Darkroom Chemistry Aquired

LPEAR84 · Sep 25, 2017

Hi there

I have been given some dark room chemicals to sell/dispose of and I wondered if anyone could advise their worth and where would be best to sell them? Can provide photos and details if anyone replies! Thank you in advance.

480sparky · Sep 25, 2017

Without any specifics, we'd just be guessing. What chemicals? How old? Opened or still sealed?

LPEAR84 · Sep 25, 2017

A bit vague wasn't it! I've attached a picture which will hopefully help. All the bottles on the left have a small amount used. They are at least a couple of years old. Thanks in advance.

john.margetts · Sep 25, 2017

If the chemicals have been opened, they will have started to oxidise. Over a couple of years, that could be significant. I wouldn't want to use them.

The boxes of paper, if they have not been opened in the light, will probably still be worth using and will cost virtually nothing to check. If I still had a dark room I would be willing to try them but I would not be willing to pay for them in case someone had decided to have a look at them.

webestang64 · Sep 25, 2017

IMHO.....it's all trash. I only use fresh chem and paper when in the darkroom.

480sparky · Sep 25, 2017

They're worth exactly what you paid for them..... and no more.

vintagesnaps · Sep 25, 2017

Looks like the paper's been used... someone made notes on a box. But if they feel fairly full, someone might want them. If some of the chemistry is unopened or hardly used maybe somebody'd want it, but there's probably not much value to it.

If you have a camera swap in your area, that might be the kind of place you could sell it, probably not for much. If this came from someone who had a darkroom chances are it was stored and used properly and at least some of it (the paper anyway) could still be usable. I maybe wouldn't save the mystery jar with the red lid.
edit - Looking again I noticed Jessops so if you're in the UK maybe try looking up Film's not Dead. | Film Photography Blog & Shop. | ; they used to talk about setting up at the Brick yard? market somewhere...

People doing alternative processes might want some of this. I've used paper way older than this but it has to not have been exposed to light to be usable. If you want to test it go in a darkened room (not necessarily pitch black just away from a window and sunlight), open the black paper/plastic, take out one sheet, put the rest of the paper back in the black packaging and close it up with the lid on the box. KEEP THE PAPER IN THE DARK. Put the one piece of paper out in the sun or in a window getting lots of sun and the paper should darken. (If you got out a piece of paper and it already looked gray it was probably exposed and to me wouldn't be usable.)

Not sure about the Silk Gutta, can't make out much of the label but that might still be usable for someone doing crafts (it might be for silk painting).

edit again... I'd probably use the fixer; I'd try it on a couple of my lumen prints (the ones that don't turn out that great that I save to run thru some diluted fixer to test it) - the fixer might still be OK. Developer etc. might likely not be worth using.