help with camera collection

[gusto]

Hello Everyone,
I'm new here and was looking for advice for a camera collection I'm trying to see what to do with it, to make a long story short a family member of mine has been a HUGE camera collector for the past 50 years and his health is not wonderful now. Myself and my wife went to his home and collected about 100 cameras, movie projectors, slides you name it he has it. Now the enormity of his collection is a little overwhelming and I'm just not sure how to tackle this. Now I posted a link to photobucket and some are vintage cameras and some are film SLR I also took about 20 to 30 lenses that he had. I have to go back and make multi trips to get the rest of his collection. I'm not sure what he has but I know he still has a lot more of the vintage stuff. My question is do I sell it as a whole which I think it's too big for one person to want to buy or try to sell them individually, my problem is I dont know that much about vintage camera's

here's about 100 photo's of the stuff I took today, sorry if there is 5 pages

cameras pictures by gusto1 - Photobucket

Thanks Gus

 

[MattxMosh]

I will trade you one

for the lot

 

[gusto]

 

[Sachphotography]

I will trade you one

for the lot

YUM!

 

[Buckster]

It's more work, but you'll get a lot more for them if you piece them out with full descriptions and photos of each. If you can wait till winter sets in a bit, that's when prices go stupid high on ebay. I guess it's because people are cooped up in their houses up North and have nothing better to do than keep bidding to "WIN DAMMIT!! IT'S MINE, MINE, MINE!!!".

He's got some nice pieces in the collection, and they look to be clean and well kept. Much of what I saw will fetch between $50-$300 or more each. I didn't look at every photo and you indicate there are many more you haven't put up photos of yet, so there may be some real gems in there.

 

[gusto]

Thanks for all the advice Buckster. I dont mind waiting to sell them, that will give me time to do some research. My only concern is I would like to test them to see if they work but I have no idea how to do that so I will probably sell "as is" and just post on my listing that I'm not sure if they work. He keeps all of his stuff in mint condition ( he's obsessive like that) so I'm sure most of them will work but I can't say for sure, a lot of these pieces are just so clean and some have all manuals and paperwork . As for his collection he does have many more I just couldn't do it all in one day.

Thanks again Gus

 

[gsgary]

Nikon F is star of the show as used in Cambodia, saved Don McCullins life
boncey's random Internet stuff

 

[gusto]

Thanks, Gus

 

[enzodm]

My question is do I sell it as a whole which I think it's too big for one person to want to buy or try to sell them individually, my problem is I dont know that much about vintage camera's

here's about 100 photo's of the stuff I took today, sorry if there is 5 pages

cameras pictures by gusto1 - Photobucket

Thanks Gus

I browsed pictures, there is something interesting, something less. It is also much material, so that taking care of all may be some work. However, if you intend to take right money, do not sell as a whole. Try to understand what you have, login on Ebay, do a search, and select "expired" on the left column: you will see the price of items really sold, not only offered. This will give you an idea of value of your pieces.
In my experience, it could be also better to sell bodies separated from lenses (except in some case) because now there is again market for old lenses that can be adapted easily to dSLR. So by the way is not a good idea to take pictures with lens cap on, the most value is covered. On lenses, pay attention to Zeiss, Leica, Pentax, Schneider-Kreuznach, and similar. Old zooms (with some exception) go for less than fixed.
No knowledge on projectors.

 

[gusto]

Hello Enzodm,
Thanks for your input I appreciate it. I will take the lens cap of when I take future pictures, if I do decide to go the ebay route I will take a few pictures and will work on getting better quality for these pictures I just wanted to get an idea of the collection. I guess when I'm ready for that I can post a thread on how to take good product pictures and what to use for a background. I guess my carpet just doesn't cut it

Gus

 

[sobolik]

I sold my old cameras on eBay and discovered that people from over seas begged me to sell them my cameras. I had listed them as shipping to the USA only. So I changed the listings to ship world wide and got much more more money for them. The main bidder activity was from overseas. I also was asked to list them as for parts only for cheaper customs purposes. I had no problem doing that as they are old vintage items that really who knows if they work or not.

 

[gusto]

Thanks thats great advice would you mind if I ask what method did you use to ship overseas. I ship to Canada and Japan from the office and find fedex is the most customs user friendly but I'm just not sure which carrier to use also how do you calculated cost and custom chargers for shipping overseas? Now do you put on your ebay listings as "for parts only" wouldn't that hurt your sale?

 

[sobolik]

Thanks thats great advice would you mind if I ask what method did you use to ship overseas. I ship to Canada and Japan from the office and find fedex is the most customs user friendly but I'm just not sure which carrier to use also how do you calculated cost and custom chargers for shipping overseas? Now do you put on your ebay listings as "for parts only" wouldn't that hurt your sale?

No not in listing just on the package "for parts only" Buyer will tell you what to put on the customs sticky form on outside of package. I stated in the listing that once it leaves the USA delivery stream I have no tracking ability. Especially the military postal stream. It probably don't matter which shipper. They can all give you a cost for that country. Also in the listing you state "I don't know shipping costs exactly" It all worked out even though I was new to international shipping. Only use PayPal, no checks, MO's etc. State only PayPal in payment method.

But not every old camera is desired. If you sell 20% of what you have I'd be happy. I did not look at yours in detail. If you want to know the value tthen go to the completed listings on eBay and see what they sold for. That is the real trustworthy source - not opinions here.

 

[gsgary]

Look out for a Pentax 85mmF1.4 they go for good money because they are quality Canon 85mm f1.2 L v Pentax SMC 85mm f1.4

 

[gusto]

thanks for your input, I'm trying to research all the items so all the advice I can get really helps. I have to say doing all this studying and being on this site for the last 3 days is really getting me into photography and the cameras. I've seen some absolutely beautiful pictures on here. I might have to keep a few of the older vintage camera's and also use the proceeds to buy some more lenses for my own personal canon rebel that I've been using for the past few years, but I'm more of a point and shoot picture taker but seeing what some you guys can do with the camera's is amazing.