Buying Film on E bay

EDI · Oct 23, 2006

hi,
I'm in Australia and it costs AUD $50 (~30USD) for 5 rolls of velva 100 (less than half the rrp) on ebay.
Anyone bought film on ebay? how were the results?
the one thing I'm worried about is whether it will be x-rayed along the way.
cheers

Rusty_Tripod · Oct 23, 2006

I have bought film on EBay several times. I am using old film from my freezer for my current photography class. There have been no great disappointments on purchasing film.

Rusty Tripod

mysteryscribe · Oct 23, 2006

It is my opinion that the sensitivity of even remotely well stored film is fine almost forever. I think most of this out of date nonsense is a marketing ploy of the manufacturers and that it might also be a legal disclaimer thing.

That said I have to admit that I am basing that on my experiences not scientific data. About eight years ago I walked away from my studio and didn't properly store anything. Last year I went back in and started shoot "lay about" film. It has worked every bit as well as when I bought it. It has been as hot as 90+ degrees and as low as 5 degress at least in the studio over those eight years.

I have heard of film that went bad in the glove box of a car but I have never stored any that way so I can't say. That is just my opinion. I would however want to know that the film I bought was at least reasonably stored. Not stored in a jungle or something. I'm sure other have different opinions and I respect those. This is just my experience with film.

PlasticSpanner · Oct 23, 2006

I bought a box of Polaroid 669 film a while ago that was dated 1999 that was bad. Every sheet developed into a brown photo!

That said I also used a roll of FujiFilm from 1986 that my dad left in a camera he gave me. I developed it myself in normal C41 chemicals and apart from a section that suffered from a light leak in the camera, it was perfectly fine.

You should be OK if you get the seller to mark the package "Sensitive Photography Film" It will depend on where it's coming from.

fightheheathens · Oct 23, 2006

just so you know, 30 USD is actually pretty darn good for velvia. Around San Francisco, Velvia sells for about 11 dollars a roll and in the midwest, Velvia sells for about 10 dollars a roll.