New to Forum - Inherited lots of "old" photography equipment

Linda Schellhaas

TPF Noob!
Joined
Nov 1, 2020
Messages
7
Reaction score
3
Location
Greater Washington DC Area
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
Hello. I'm new here and first off let me apologize if my post is not appropriate for this forum. If that is the case, perhaps someone could redirect me in another direction.

I'm at a loss about what to do with boxes full of photography equipment that belonged to my father-in-law. My husband inherited it all when his dad died but he just put it upstairs at my FILs house and never went through it. We kept the house as an investment property and were slowly rehabbing, but my husband passed away this past year and I have made the decision to sell that house and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the contents. It goes against my "repurpose and reuse" philosophy to see everything just go into a dumpster, so I'm hoping to find out if there are any resources out there for these types of "analog" items. Time is getting short, as the house may be sold in the next 30 days or so and I don't think I will have time to go through and research/catalog everything and I don't have the room to move it all into my current house.

There are cameras, lenses and supplies of all kinds, which I know next to nothing about, like flashed opal glass and ferrotype plates and things I don't even know what they are..... way outside of my knowledge base. Best guess is that cameras are from the 1950 to maybe 1980 era, based only on that FIL wasn't doing much in that area after 1980's; I have no idea what is functional or not.

Anyway, thank you for your patience in reading through my post if you've gotten this far. If anyone has thoughts as to whether these items have any resale value, I'd appreciate your input. Are there people out there that do bulk purchases of these types of things? Or is my best option to try to donate them somewhere. I'm open to any ideas and am not looking to make money - just don't want to see everything hauled off to the landfill if there are other options.

Thank you, Linda
 
Can you take pictures of the equipment to post here? There are plenty of folks on here that would be able to identify the equipment, but it’s hard to put a value on something without knowing what it is.
 
Your question is far to vague. It's like asking how much your car is worth. Without knowing anything about it, a price cannot be suggested.

Make, model, condition, actual functionality... all factor into it. Some old stuff, while non-functional, still may have minimal value to a decorator because it 'looks good'. On the other hand, you may have a rare and valuable collectable.
 
Hello. I'm new here and first off let me apologize if my post is not appropriate for this forum. If that is the case, perhaps someone could redirect me in another direction.

I'm at a loss about what to do with boxes full of photography equipment that belonged to my father-in-law. My husband inherited it all when his dad died but he just put it upstairs at my FILs house and never went through it. We kept the house as an investment property and were slowly rehabbing, but my husband passed away this past year and I have made the decision to sell that house and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the contents. It goes against my "repurpose and reuse" philosophy to see everything just go into a dumpster, so I'm hoping to find out if there are any resources out there for these types of "analog" items. Time is getting short, as the house may be sold in the next 30 days or so and I don't think I will have time to go through and research/catalog everything and I don't have the room to move it all into my current house.

There are cameras, lenses and supplies of all kinds, which I know next to nothing about, like flashed opal glass and ferrotype plates and things I don't even know what they are..... way outside of my knowledge base. Best guess is that cameras are from the 1950 to maybe 1980 era, based only on that FIL wasn't doing much in that area after 1980's; I have no idea what is functional or not.

Anyway, thank you for your patience in reading through my post if you've gotten this far. If anyone has thoughts as to whether these items have any resale value, I'd appreciate your input. Are there people out there that do bulk purchases of these types of things? Or is my best option to try to donate them somewhere. I'm open to any ideas and am not looking to make money - just don't want to see everything hauled off to the landfill if there are other options.

Thank you, Linda
Hello. I'm new here and first off let me apologize if my post is not appropriate for this forum. If that is the case, perhaps someone could redirect me in another direction.

I'm at a loss about what to do with boxes full of photography equipment that belonged to my father-in-law. My husband inherited it all when his dad died but he just put it upstairs at my FILs house and never went through it. We kept the house as an investment property and were slowly rehabbing, but my husband passed away this past year and I have made the decision to sell that house and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the contents. It goes against my "repurpose and reuse" philosophy to see everything just go into a dumpster, so I'm hoping to find out if there are any resources out there for these types of "analog" items. Time is getting short, as the house may be sold in the next 30 days or so and I don't think I will have time to go through and research/catalog everything and I don't have the room to move it all into my current house.

There are cameras, lenses and supplies of all kinds, which I know next to nothing about, like flashed opal glass and ferrotype plates and things I don't even know what they are..... way outside of my knowledge base. Best guess is that cameras are from the 1950 to maybe 1980 era, based only on that FIL wasn't doing much in that area after 1980's; I have no idea what is functional or not.

Anyway, thank you for your patience in reading through my post if you've gotten this far. If anyone has thoughts as to whether these items have any resale value, I'd appreciate your input. Are there people out there that do bulk purchases of these types of things? Or is my best option to try to donate them somewhere. I'm open to any ideas and am not looking to make money - just don't want to see everything hauled off to the landfill if there are other options.

Thank you, Linda
Can you take pictures of the equipment to post here? There are plenty of folks on here that would be able to identify the equipment, but it’s hard to put a value on something without knowing what it is.
Hello and welcome......
 
Yes, I'm sure it is way vague - t
Can you take pictures of the equipment to post here? There are plenty of folks on here that would be able to identify the equipment, but it’s hard to put a value on something without knowing what it is.

hat pretty much describes the situation here!
 
I agree that more information is required before help can be given.
 
I can try taking some photos. That was kind of where I first started, but got immediately overwhelmed with the volume of items versus limited time. Will see what I can do, though. Thank you for your reply!
 
Yes, I realize it's way vague - that's pretty much the situation here. Lots of stuff that looks kind of cool and which seems like it could be of interest to the right person, but no way to really go through it all one by one and figure it all out in the alloted time. And I don't think I would ever be able to assess functionality. I'm probably looking for easy answers where none exist! Thank you for your response
 
If you run out of time you could always donate to Goodwill.
They have an online bidding site, and I see many old photographic items grabbed up.

... or if you could find someone in the DC area willing to come over and look over the stuff.
 
A local camera store or photo club might help.
 
Thank you I thought about Goodwill and even took in a few of the pieces that I thought would be more desirable, but they rejected them, saying it was not something that would "move well" in their store. The Goodwill in my area has gotten quite selective in what they will and won't take. I can understand that as I guess they don't need to just take things that won't re-sell.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top