Rembrandt portrait camera questions

[John Kasaian]

One thing to remember about general auctions is that what things actually go for is highly dependent on who is there and bidding on stuff. Former classmate apparently picked up a pile of 'old' camera gear for $25 in an estate sale. Everyone else there was gunning for the antique furniture, and no one else had half a clue about cameras, so it had all been tossed into two lot boxes. One labeled 'miscellaneous film camera equipment', and he was the only one who bid on it, and the other was "Professional digital camera gear", and a few grandmothers fought over the canon rebels with kit lenses up to $500 or something, probably thinking it was a great gift for a grandkid.
That's why having a case is important to the story---the protagonist is the only one who looks at what's inside and hazards to make the bid.
So he got $30k or so in glass and high end medium format and compact range finder cameras.

The glorious thing about this from a writer's stand point is that you can stuff nearly anything in a lot box that no one else happens to be interested in, and it becomes perfectly reasonable from the reader's stand point.

[Mark Sawyer]

Thanks for the tip---this might fit in well with the plot. The protagonist wins the camera cheap at a police property book auction so it would have to be a camera collectors wouldn't be after...

If you really want realism, have the protagonist win it in a bidding war against Jim Galli and Drew Bedo, then regret spending so much for the rest of the story...

[Jim Galli]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

Hey, maybe your heroine will take the Packard out of the Rembrandt to send to Jim Galli with 2 $20 bills for repairs and discover the evidence, tucked up behind the Packard, that the whole murder case was counting on. Also, the $15K Large that was actually inside a false bottom on that camera case. The green felt inside fooled them all!! All kinds of possibilities with a Rembrandt and a case.

[dsphotog]

...And the film holders filled with exposed film, that Ansel shot but never developed....

[John Kasaian]

If you really want realism, have the protagonist win it in a bidding war against Jim Galli and Drew Bedo, then regret spending so much for the rest of the story...

The story doesn't take place in Nevada, regrettably.

[John Kasaian]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

Hey, maybe your heroine will take the Packard out of the Rembrandt to send to Jim Galli with 2 $20 bills for repairs and discover the evidence, tucked up behind the Packard, that the whole murder case was counting on. Also, the $15K Large that was actually inside a false bottom on that camera case. The green felt inside fooled them all!! All kinds of possibilities with a Rembrandt and a case.

Hmmmmmmmm.........?

[John Kasaian]

...And the film holders filled with exposed film, that Ansel shot but never developed....

That's already been done

[Drew Bedo]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

.

The novel "Martian" was done pretty much like that with a blog. Now its a movie that will come out in November.

[Drew Bedo]

Years ago a friend had an optical shop selling telescopes and microscopes new and used. While on vacation he stopped by an auction of lab equipment on a whim and decided to bid on a ten piece lot of woodenmicroscope cases—oak with brass and empty. He intended to put a bottle of some liqure in each as a Christmas gift for selected friends. His winning bid was something under $100 for the lot.


When he went to pick up his boxes, they brought out a whole pallet of over fifty boxes. Each box held an elaborate geology microscope. While he and his family were still gasping and trying to figure out what to do and how to do it, the auction folks came out with another pallet of boxes holding all the accessory gear for the microscopes.

This took place in the mid 1990s to "Z-Optical" in Houston.

There is a nugget of plot element here . . .it just needs to be adjusted and scalled to fit.

[Tin Can]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

Hey, maybe your heroine will take the Packard out of the Rembrandt to send to Jim Galli with 2 $20 bills for repairs and discover the evidence, tucked up behind the Packard, that the whole murder case was counting on. Also, the $15K Large that was actually inside a false bottom on that camera case. The green felt inside fooled them all!! All kinds of possibilities with a Rembrandt and a case.

You will need an editor, '$15K Large' is $15 million and won't fit in any size camera case. Unless it was actually 15K $1000 bills which are very rare...