Your Great Garage Sale 35mm Find?

[steelydam]

I have found Olympus XA and XA2 at yard sales, one was $5 and one was $3 - both with cases and flash. That's the best I've been able to do.

 

[brian d]

brian d--where in Indiana are your flea markets? Mine is in Lafayette!

I go to several when I can, the Croy Creek flea market east of Brazil is once or twice a month and can be a good one. One of my kids goes to it often and tells me someone brings a box-o-camera's most of the time. One of my realist's came from there. the WRVAA Tractor show at Elnora has a fairly nice flea market in Sept.
If you can get down to Friendship in june during the muzzle loader shoot the market there is huge or at least it was as of 4 years ago.
Where and when is the market at Lafayette? I go there most years for the Feast of the Hunters Moon.
I dont know if its true or not but people used to tell me that the flea market during the tractor show at Portland is one of the biggest in the country ( I find it a little hard to believe)

 

[Frank Teodosio]

Last summer I spotted a holster type camera bag. It was like new. They were asking $15 for it. When I picked it up to inspect it, I was surprised at the weight. In the case was a camera. The seller told me it was just an old beat up camera, and it went with the bag. Well as I removed the old camera from the bag I discovered it was a Nikon N6006 with a 28-85 AF lens. Both were in excellent condition. My daughter has taken it with her to college.

 

[ssloansjca]

Congratulations on the great finds!

How much do you save when you factor in the amount of time pawing through junk? My first wife (now deceased) was a garage sale addict, so then that time was a "sunk cost." Yes, I got some great deals on stuff. But, I had to spend a lot of time looking at junk while she searched for treasure.

My present wife is not a garage sale fan so I pay more, but have the time for other things.

~Steve

 

[darinwc]

"that time was a "sunk cost."

If she was doing something she enjoyed, i would not consider that a sunk cost.

 

[Pompiere]

"that time was a "sunk cost."

If she was doing something she enjoyed, i would not consider that a sunk cost.

I agree, it is the thrill that you get when you find something good in all that junk that makes it worth the hunt. Sometimes you find something completely different from what you set out to find, but turns out to be even better.

 

[darinwc]

..and sometimes just getting out of the house and meeting people makes the day worthwhile.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

I was looking for this thread the other day. Zenza Bronica S2 with a 150mm Zenzanon at a thrift store for $5 USD.

 

[StorminMatt]

I don't exactly go to garage sales. But there is always that garage sale of the 21st century known as craigslist, where you can find a good deal from time to time. Probably one of my best 35mm finds was a Canon EOS 3 for $25. There is a crack in the prism. But this doesn't affect image quality. And the camera works fine in all other respects. Another decent find in recent months was a nearly new Canon Elan 7ne kit, complete with battery grip, infrared remote trigger, kit lens (for what THAT'S worth!), and several rolls of cheapie Kodak C41 film for $80. On the flip side, though, there is no shortage of people on craigslist who seem to think that the Rebel kit they bought new six months ago is worth over $300.

 

[MattKing]

I just bought an Omega Pro-Lab D6 enlarger that I found on Craigslist. It wasn't $5, but it also wasn't $500.00 (CDN).

With a full complement of lenses and a good complement of negative carriers and lensboards, plus both condenser and Ilfospeed Multigrade 400 heads, it was a lot less than buying through eBay, and infinitely less than buying a new D5 (which is quite similar, and still being manufactured) through B & H.

I also get the additional entertainment of comparing what I paid to what B & H and others want for new or even used versions of the equipment - don't you love a bargain .

Matt

 

[Bill Harrison]

Nikon 50mm enlarging lens, mint, $2.00.

 

[snegron]

I was looking for this thread the other day. Zenza Bronica S2 with a 150mm Zenzanon at a thrift store for $5 USD.

Wow! That is a great find! Thrift stores are definitely another way to find great deals.

 

[Dennis S]

I just bought an Omega Pro-Lab D6 enlarger that I found on Craigslist. It wasn't $5, but it also wasn't $500.00 (CDN).

With a full complement of lenses and a good complement of negative carriers and lensboards, plus both condenser and Ilfospeed Multigrade 400 heads, it was a lot less than buying through eBay, and infinitely less than buying a new D5 (which is quite similar, and still being manufactured) through B & H.

I also get the additional entertainment of comparing what I paid to what B & H and others want for new or even used versions of the equipment - don't you love a bargain .

Matt

Good score Matt. I've been watching Vancouvers Craigslist carefully but I didn't need ANOTHER enlarger.

 

[ricksplace]

I found a Pentax autofocus zoom 38-120 at a yard sale for $4. Inside the box was the original bill of sale for $269.95. I don't think it had ever been used. It works perfectly.

 

[Robert Liebermann]

Well, last summer I got a box including a Contax RTSI with 35 and 50 Zeiss's, a Spotmatic SP with a 35/3.5, a first Canon F-1 with a FD 35-70 f4, plus some various Tamron, et al. zooms for some of the above and various cable releases, flashes, etc.

Also included a 65xxxxx Nikon F with a 5.8cm 1.4... That was so dusty and the prism and focus screen were cracked so I had about written it off as a decoration or parts camera... but in the last month or so, however, I've looked it over closer, cleaned it up a bit, and now find the 5.8 is about a 9 (the glass flawless) and the F needs a CLA and a new prism (already replaced the screen) to pe pretty good. I'm about to shoot a roll through it pretty soon, the prism (non-phototomic), while cracked and chipped, is usable in the meantime.

That whole lot was US$45, or maybe 40, I forget. Free, pretty much.

 

[fschifano]

Minolta Rangefinder model A1. Three bucks at a Salvation Army store. It was being used to prop open a cabinet door. The slow shutter speeds were a bit slow, but after some exercise they started behaving more normally.

 

[glaiben]

You can print your 35mm negs with this enlarger - it may be on the auction site, but the guy says he'll actually give it away if you come and pick it up.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170311839972

 

[fschifano]

The other stuff that comes with the enlarger would be nice, but the enlarger itself is more trouble than it's worth really. It uses additive color correction (Red Green Blue) rather than the more common subtractive system (Cyan Magenta Yellow). If I recall correctly, it uses 3 colored lamps and a bunch of electronics to accomplish this. They're rare, and it is likely difficult to source parts for it. No wonder he's willing to give it away.

 

[EASmithV]

I have to stop reading this, as it is giving me a serious case of GAS

 

[glockman99]

While it's not a "garage sale find", a couple weeks ago I bought an almost "like-new" Nikon F3HP and an almost "like new" Nikon MD-4 motordrive off of that "big auction site" for a total of $225, including Priority shipping (in two seperate purchases). I have seen just the F3HP body in the condition mine is, sell for over $250 (+ shipping) itself on that auction site.

 

[Todd Evans]

Here in the US, sellers at garage sales (and Craig's List) seem to have one of the following two mindsets about 35mm SLR cameras: They think they are completely worthless because they use film (which is dead), or they think they are worth the exact same amount of money that they originally paid for them 10-20 years ago.

Luckily, most people fall under the first category.

I love when Craig's List or online auction listings say things like "Canon Rebel G with 35-80mm zoom lens - I paid $900.00 for it new three years ago!"

 

[geauxpez]

I completely agree Todd.

Last summer I snagged a black Spotmatic with the 50/1.4, 28/3.5 and 135/3.5, Asahi macro bellows and slide copier for $40. Everything but the 50 and the bellows needed some TLC, but it was still a good deal. I had the Spotmatic and the 28mm CLA'd, then donated the Spotmatic and the 50 to a high school photo class (their cameras had been stolen that summer). I sold everything else and pretty much broke even.

 

[darinwc]

Showed up at a garage sale today and found some books on olympus and minolta cameras.. and a bunch of original receipts for an olympus OM1n. When I inquired about the cameras, I was told all the cameras were already sold.. DOH!

 

[bob100684]

we had a customer walk into the store I was working at, she had found a nikon F4 for $10 at a thrift store. She was somewhat disappointed that even a 50mm f1.8 costs around $100

 

[Chaplain Jeff]

we had a customer walk into the store I was working at, she had found a nikon F4 for $10 at a thrift store. She was somewhat disappointed that even a 50mm f1.8 costs around $100

Tell her I'll give her $15 for it, then she won't have to worry about it.