Looking for Polaroid Type 55 ?

[blevblev]

Does Fuji make a type 55 type film - one that produces a negative?

[BarryS]

Not....yet.

[davidb]

On 2/11, the polaroid store had 995 boxes of type 55.

Today at 9:30am they had 339.

Now at 9:30pm, they have sold out.

[venchka]

On 2/11, the polaroid store had 995 boxes of type 55.

Today at 9:30am they had 339.

Now at 9:30pm, they have sold out.

I followed that as well. I wonder if they will crank up the line and make more as their discontinued notice says. Or perhaps dealers stocked up.

I don't even want to think about the impending ebay feeding frenzy.

[BarryS]

Polaroid is listing stock availability as "10 days" which makes me think they're still continuing production as planned to lay in future stocks, or at the very least, they're getting more shipped in from another factory to their primary distribution site. While there are probably some crazy people or successful pros that might pay insane prices for Type 55, I don't think many people will be making huge ebay profits--the film is already priced pretty high.

[venchka]

Barry,

Reasonable folks won't do it. Reason and ebay seem to be mutually exclusive.

[venchka]

Barry,

I also found the Show all tab and the 10 days notice. Thanks!

[BarryS]

So I was thinking about the 10 day notice tag and it occurred to me that Polaroid's web ordering system might automatically throw up a 10 day restock tag when any product is sold out. When they were running at full tilt--that was probably a reasonable estimate to restock. I called Polaroid's corporate headquarters to ask about the 10 day restock and they told me that's it--they've completely stopped manufacturing of all instant films and there is no more stock. There will be no more film when the packs in the retail supply system run out. So the end came fast for Type 55. Almost every major retailer is out of stock, so this is everyone's last chance to say goodbye. As much as I want to believe some company will pick up the manufacturing of Type 55, I think it's a long shot.

[venchka]

So much for Truth in Advertizing:

NOTICE TO OUR CUSTOMERS: Please be advised that Polaroid will be discontinuing the manufacture of its T55 film within the next several months.

We realize that this is disappointing news for our loyal T55 users and we would like to emphasize that, although the circumstances made it inevitable, it was not an easy decision.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience.

[Ted Harris]

Polaroid will keep running the T55 line through the end of this quarter for sure, that is ruing it every couple of days, not daily. They MAY run it next quarter too, after that all bets are off. Remember too that there are heavy zoning negotiations underway for some variances so that a shopping mall can be built on the land the land that is now occupied by the T55 processing line and other Polaroid facilities. I will cry as loud or louder than most others when T55 disappears as I use it almost daily. However, if they aren't selling enough of it an if the land is too valuable to not turn into something else I can't fault them.

No one has said it, either inside Polaroid or elsewhere, but I suspect that part of what drives Polaroid's reluctance to make any projections beyond this quarter is the ongoing real estate transaction. They sit on some of the most valuable udeveloped/underdeveloped land in the entire Boston metro area.