Dad's gear

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Ralph
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Hi guys,

Dad died in September and we're clearing the house. As the amateur photographer (digital, boo) I am tasked with finding a good home for his gear.

Won't ask for help re the Mamiya Press, the SEI photometer and the Corfield Periflex (or the Zenit, MZ-5 etc.) as a local shop will sell these on a commission-only basis.

Where I am stuck, is the darkroom. Principle worry is the early 20th century Adhesive Dry Mounting Company press, which is in beautiful condition and twirls with a smooth motion at the touch of a finger. Any ideas whether there is a market for this? Looked on eBay but nothing like it.

Also, the enlargers, trays and film etc. Bin or worth trying to find a new home. House is in Croydon.

Any help appreciated. All this camera stuff has resurrected my interest so will participate/contribute elsewhere from now on.

Ralph
 
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Thanks Jacob. This weekend I will assemble the dark room stuff and offer it as a lot.

Is old photographic paper worth including and what about the chemicals, which I imagine are well-past their use by date.

He also has various demi johns in there, are they used in photographic developing or was he just storing them in there?

Cheers
 
Thanks Jacob. This weekend I will assemble the dark room stuff and offer it as a lot.

Is old photographic paper worth including and what about the chemicals, which I imagine are well-past their use by date.

He also has various demi johns in there, are they used in photographic developing or was he just storing them in there?

Cheers

Surprisingly, there does seem to a market for old paper. It's probably attracting the more advanced/adventorous Lomo crowd. The chemicals I would think are way past their best.

The only time I had demi-johns in my old darkroom was in the 80's and they were for fermenting home-made wine.
 
Hello Ralph - welcome aboard.

Sorry to hear of your loss, and having "been there, done that" on the goods and chattals clearance bit, I sympathise with what you're up against here.

To put my "moderator" hat on for a moment, we don't normally allow "price check" type of threads outside of the classifieds section of the forum. This part of the forum is run as a "perk" of you will for time-served, contributing members of the forum, and has access criteria in place - members only gain access after 60 days and 25 posts. Any price check type threads posted by non-qualifying members are generally sent to "the naughty corner" - a kind of thread-limbo until the member qualifys for classifieds access - wherein they can either be re-instated or the member can start a new thread in the appropriate place.

As I'm assuming you don't really want to wait that long to gain information, what I suggest is this. If everyone here can please come up with as much information as we can for Ralph - WITHOUT ACTUALLY POSTING PRICES (links etc are fine) then we can keep this thread open. If it begins to degenerate, then I'm afraid being the "grumpy old moderator" I'll probably have to take the appropriate action.

Removing my MOD's hat for the moment, I'll attempt to give what advice I can.

I can't really help with the Press, tbh - perhaps asking this same question on one of the film/darkroom specific forums (FADU or APUG) might get you a little more info - they probably have a more "traditional" darkroom approach, especially on the printing side of darkroom work - quite a proportion (myself included) of the regulars in F&C on TalkPhotography take a more "hybrid" approach - i.e. shoot on film, develop it themselves (or get it developed for them) but then scan the film shots and retouch/print in the digital domain.

The Enlargers and Darkroom kit would probably sell reasonably well on Ebay etc. providing they are sold "collect only" or "Buyer Arranges Collection" - they're big, bulky, awkwardly shaped, heavy and fragile - not a good combination for shipping via courier. If you can actually come up with a full kit of gear and sell it to someone local then you'll make a few bob - unless the enlarger is something special, you're unlikely to make more than a couple of days wages out of selling the whole kit, so you may decide it's not worth the hassle. If that's the case - perhaps try your local "freecycle" group or something similar - again on a collect only basis. A number of members on here have managed to kit out their darkrooms from people disposing of kit in this way - and I'm sure that your Dad would have rather his kit be given away to a good home, than just dropped in the skip. Maybe let us know what make/model of enlarger / ancilliary kit (timers/controllers/lenses et al) and I'm sure one of us will be able to help.

As Nick says, the paper may well sell to the experimental shooters - though if it's been stored in proper light tight packaging, and not left in a damp garage for 15 years or something, it may be fine for normal printing work. Please don't open it to have a look at it's condition though (I know - I know, but you'd be surprised at the number of people who do... I remember one Ebay advert where the person selling had studiously unwrapped the box, fanned out the paper, and taken a photograph (using flash) of it all!)

The chemicals are probably best disposed of, and frankly, not knowing what had been in the demijohns, I'd get rid of them as a matter of course - if they HAD been used for photo chemical storage, I'd certainly not want to be re-using them for my homebrew vino.

Best of luck with getting a good home for all the kit - and as I say, while we can't really help on hard and fast pricing (or then this would be a "price check" thread) I'm sure with a few more details, we might be able to point you in the right direction here and there ;)
 
If your dad had a press I'm guessing he was quite an advanced printer, so may well have a high quality enlarger as well. If you can get some info from it we can have a look and see if it's anything more unusual

Some old paper is highly sought after, particularly things like Azo if they've been stored correctly. More likely than not it will be standard stuff though, but if stored well it's still worth a few quid

If you can get us some more info we should hopefully be able to let you know whether you have something special or not :)
 
Thanks all, esp BY. Wasn't especially wanting a "valuation" service. I am very happy to do the listings etc. but the advice thus far has been helpful re what's worth cataloguing and listing and what can safely be thrown away as worthless.

My summary is:
- collate all darkroom stuff and sell as a whole, collect only. Take my chances with demand and pricing. Interestingly on eBay some darkroom collections get several bids and others get none. This collection has a Durst M670 Color (sic) enlarger and a Prefect Minor by Rayham Developments.
- try to sell boxed paper
- bin chemicals
- demijohns into the "collect by a friend for car boot" pile - subject to health warning re possible previous contents.

It's been an interesting exercise e.g. the SEI Photometer has value but the Novoflex bellows do not. I may even keep some of the items as a mini display collection of my own e.g. the Teknar Anastigmat, which is a lovely little thing.

Thanks all.
 
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