San Francisco and could pick them up, that would be even better!
Thanks for reading,
Matt

 

[Maxwell]

I assume you;ve considered offering them to a railroad enthusiastics group?

 

[tjaded]

I've thought of it, and probably should...but I don't know of any. I figure there are a couple of train photographers on APUG that should get first crack at them!

 

[jjacob]

PM sent

 

[tjaded]

Sold, pending payment.

 

[summicron1]

railroad museum in sacramento would love them.....

 

[Mahler_one]

Call the Smithsonian. The slides might well belong in a museum. With respect, it would be a shame to sell the slides to someone who will put them in a collection, or sell them off to other collectors.

You might also call the SF museum of Science, or the Yale University Sterling Library.....the latter has a rare book collection that is stored under perfect conditions. Realizing that you have slides rather than books, perhaps they might still be interested....there are also Berkley and Stanford..

 

[Mahler_one]

Too late....too bad....enjoy your collection....and still consider donating them!!!

 

[zsas]

To those suggesting a seller to donate his/her items - that is quite rude. Do you also hassle folks who sell say a Pentax K1000 that he/she should instead donate it to a community college or whatnot? Sure the items are "rare" but there is a huge difference between a For Sale thread on this site and a post in the lounge saying "I've this big box of railroad slides, what should I with them...."

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

To those suggesting a seller to donate his/her items - that is quite rude. Do you also hassle folks who sell say a Pentax K1000 that he/she should instead donate it to a community college or whatnot? Sure the items are "rare" but there is a huge difference between a For Sale thread on this site and a post in the lounge saying "I've this big box of railroad slides, what should I with them...."

Often when donations are made, particularly to not for profit organizations, tax deductions can be made. It may be worth while to look into it, after a value of the slides has been established.

Many times I look at the Antiques Roadshow on public television, and wish that some of the items there were simply donated to a museum so that the general public may enjoy them. I realize that only about 5% of a museum collection ever sees the light of day in on display, but still...

If the slides go into the hands of a serious collector, someone who will actually do something worthwhile with them, then that could be really great for the general public as well, so I'm not saying that this option is necessarily a bad one. I just wanted to give an alternative view. Many museums today have a hard time with financing, and rely on generous donors to survive and generate funds for purchases.

 

[wy2l]

What really hurts is when you donate something to a not-for-profit museum, and then they sell it.

 

[zsas]

Totally agree T, just worried that banter in Sales Threads of APUG will make sellers not want to sell here because they are heckled for selling. There is even a policy of such here at APUG. Maybe a PM might have been more appropriate than Sellers here shamed for selling what others might cherish....

Had the OP said, "I've a ton of slides that I've no clue what to do with" in the Lounge....well that is fair game....

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

What really hurts is when you donate something to a not-for-profit museum, and then they sell it.

True. Sometimes they have to deaccession items to fund other purchases.

One benefit with getting slides (or other items) into the hands of museums, is that information and pictures can be made available in digital archives. Photography departments of museums often has staff that will work all the pertinent metadata, do color corrections and make files look good, and then either make the files available for people to use for free, or against a fee, depending on the copyright situation and who actually owns those rights.

That's another benefit to society that is probably not thought about enough, and benefits those who do research on various topics; people that are enthusiasts, curators, or otherwise benefiting from the effort.
If the pictures themselves are interesting enough (subjective, I know), of course.

Just so that it's blatantly obvious - I have no qualms at all with the OP selling these items. I'm glad he found a buyer that has an interest in them. That is much better than them collecting dust.

 

[Mahler_one]

No offense meant. I apologize to you.

However, to me a trove of what might be historical slides is clearly much different than a camera. Then again, to you the two items might be similar. If so, please once again accept my apologies.

Moreover, no hassles intended to anyone who sells anything. By all means sell anything to any willing buyer.

As to the other comments: I agree that a serious collector and archivist will be a good source of conservation.

 

[tjaded]

I appreciate all the thoughts on the subject...though I will mention that these are not super old slides. I did offer them to the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento but they were not interested in them. You would be amazed at the things that museums/libraries/etc. pass up from people trying to donate.

 

[summicron1]

I appreciate all the thoughts on the subject...though I will mention that these are not super old slides. I did offer them to the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento but they were not interested in them. You would be amazed at the things that museums/libraries/etc. pass up from people trying to donate.

as a volunteer at the Ogden Union Station archive (check out my blog http://theunionstation.org/index.php/blog/) I thank you for checking out the California RR Museum. Ogden is home to the Utah Railroad Museum and, yeah, a lot of stuff gets offered that can't be used, either for simple logistical reasons -- three Civil War era railroad cars? -- or because we simply lack the ability to deal with it.

We get a lot of odd stuff -- today a cannon ball showed up -- and do our best. We don't sell stuff, either, unless it is something we simply have no use for, but the money would help. We've had several local folks die recently who left use huge collections of slides and/or pictures of trains. There are folks out there who have their own huge accumulations ... the tough thing is to decide if it fits in with our needs and helps tell the story of Utah railroading that we're trying to tell.

And don't be hard on museums that do sell a donation -- you have no idea how desperate we are for money ... selling something that has cash value but duplicates something we already have makes every donation worthwhile. For example someone recently died who donated his entire library...we're keeping the best and selling the duplicates. The resulting cash helps pay for preserving the rest of the donation -- have you priced museum-grade storage boxes lately?

 

[jamoldover]

tjaded -

Were these ever sold? If not, can you provide a little more information regarding how old they are (1980s/90s/2000/etc) and what they cover?

Thanks.