After all, where is all of the old Agfa film coming from?
PE
Comments have been made about "certain" deceased manufacturers and the large remaining stocks of finished goods that have been oversupplying the market for some time. I am curious about this concept.
For example: Did Agfa continue to run its coating lines 24/7 even in the light of declining sales? Did this result in warehouse after warehouse being crammed with product they couldn't sell?
I wonder if this is the same as Forte? Do they, too, have huge warehouses of product unsold?
Two comments here that may be useful.
Expiration dates are conservative, but you do take your chances when you are beyond that date. Also, an active company like Kodak or Ilford properly stores inventory at a set temperature and humidity for optimum keeping. If a plant shuts down, who tends to the proper storage of existing inventory?
If the land that a plant sits on becomes more valuable than the product it produces, then it is more useful to sell the land, especially if the market is collapsing. If repair or upgrading a machine is more expensive than the profit from th product it produces, the machine is run until it can no longer make usable product and then the company shuts down and goes out of business.
An example might be this, which combines the postulates in the paragraph above.
During WWII, the US bombed the Hachioji steel mills flat. After the war, they were rebuilt from the ground up with the most modern equipment. Through the war and after, US Steel in Pittsburgh operated with a plant built in the 19th century. As a result, after being rebuilt, Japan's steel industry was able to out produce US Steel and at a lower price. As production fell, the land became more valuable than the plant production, and today as you drive down 2nd avenue in Pittsburgh you see open fields, a new Mellon research center and some park and ride parking lots. The best steel mills in the US were built elsewhere where the land was less expensive and the plant was built to modern standards.
Kodak is in a similar position, and are selling off buildings or demolishing them to reduce tax burden and make some money. They retain a core of modern production facilities that can be tuned to meet forseeable needs, and they are able to store a reasonable amount of inventory.
PE
Yes PE, that is a very good question.
Yes, a real good question...
I haven't seen any 120 APX 100 since early 2006. And it never re-appeared.
. . . . . .
B&H Photo Video got a shipment of 35mm APX 100 and APX400 in the summer of 2006 but they are now sold out of it and my order placed in November, 2006 has been cancelled by them, since the product is now listed as discontinued.
I haven't seen any 120 APX 100 since early 2006. And it never re-appeared.
- The film has an expiration date of 11/2010. Using Agfa's 65 month dating procedure (which Agfa USA told me about several years back) this translates to 6/2005
Could you explain this?
Just an update, since my order of 35mm APX100 is at UPS, and will be delivered tomorrow; B&H Photo have this film now:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=1097&is=REG
If that link does not work, then scroll through their menues. The only AGFA B/W 120 rollfilm they have is APX400. However, I don't particularly like using APX400.
Anyway, I am getting 14 rolls of the 36 exposure APX100. If anyone is interested in expiration date information on the boxes, I would be happy to provide another post with that information.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat
Dead Link Removed
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