What would you do if you were my age?

[jsrockit]

Sell piece-by-piece here or on an internet auction site.

Agreed....

 

[oftheherd]

if there is any question of whether Huubl as anything of value please click on "my cameras" in any of his posts. The fact that page has over twenty-six thousand views says that like me that there are a lot of people that have long admired his collection. Since you are getting ready to retire and will have more time for shooting my question would be what are a few of your favorites you would want to keep. My advice keep it all, you have many things that would not be easy to replace. (for a different point of view please contact my wife)

LOL. My wife would probably take all my camera stuff and throw it into the trash. That's how much she values it; just a hassle to her when I die.

I have let my son-in-law know he should take anything he wants and sell the rest. He should get half the value for the hassle, but I expect he would give any proceeds to my wife.

God willing, if I have the time, I intend to slowly start to sell off a lot of gear. I have 35mm cameras I doubt I will ever use. Might as well get them out there for others to use or hoard. 😛

 

[HuubL]

If you have an emotional link with some of those... mount them for display.

o Find an appropriately sized, 90 degree angle iron.
o Drill out one of the horizontal holes to accommodate a bolt that will screw into the tripod mount
o Paint the bracket and bolt black, or any color you prefer
o Mount the vertical side of the bracket to a wall using a dry-wall anchor or mount it directly to a wall stud. Brick or concrete wall require more elaborate mounts
o Screw the camera to the horizontal side and enjoy.

You can buy these already made too. They are silly expensive.

Sell everything else via KEH. KEH visits many cities and buys in person. I sold tho them twice this way. I also sent some gear in. To my surprise they paid more than their initial on-line estimate for one of my camera bodies. So I trusty them. You may get less money from KEH, but there will be no hassles. I prefer no hassles.

Nice idea, but I would have to dust them off all the time 🙂

 

[Michael Markey]

Yes ...I`m going through that process now but with books and periodicals .
It`ll save my loved ones a few trips to the tip (dump).

Cameras ... well I have a few more than I anticipated ... `bout six with a similar number of lenses.

 

[Gregm61]

In the past two decades I have collected quite a bit of classic film photography equipment: a number of Canon FD bodies and lenses, a few Olympus OM bodies and lenses, a couple of Robot Royals, a Contax IIa, Alpa 9d, Kodak IIIC, and many (last count is 32!) Leica SLR, LTM and M cameras and lenses. Most are in a nice condition, cosmetical and functional and many have been recently CLA’d or fixed by renown repairers.
Suppose I would live another decade or two, I could enjoy fondling them, but I would never get a chance to keep them all active. I’m absolutely in no hurry yet, but I’ve been contemplating to start reducing the collection. How would I do that?
1. Sell the lot in one sale.
2. Sell piece-by-piece on an internet auction site.
3. Have a dealer sell the stuff on consignment.
4. Or just leave it to the kids to decide?
Thanks for thinking

Doing #1 would probably not work out. You'd never find anyone looking to buy everything just to get at maybe the 3-4 things they really wanted.

#2 will maximize your take and allow you to keep the few items you really want to hang on to for now. It's also the post PITA option, but...

I'm not a fan of consignment. Is there a local camera store in your area willing to do it?

The kids will never know what to do with it all, unless there a photographer/camera equipment buff among the group.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

There's a lesson for us all here:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200-Vinta...506648?hash=item3d2c04a3d8:g:~QoAAOSwa~BYNbT8

Odd how these things turn up on ebay once we start talking about something.

Regards, David

 

[Robert Lai]

I purchased a very inexpensive auto - exposure film RF camera here on RFF, for $20. The main motivation was to brainwash my two sons to get them into film photography for fun 😀. They are pre-school and elementary school age now, so they are just right for this propaganda.

Hopefully by the time I'm too old and infirm to use my cameras, the sons will have favorites of their own from my collection, and I'll give it to them.

As for the rest, I've tried selling equipment before. Then, I look at the empty closet shelves with regret, and I end up buying again. Maybe when I get old enough I will sell them, and that's that.

I do have a spreadsheet of my cameras, with serial numbers, and original purchase prices. Also, when they were last serviced, and by whom (usually DAG, Henry Scherer, Gus Lazzari, Harry Fleenor, etc.). I also have document boxes of receipts to fully document everything. When I get old enough, I will print this spreadsheet out, and give it to the family. This is to make sure that my famly just don't dump it all into the garbage, or give them away for trivial reasons. Of course, if my wife found this list now, I would instantly be in the garbage can myself 😉.

I have this sinking feeling that my father-in-law's two Leica M3 with his collection of lenses will end up as a donation to Goodwill. His sons don't feel that the old stuff has any value.

Huub, having looked at your beautifully photographed collection of gorgeous cameras, whatever you decide to sell will be quickly purchased by any of us on RFF.

 

[pepeguitarra]

Your question suggests other questions plus the answer.

Your question suggests other questions plus the answer.

I am around your age, and I am in the process of getting some stuff that I could not afford before or I did not have the time to use. I am doing my planning to live at least 30 more years, maybe more. For example, I wanted to buy ONE film camera. I asked in this forum for the one they would recommend. All of them were recommended, so I bought the M3, then the M2, then the M5, then the M6, then the Canon P, and someone needs to stop me. Honestly, I need to get rid of at least three, but cannot decide which ones. This is only about Leica. From my previous "marriages", I have couple of DSLRs Pentax, one Canon, and a large number of lenses. Maybe it is time for me to ask the same question. Moving to a smaller size home requires that I empty one room and start selling it. I may actually sell it one by one, take that as a job, since I do not have one anymore. :bang: I would like to sell here in this forum, since I always paid top price for my lenses and cameras to get them in excellent shape and quality.

 

[skopar steve]

I'm the same age and will be retiring in a few years. My gene pool says I've got five or six years, but my doctor gives me 20 +. So if I had your collection I'd keep it at least another decade.

Did I mention I'm up for adoption?

 

[Fixcinater]

Ask your friends and family if they would enjoy having one of "your cameras" then shoot a final roll through each as you go to sell it, do a fine job presenting each for sale and enjoy the process of cleaning house.

Then, retain a couple of *your* favorites around for your kids outside of anything they request just in case they change their mind and for what you want to shoot in the future.

 

[maddoc]

Sell everything and try to find a nice original Leica MP 🙂

 

[russelljtdyer]

Consolidate and Simplify

Consolidate and Simplify

How you sell off things depends on how much you want to bother with the process. In the past I've sold some larger items individually on this site and others, and batches through KEH. Regarding whether to sell or keep, I recommend consolidating and simplifying.

If you're not using the cameras and you feel you've outgrown the idea of having lots of equipment, I'd sell off everything but one set. Keep your favorite camera and maybe two lenses. It's very freeing when you get rid of all of the unnecessary stuff. I sort of did this years ago. I sold off several cameras and lenses. I had a post thread on it you might like to read: Almost Everything Must Go.

You shouldn't give up entirely on photography or artistic expression -- you're not dead yet.

 

[Sid836]

If you need money sell them one by one wherever it will get you the most.
If there are any youngsters around that would enjoy using a film camera, give your favourite ones to them and you will get lots of satisfaction by watching people you love using the cameras you have loved.

 

[David Hughes]

Almost Everything Must Go.

You shouldn't give up entirely on photography or artistic expression -- you're not dead yet.

Hi,

That's it in a nutshell but I worry about each one as I sell it. Ideally I'd keep one big serious camera with it's lenses and one small pocket one but just which one escapes me (ditto SLR or RF) and drives me mad at times as they are all so nice to use.

Another snag; you have to use them to keep them running. Stop using them and the next time you'll find they don't or won't work properly and then do you scrap them or repair them, which adds to the expense and commitment.

And think about small expensive bits like the Leitz film cutting template or the AGRIF which most would throw away just because they don't know what it is and so on...

Regards, David

 

[Roger Hicks]

If you need money sell them one by one wherever it will get you the most. . . .

Dear Nikos,

That's what I keep meaning to do, but it's a question of getting around to it.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

.. . And think about small expensive bits like the Leitz film cutting template or the AGRIF which most would throw away just because they don't know what it is and so on...

Dear David,

Very true. I'm not even sure where my ABLON ($150?) and ORAKO ($50-100) are. It's not so much the money as the idea of their being thrown away that worries me.

Then again, there's always ARSE and ELBOW, which can be hard to tell apart.

Cheers,

R.

 

[oltimer]

Dear David,

Very true. I'm not even sure where my ABLON ($150?) and ORAKO ($50-100) are. It's not so much the money as the idea of their being thrown away that worries me.

Then again, there's always ARSE and ELBOW, which can be hard to tell apart.

Cheers,

R.

Good one Roger, and just imagine a 1st time Leica owner would have a hard time with those one's; let alone my daughter after I'm gone.

 

[HuubL]

Dear David,

Very true. I'm not even sure where my ABLON ($150?) and ORAKO ($50-100) are. It's not so much the money as the idea of their being thrown away that worries me.

Then again, there's always ARSE and ELBOW, which can be hard to tell apart.

Cheers,

R.

Not for me Roger. ELBOW is the ABLON of course.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Good one Roger, and just imagine a 1st time Leica owner would have a hard time with those one's; let alone my daughter after I'm gone.

This one is REALLY complicated, and I'm in the middle of it now.

The young woman whom I refer to as "my daughter" isn't (though we're trying to work out how to adopt her). She's the daughter of a very old friend. She was born on my 40th birthday, when we were living on different continents, and I didn't even meet her until she was 12 and we were all living in France. The way I found her address was pretty amazing: Eddie at Gandolfi recycled a padded envelope to send me something, and her father's address was on it. I didn't even know he'd moved to France, with his wife, mistress, two sons and daughter.

Since she was 18 and spent Christmas 2008 with us, said daughter has become so close to Frances and me that it's easier to pass her off as our daughter than to explain the exact relationship: we've even be told how much she looks like one or the other of us.

To give an idea of how close we are, along with Frances (of course) she and I spent three birthdays together: 19th/59th (Hungary, in her gap year), 21st/61st (Magdeburg, where she was at university), 23rd/63rd (Pyrenees -- she and Frances love natural spas). We have however lost friends who are convinced that she and I are, or were, lovers.

Then her real father, my old friend, died about 3 weeks ago: lung cancer, 67 years old. He had a lot of camera gear, some of it quite interesting. The stuff I know about (and there's more) includes a Tessina outfit and a 73/1.9 Hektor. According to his/my daughter, I'm going to inherit some of it, but I'm also helping value/sell more of it. So maybe this is the answer: appoint an unofficial "photographic executor" to help your main executor (in this case, his/my daughter).

Cheers,

R.

 

[willie_901]

Nice idea, but I would have to dust them off all the time 🙂

This task can be delegated.