Ebay electric shutter vs. e.g. Packard shutter

[Len Middleton]

Having nothing better to do tonight, I decided to check his sales progress during the 4 months. He has sold 2 (OK - 2 feedbacks have been given). So he is selling around 10 a year. Based on the original total of 781 he will be sold out in 77 years, approximately 2087. If he paid $5 a piece each and continues the $50 price, he will recover his outlay and start to make a profit in about 7 years.

Steven,

Are you including interest on the money for that time period (even at today's traditionally low interest rates), as well i.e. discounted cash flow analysis?

Otherwise, it may even be longer than you calculated

I suspect that as aparently he has already exihibited, that he can adjust his business practices...

I think you need to go to the darkroom now, and keep busy,

Len

[rannestad]

If he's got that number in stock he should soon be ready for a dumping of the price. I mean, if I had 781-2 in stock and only sold one every 2 month, I would be a bit disappointed. I think my strategy would have been to get rid of them asap, but he may think differently...

[Steven Tribe]

I regret to say that logic is not his strong point. Even I might be tempted at 10-15$!
He has a quite unbelievable access to huge quantities of ciné parts and "ethnographic" items.

[Ernest Purdum]

There are larger shutters of this basic configuration which might be useful to someone working entirely in a studio. They show up on eBay occasionally. Converting to outdoor use would likely turn out to be a problem.

Trying to make one of these shutters (or a Packard for that matter) work faster is unlikely to be successful. Inertia of the blades is the problem.

[jan labij]

I have used packard shutters for years. It makes me smile to read of people obcess about the slow instantaeous speed of 1/25 second. If you are using 100 speed film on a bright sunny day set lens on f8. and on and on. Since I don't snapshoot with a 5X7, I'm normally at f16 or f22.

[Steven Tribe]

2011 has brought a change of selling tactics.
Buy-it-now price has be dropped to $29.

[goamules]

Yeah, caution is advised with this one.

[eddie]

Any attempt to tell him the truth about his listed items brings out the worst side of his character.

yup. this guy came on the scene not too long ago. not sure how he got so many feed backs and sales in such a short time etc etc. i always thought he must be trying to loose money.

[GPS]

More about the shutter itself. It has not been conceived for a LF woody but for a static application. One problem you would need to deal with is the strong backfiring effect of the solenoid. Its plunger has some weight and adding the monster to the front standard is not where it would thrive...
Also, technically what he says about the regulation of its speed with different voltage is half truth - they thrive on their own speed. Adding more voltage makes the backfiring even worse.

[Steven Tribe]

This latest listing attempt at $29 has proved to be a big success. Almost into double figures in January!