Thrift Store Shopping Sucks sometimes...

[nikon_sam]

It is fortunate for me that this still happens on rare occasion. A guy I only casually knew (and who saw me using "old" film cameras) gave me his dad's old Nikon FE and a 135mm lens. "Here... you can have it if you want it; I forgot to take it to the thrift shop and was going to just throw it away.." All I needed to do was buy a new battery.

That's how I got my first Nikon...a fellow worker gave me his...he said that it didn't work and that he didn't know how to use it anyway...and he was just going to get a P&S to use instead...
It also turned out to be a dead battery...
So I got a nice working Nikon FE with a Tamron 28-70 zoom for the cost of a new battery...😀

 

[FrankS]

New TV shows like American Pickers highlight the value of old stuff. Antiques Road Show was first.

 

[Rogier]

Man I want to travel to Bangkok with an empty 60ft shipping container!

I like that orange motorbike (Jawa?) next to the Vespa.

Oh and on a random note. Since I moved to Bangkok there aren't any "thrift stores" here persay but there are amazing second hand markets. I thought you guys might be interested to see. This one is at an abandoned train station. They sell more than just cameras. I'm tempted to buy the white vespa. They only want roughly $1000 USD for it.

 

[Gumby]

New TV shows like American Pickers highlight the value of old stuff. Antiques Road Show was first.

Both seem to use "Beverly Hills pricing" as their estimates. Some of the values they cite are reasonable, but many are just crazy high sounding.

 

[Field]

There is a thrift store that wants $300 for a Minolta X-700 here with a 50mm 1.7/8 lens (I forgot). Going price on Craigslist $80. It is in good shape with a case but whatever it is just some other random SLR, nothing in particular. One lady that works for them sets the prices based on Ebay's highest (like gold and special editions despite the fact the ones she is pricing are not) plus shipping. Broken off rewind knob, um still a $60 camera...

 

[PhotoMat]

One thing to remember. People are always willing to share stories of their incredible thrift store finds. Not as many are willing to share their failures.



BTW Field, I'm in Montana too!

 

[oftheherd]

That's how I got my first Nikon...a fellow worker gave me his...he said that it didn't work and that he didn't know how to use it anyway...and he was just going to get a P&S to use instead...
It also turned out to be a dead battery...
So I got a nice working Nikon FE with a Tamron 28-70 zoom for the cost of a new battery...😀

One of my first buys off ebay was a camera on which the film advance didn't work. I suspected a battery and when I got it, found I was right. That was some 10 or 11 years ago and I still have and use it.