Just received delivery of my Epson 4990 scanner which I got on the "BAY" for the opening bid of 99cents. It looks like new -- I'll find out how everything works this weekend. Lesson to all who post on the auction sites -- don't list on a holiday weekend. The seller was great and honored my bid. I AM feeling a bit guilty. If the darn thing works good, I may have to send the guy something more (NOT much more, but something).
A new condition 4x5 Baby Deardorff with mint Ilex mounted 210 Tessar, 5 new Graflex 4x5 holders in the sealed paper and case for $800. Also picked up a minty M2 leica, new condition IIIG, 50 Ltm summicron, Elmarit 90, Zeiss 50 sonnar, Elmar 50 2.8, 35mm v1 Summicron minty, 135 Elmar, MR meter 2 leitz table top tripods and large heads, Viso II, Viso 1 and bellows a number of other leica lenses and a ton of adapters ofr $1500. All were in mint to near mint condition except the Sonnar. Also a minty Nikkor 8mm f2.8 fish eye for $500. Also bought a 50mm f1.2 Noctilux in the 70's from a rich kid I knew who wrecked his mothers car and had to sell his camera gear to fix it. Bought it for $100 and my friend bought his M4 for $100. Wish I had the Noctilux back now to sell at todays prices.
I keep my eyes and ears open and have found quite a few great deals over the years.
The ones that got away -
2 Leica GG reporter cameras, one complete and one 97% complete in swap for my Leicaflex SL MOT and 180 apo Tele. My EXWIFE talked me out of it. BIG STUPID!!!!!!!
A Mountain Elmar 105 leica lens for $65. I was a student in the college and just didn't have the extra cash and didn't think I would use it if I bought it. Stupid!!!!!
Yesterday a co-worker had an old Korean War spotting scope torn down for cleaning. We still use them in our tracking telescopes. This one was from an old hand tracker that the US Navy used for aiming the ships guns. Anyways the main optic was nasty from being stored in the weather for 55 years. He had a new old stock glass to install and was going to pitch the old one. It looked for all the world like a landscape meniscus to me, so I dug it out of the trash and put it in my pocket. I held a ground glass behind it in a darkened room and looking out of doors I determined that it was about 375mm f5. Very usable for LF. After everyone went home I went down to where the ABS pipe fittings are kept and discovered it would almost fit in the small end of a 3" male adapter. I chucked the ABS in a lathe and removed material until my glass would fit nicely. I cleaned up the rest so it didn't look like waste pipe fittings. This morning at home I discovered the 3" IP thread would just start in a 14" Cooke flange. I mounted that puppy on the old Kodak 2D 6.5X8.5 and made some pictures in the garden this AM. Here's the first fruit.
snappy cars and fast boats
Jim Galli, I often think you have more fun at this than most of us. (And I am assuming that most of us are having lots of fun.)
The one that stands out for me is the 14" Schneider-Dagor MC that I purchased for $750. After a few years, it sold for $2827 on EBay.
It's debatable where the actual theft occurred, when I bought it or when I sold it!
More recently, I bought two Mamiya RB's, four lenses, a Mamiya 645 system, and accessories for $750. As I was getting ready to leave, the seller's father hurriedly drove up and threw in another RB system with a prism viewer at no extra cost.
The one I missed was a recent Shen Hao 8x10 that I was tracking on EBay. The opening bid was $0.99 with no reserve, and it didn't sell.
Jim, I guess I had a similar experience. A few years ago I bought a lot of lens parts. There was a magic lantern lens I wanted, the rest of the items looked like broken parts. One piece was an aluminum fitting about the size of a toilet paper tube. It had knurling and interlocks and a bunch of junk, and a tiny lens way down inside. After a few weeks I decided to try to get the glass out for fun (disassembling things is fun, right?). After figuring out how to remove sleeves and shanks and johnson rods, there was the little lens, covered in Cosmoline. I cleaned it off and it read: CP Goerz....Dagor...
Garrett
flickr galleries
I'm not sure if it's my "biggest", but it's definitely the most recent. I went to check out a craigslist ad for "darkroom stuff", and instead ended up coming home with, amongst other odds and ends of stuff:
3 accordion bottles (the only actual darkroom stuff, and I don't think I'll use 'em)
5 4x5 holders
3 8x10 holders
A bulb and cable release
Vivitar speedlight
Some Cokin filters
Graflex 6x9 roll holder
A Polaroid 405 back
A Polaroid 545 back
About 60 sheets of Polaroid film for the above (most of it type 55!)
A bottle of sodium sulfite for the above
And a big hiking backpack to fit everything into.
Total cost: $30
The 405 back actually had two sheets of 669 left loaded into it, so I tried one not expecting much. The results are on my Flickr. I really wanted to post it in the image sharing forum here, but I didn't think 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" would be kosher even though I shot it on my Speed.
Pretty magical, though! Originally, I was thinking about the money I could make re-selling everything, but instead I just ended up spending more money on a Graflok back (which was also a bit of a steal) so I can use it all. Not only that, but now I've got the instant bug, and they just keep discontinuing what little is left.
No "steal" here as it was an website auction based in Europe. A 16/18" Patent Pending Graf Variable in original leather case and with both lens caps. Equivalent to 38USD. Almost exactly what I had to pay for postage - and for a suitable flange. It was something of a surprise/shock as the "size" (efl and physical) and lens rim text were not discernable in photos. I always seen to get the biggest (or next biggest!) sizes in my bargains.
I bought some large format stuff from the estate sale of a person I replaced at my former job. Got 15 4X5 holders, some 5X7 holders and I think 3 8X10 holders. I sold the new in box 5X7 holders on ebay for a lot more than the $37 I paid for the lot, Think someone on this list mentioned the madness of the price but as I got just slightly more than 4 times what I thought I would so I had no complaints.
In the early eighties I got one of the last models of Rolleichord for a Gitan bike which was part of a deal that got me a huge mahogany office desk and a Doniselli bike for a broken Kawi 350 twin of my wife's. Donicelli is semi retired along with its Camy parts and the desk which was barn paint drab brown has been a beautiful piece of furniture for three decades. The Rollei unfortantely broke so that one cannot use a cable release or the actual shutter button.
I bought a ton of Jobo equipment(Drums/Reels) and chemistry from a lab in Tuscon for $300. Kept all the chemistry and half the jobo equipment. All said and done I made back my $300 and an extra $150.
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