Help please? Probate sale

[RalphC5]

Hi guys,

First-time poster (& hopefully not the last),

I'm a 41-year old from west London who's just about to bury his dad. I grew up with Ansel Adams and dad even built a darkroom, complete with wet bench, in our garage. he died suddenly leaving us with a lot of stuff. One of his wishes was that "decent' stuff shouldn't be sold too cheap. Now, me and my sisters, have the unenviable task of sorting the wheat from the chaff. There are two enlargers and, probably, a Mamiya Press, amongst a whole host of other non-digital stuff.

Please, any help from old-timers, as to how best make him happy and ensure that anything of proper value/"worth" ends up in a good home. We're happy to donate to a photography school/art college for free, as long as it is put to best use.

All/any advice very gratefully received.

thanks

Ralph

 

[ann]

Go over to apug.org which is a site for analog photography, there are a lot of folks there who can be helpful

You an check on KEH.Com to get an idea about value, but the market is still very soft and perhaps someone there will also know about a school in your area as the site has lots of folks from your part of the world.

 

[RalphC5]

Thanks Ann. Most kind.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I just picked up over 2 tons of equipment for close to nothing for the simple reason that I was going to put it to "good" use.

I am sorry for your loss but nobody cares about film based photography anymore except a few nuts like ann or myself. The gear I got had been sitting in a garage for a couple years and the owner just wanted the garage space back.

Unless you have some very rare gear that might interest a museum, forget it. Sorry.

 

[RalphC5]

Thanks "cloud". Is there any way of differentiating junk from 'film nut' or do we just pile it in a skip? Appreciate that mainstream photography has moved predominantly digital.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Depending on how much time you have to spend on this, try and do a search of your area for a photo club interested in film stuff. There may be one around London. And yes, call the art schools. They may not want the stuff but could have ideas for you.

I helped open one in a hot suburb of Paris and it's doing pretty good right now. Some of the studio gear I just got will be going there along with most of the darkroom stuff.

Nothing much will be junk (except some really bad enlarger lenses) to someone interested in darkroom work. The Mamiya Press on the other hand, you should be able to sell. Check out ebay to see its value. I was surprised by one of my old 35mm lens selling for over $600.