Yard Sale score #1

Tiller · Dec 22, 2013

My fiancé and I love yard sale-ing. We've gone every Saturday for 2 years. I usually find books and records, but I'm always on the lookout for some cool cameras. In our full two years, the only one I've come across is an old brownie hawkeye that a woman wanted $50 for.

So yesterday we go out in hopes there would be some sales, even though it's December. (The temperature was 79 degrees so we thought there might be a few).

We only found 3 or 4 unfortunately, and we thought it was going to be a dud trip, but at the last one we struck gold

A Hanimex Praktica Super TL, that looks well taken care of. Produced in East Germany. It came in a nice leather box which included another lens, the manuals, and a flash

The lenses are an Oreston 50 1.8 and a Hanimar 135 3.5 (which came in a nice leather pouch of its own).

Purchased it for $20 :mrgreen:

Derrel · Dec 22, 2013

Looks like it's in near-mint condition. Yeah, $20 is a good price for it.

tirediron · Dec 22, 2013

Good score; I always loved the angled shutter release they used.

dxqcanada · Dec 22, 2013

That's one clean looking Praktica. Great price with the cool bag. Hard to get those leather camera bags that are still in good shape.
I always remember those cameras ... felt like a brick.

tirediron · Dec 22, 2013

dxqcanada said:
That's one clean looking Praktica. Great price with the cool bag. Hard to get those leather camera bags that are still in good shape.
I always remember those cameras ... felt like a brick.

Yep... if anyone ever tried to mug you, you could beat them to death with it!

limr · Dec 22, 2013

Wow, that is a beauty! And really a great deal. I'm always on the lookout for good camera deals at yard sales and flea markets. Enjoy! Post the pictures!

Tiller · Dec 22, 2013

Thanks all

I like collecting these old guys. The owners usually tell me their whole life story.

The man that I bought this from said his father used it to take pictures of the drag race circuit back in the 70's. He became known as the unofficial photographer because everyone would always want him to take their photo when they won a race

He had a funny story too. When his dad first bought it, he didn't know how to use it. The man said every time he went with his father to get the pictures developed, for the first six months or so, his dad would always look at the negatives and mutter "Damn!", because they would be blurry or incorrectly exposed, etc.

So he as a little boy started saying "Damn!" as soon as his dad got the pictures developed, even after his dad figured the camera out

minicoop1985 · Dec 22, 2013

That's my favorite part of collecting old cameras. Just think of the awesome photos that were taken with it. Having the story is a GREAT plus. Awesome score, and I'm not sure if I'm more jealous that you're yard saling in December or of that camera.

webestang64 · Dec 23, 2013

Very cool piece. Nice find!

vintagesnaps · Dec 23, 2013

Nice! I found a couple of Prakticas and lenses and already had some old screw mount stuff to go with them. Great story too!

You're right John - I figure carrying a camera with me I could always wing it at whatever criminal type and conk 'em over the head and knock 'em out cold!