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very old camera equiptment

When you purchase property, it is supposed to be "broom clean". Hold the seller to it. The few things that might have had some value are probably destroyed by poor storage.

Sorry to be bearer of bad news
 
Ronald Moravec said:
When you purchase property, it is supposed to be "broom clean". Hold the seller to it. The few things that might have had some value are probably destroyed by poor storage.

Sorry to be bearer of bad news
Click to expand...

I'd say don't rock the boat.
If you ask the seller to come back and clean the place up, and they get an inkling that all of this stuff might be valuable, maybe they stumble upon this thread (I've seen at least $1-2k worth of stuff even in crap condition if you can be bothered selling it), they might just haul the whole lot away and flip it to KEH themselves.

ps, what are the markings on the Gundlach lens? They look huge, and no matter what a huge brass lens is worth at least triple-digits on fleabay.
There's a whole lot of old catalogues to flip through here: http://cameraeccentric.com/info.html
 
the stuff was there when the other owner opened his buisness here,and he never went through it..there is all kinds of room here so that space it was taken up in the basement was not needed..i found alot of info that i would not have learned other wise. if this stuff was not in the basement..i am just wandering what else i will learn about all of this ,, it is very interesting..
 
trying to fin info on this one,, only markings on it, is that stamp on the back,,its a 8x10 does the style look familuar to anyone and roughly the year
 
I have some of what you have.....

All I can say about these stuff is that this kind of equipment holds no value except for those who wants them. There is virtually NO appeal to general public. All you'd get is "oh neat" "how much?" "no way!" type of response. So your plan of showcasing these at your store may not work so well to sell. It may bring customer into your store but it may not result in sale of the items.

However, collectors and enthusiasts do pay top dollars for some of them, even if they have to be restored or repaired.

I have something very similar to #115. I'm sorry to say, it holds no value. $5 at flea market maybe? These were mass produced and basically made out of wood and cardboard. Lens and view finders get cloudy (as you can see). It is not worth restoring or using. (although I do) If you open it up, you'll see a small bellows that are probably full of pin holes.... (like mine)
 
thanks for the advise.. i know most of what i have has no value at all like the pocket cameras..but are cool to look at and i think i might try a few of them out very soon..i am interested in finding info on the scovill mfc and the others like that i have...the scovill, the bellows act look like brand new..i took a flash light and looked inside and seen no lite come in anywhere..and also a couple of others that are made from either cherry or mahogany..but #232 is way different then all the others,nice smooth action with the rollers and adjusters and no lite coming the bellows as well..i dont plan on selling anything,,i even put some of the nicer ones up as decoration in my house.
 
232 May be century studio camera, but it's missing the back.

In the earlier scovill photo, the camera on the right may be Eastman no. 2 8x10 camera with rear extension rail.

Jon
 
u mean this eastman..its a model 33a..and makes sense on other one there is a modle 10a century studio in basement for that other one be one as well,,lol know time to research other century studios and eastman no 2 lol
 
lol yeh i seen that was jjust looking at other eastmans and they look the same as mine i think u are right..i am going to clean it up and find out what backs ond front plates goes to wjat cameras..thatnks alot
 
I think the problem you have is the time it will take to monetize the items that are worth something. You may want to make piles of the junk as you go through it, then give it away. Even the things that have some value are a problem because everything is so dirty. A lot of the leather covers for the cameras look shot which makes them more or less junk. You may want to just throw those out unless it is some type of rare beast. That also makes the condition of the lenses suspect. I guess you will have to decide what you time is worth.

Personally, if I had found that I would remove what I wanted for myself and anything valuable that is worth saving, then just put an ad in the local paper or Craigslist with some pictures and state that it is free to haul away. People are greedy, so you will get someone there within an hour and soon have a clean basement.

Good luck!
 
yeh i def know what you mean,, i have sorted alot of it out and even have about 20 of the cheap pocket cameras displayed at my house..but i only took the best ones.. what i am afraid if i just threw it out and next thing a know, one of the very old ones like the scovill could be worth something and i could have missed out on it..i collect motorcycles as well and think some of these cameras are very nice looking even if not worth anything..the bellow are just act dirty they look really bad in the pics ,and with a flashlight there is no light coming in at all..and i found the backs to the other cameras just a little while ago...and the back said folmer and schwing division eastman kodak company,,so thats dates that camera from 1907 to 1917.
 
ntsmith69, that is truly quite a hoard of cameras and related equipment you have there, I'm curious at the lineage of it, you had said in an earlier post that all this equipment was there when the previous owner of the store was the occupant, did they ever say who was the stores occupant previous to them ?
It might be worth back tracking with the landlord to see who all this stuff belonged to.
 
Now we are getting to the real reason why you want to clear out that basement, it is so you can put your motorcycles down there!

To allay your fears, if an old camera isn't worth something yet, it never will be. By old, I mean pre WWII.

Just go through the cameras a little at a time and use Google and ebay to determine if they are worth anything. If you have a question about a particular item, ask here. It shouldn't take you that much time if you are efficient about it (i.e. don't fondle everything!). Keep all the film holders, lenses and any cameras you recognize right off the bat. You can throw things right in the trash if they are trashed, like old small bellows cameras that are ruined, and just get rid of any large strobe equipment. It won't work and isn't worth fixing. Light stands can be sold though. Bulky things like backgrounds can probably be trashed if they are not perfect.
 
act we had avery bad snow storm here, we had 4 feet of snow dropped in les then 24 hours,so was a slow day and i new no one would be out in that weather conditions. so i fig i would do some maintanince upstairs. i was digging out another shelving unit we i had to move a box that was in front of the unit i was going to set up upstairs. and it was full of cameras all wrapper up and one of the first ones a pulled up was the koni. the meddalist 2 and a brand new never opened viscawide-16.thats and the lone ranger camera.thats when i started going through the other 100 boxes. when i bought the buisness i bought everything that was in there. and there used to be the local photographer a few doors down from my place from the 1960s till 1988 and i think when he closed it was put there.. i know him quite well and have asked him when he and his wife were in my store last week.. but he is very old and has altzhimers so he does not rember.
 
found about 10 boxes of glass plates never used all 8x10..
 
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