Cutting down your collection: the hardest thing to do

[pixelatedscraps]

I am selling off all my surplus gear right now to fund a new business project in the next few months.

Out of about 55 cameras I'm keeping:

OM-1n
OM-2SP (24/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.8, 85/2)
M4 (35/2.8)
Mamiya 6 (50/4, 75/3.5, 150/4.5)
Petri Color 35

Anyone else been in a similar situation before? For whatever reason, you've decided or had to sell off your collection? Let's just say my two dryboxes are both looking a lot emptier than they ever have before.

On the plus side, I have just bought myself:

1x M4 black chrome
1x Polaroid 4x5 110B conversion

But still!

 

[DanOnRoute66]

Much of the equipment I've sold I accumulated from odd lots I bought in recent years because I wanted a piece or two or three or that had stuff I figured would fetch much better prices by offering them up on the 'net. Some of the gear duplicated equipment I already had so I picked the items I wanted to keep and sold the rest. The sales have helped me get through this wicked economy. And I still have plenty of gear left so I'm not complaining.

 

[kdemas]

I find it hard to part with gear as I generally bought it for a reason, I liked it and/or needed it. Usually, I still do.

That said, I'm paring down myself and you simply need to make choices. If it's a tough choice I ask myself "what could I replace later if I want to", and on he other hand what is irreplaceable.

Tough economy, you have to do what you have to do. As a good friend told me when I was shocked to learn he was selling his 930 turbo..."It's only a thing. Never get too attached to things". Wise words, though sometimes hard advice to follow 🙂

Good luck!

Kent

 

[Doug]

Yes, I'm going to be selling deep into a long-term collection to fund recent purchases. It's going to be tough, as I don't like to sell stuff, but necessary. I'll need to pick what goes first, gather related materials like boxes, manuals, odd related bits otherwise useless, etc. And take clean product pics for the ads. I don't really want the hassles of eBay, so I'll use the RFF Classifieds... How about you guys?

 

[oftheherd]

I keep telling myself I need to sell off a lot of gear that I don't use. I guess someday soon I will. Either that or donate it to a local thrift/Salvation Army store. But like others, most stuff I bought for a reason. Even the stuff I bought for a part of the items only, seems like keepers. Arrrgh!

 

[Brian Legge]

I haven't used RFF yet, though I probably will for one of the cameras I should part with soon. For some reason, selling here intimidates me a bit. 🙂

I've sold over on APUG and ebay in the past. Given the low price items I've been selling - most peaking around $100 - I haven't had any big hassles so far.

 

[f16sunshine]

Well 55 cameras is quite too many. More than 1 for every week of the year. On the other hand. If these are your collection rather than your "kit" why worry?
For collectors it is still a good time to buy. Many cameras and lenses that were very expensive a few years ago are quite within reach. It seems Manu are going up rapidly as well so don't wait. Personally I don't have many cameras. I do have lenses I'm not using and likely will sell shortly. On the other hand... Why now? The values seem to be improving daily 😉

 

[pixelatedscraps]

Yeah, the prices are skyrocketing right now. From what I can see in the stores here in Hong Kong, it's mostly due to buyers from mainland China who are starting to buy up any available Leica / Contax / vintage Nikon gear.

Anyway, I have this design / photography cafe idea I need to save some money for...yes, 2011 is the year of being an entrepreneur. Well, that's the plan anyway. Haha.

I might post some of the remaining cameras on RFF but I've had a lot of local interest already, making it easier to offload and collect the cash.

 

[Roger Hicks]

In the 1970s I sold off my Leica screw-mount collection, built up 1969-1975, because I decided I'd rather have usable modern gear: I had a couple of thousand pounds sitting around in a cupboard. That's maybe 10-15 thousand pounds today.

Since then I've acquired lots more cameras, some to use, some out of idle interest, some as material for articles on old cameras, and some that were once useful but now aren't, such as my Polaroid 600SE, NPC 195 and Graflex XL. The point is, many are more hassle to sell than they're worth, and given what I do for a living, there's always the possibility that I might find a use for them again.

When I say 'more hassle to sell than they're worth', I mean that I see the endless bitching and complaining here about eBay: complaints of misrepresentation from buyers, complaints from sellers about not being paid, and evidence from time to time of patently unrealistic expectations on both sides. Maybe I should 'out' a load of gear through the classifieds here, but quite honestly, I don't know what the gear is worth; it's a hassle to ship it; and I don't want to take the risks. And so, with lower-value kit (under $100, say) I sometimes just give it away, with the condition that the recipient makes a donation to a breast canger charity: they decide the amount. I figure that while people may be willing to rip me off, anyone who'll rip off a breast cancer charity is already being punished more than enough by being the kind of person they are.

Cheers,.

R.

 

[Harry S.]

I agree with Roger.

I have about 10 cameras I'd like to sell, but find the process of doing so tedious and draining. I mean the money is nice but the process really doesnt agree with me. :-(

In the end Id like just to have a 5D2, M9 and a 4x5 Feild camera.

 

[damien.murphy]

I find it really hard to get rid of excess gear, and it is exactly that situation I'm facing at the moment. I feel like one of those photographers who only takes one image of each subject, because deciding between several similar, but slightly different images would be too difficult.

I know what I like when it comes to cameras, and in pursuit of cameras that fit me best, I have several close variations on a theme, and it is difficult to choose between them.

I like rangefinders for example, and have an M3 & 50mm, an M4 & 35mm, as well as a Rollei 35. 6x6 is an intrigue of mine, and have a small hasselblad kit, a rolleicord va for lighter loads, and a rolleicord II with an old triotar for older-style b&w portraits.

I envy you in your progress in slimming down your kit so, and like anything, the benefits of a project in mind, is a great way to focus the mind! 🙂

 

[btgc]

Probably in old good days it were easier to keep on photography track: gear weren't as available as now, so one yet had to save to get good camera with single good lens, not speaking about several komplete kits.

Or I am wrong and acquisition existed also back then? People buying cameras with selenium meters dumped their fully manual cameras, then SLRs swept away fixed lens rangefinders, then fully automated and motorized SLR replaced first SLRs, then came AF SLR and so on. And each new wave flooded market with "obsolete" cameras which were basis for someone's acquisition?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Probably in old good days it were easier to keep on photography track: gear weren't as available as now, so one yet had to save to get good camera with single good lens, not speaking about several komplete kits.

Or I am wrong and acquisition existed also back then? People buying cameras with selenium meters dumped their fully manual cameras, then SLRs swept away fixed lens rangefinders, then fully automated and motorized SLR replaced first SLRs, then came AF SLR and so on. And each new wave flooded market with "obsolete" cameras which were basis for someone's acquisition?

Conversely, 40 years ago, old cameras were just old cameras, and not much valued. There were far fewer collectors. Once Leica collecting became mainstream, prices went too high and I gave up. And made a profit. My Stereoly outfit cost me 25 pounds and I sold it for 125, as far as I recall. It's probably worth a thousand or more today, but I had both fun and as profit out of it, so why worry?

And, of course, it has always been the norm for professionals to have different kits for different puposes: 35mm, MF, LF. What puzzles me is why amateurs painstakingly build up (say) three SLR kits, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax, and regard them all as 'users'. Sure, I have a couple of Pentaxes, but mostly for sentimental reasons: my 'user' SLRs (insofar as I use SLRs, which isn't much) are Nikons.

Then there are historical accidents. I wanted a 5x7 inch camera for a very long time, and eventually, about 15 years ago, I bought a Linhof Technika V. A month later, Gandolfi sent me a prototype 5x7 back for my Variant, and didn't need it back.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Spyro]

I hate consuming and hoarding, literally it makes me sick in the stomach because it is against everything I stand for. Generally I'm not doing too bad with cars, electronics, recycling, energy consumption, I kept the same mobile for 6 years etc, but with cameras I simply cant help myself. The only solution I could think of was selling something each time I want to buy something, so I did that for a while but now my collection is so finetuned that I only own awesome gear that I love. And it's not even worth so much, I mean how do you sell just to raise the funds for an x100? So I bought the x100 and sold nothing. Crap.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

I did this today because i didnt want to be a hoarder.

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/threads/873662-WTSell-MediumFormat

 

[Spyro]

^^ good on ya

 

[conradyiu]

I did sell many extra lens few months ago (canon 28/2.8, 50/1.4, 50/1.8, ind 28/2.8) and I am now selling another lot of lens in RFF here, cos I really need to narrow down to just 2-3lens with my R-D1 + F3T + Oly35SP + XA + LX3 + Natura 1.9 .....

 

[Roger Hicks]

'Hoarding' is one way of looking at it. 'Preserving history' is another.

If I sold (say) my Graflex TLR, it would in all likelihood just end up in someone else's cupboard instead of mine. Giving it to a user (as Ray did) is an altogether nicer idea.

Cheers

 

[btgc]

CWhat puzzles me is why amateurs painstakingly build up (say) three SLR kits, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax, and regard them all as 'users'.

I talked myself into expanding my manual focus Pentax/Ricoh SLR kit with Yashica AF kit just because of auto focus. I decided not to go for AF Pentax body and lenses. Not a big deal - anyway for anything serious I'd carry two cameras.

 

[FrankS]

I'm not ready to cut down my collection, but I have stopped increasing it. Now I will only buy, which is rarely these days, when I sell pieces.