I have a couple of garage sale "fang" stories, one mine, one not.
I used to live in a community whose "older" section (i.e., homes from
the 70s & early 80s) has a neighbourhood huge garage sale every Spring.
One of my friends lives in that section, and his cousin Ed from Buffalo
comes every year. Ed has the nack of finding the good stuff early and
bought a Nikon S2 w/ 50mm for $25. He sold it to a collector in Buffalo
for about $800, IIRC. He probably could have gotten a bit more on ePay,
but decided not to bother with it.
An older, more affluent neighbourhood in Rochester has a garage sale
every other year, and a few years ago I picked up a 5cm micro Nikkor.
There was no pricetag on it, so I asked the woman manning the table, and
she said "$1". Needless to say, I bought it even though I have no Nikon
gear and my intention was simply to give it to my best friend who does.
He researched the lens, cleaned it up a bit (someone had blacked out the
retaining ring lettering with a Sharpie pen), and sold it for $1200CDN
on ePay. I didn't know a thing about the value of the lens I visited
him many months later and he gave me $100 for my efforts.
As I say, he's my best friend, but whenever he asks when "that garage
sale" is so he can come down, I say, "Hmmm, I'm not sure..."
Earl
Gary Teller wrote:
><snip>
>
>
>>Now that I'm retired and have time to kill, I'm going to embark on a
>>career as an *Bay entrepreneur. Although we live in a poor and deprived
>>neighborhood of 30-year-old homes, a veritable slum in this area, we are
>>becoming surrounded by the million-dollar McMansions of the affluent
>>(mostly Republicans, I would guess) who seem always to be having garage
>>sales -- probably to try and make this month's mortgage payment or keep
>>the cable connected. In an effort to perhaps delay the opening of the
>>day's first beer from 10:00 a.m. until maybe 1:00 or 2:00 p.m., I plan to
>>drive about (in the OM-4Runner, of course) and check out what obviously
>>must be high-end cast-offs, just the fodder for an *Bay auction with a
>>high starting bid. Of course, I'll be confining myself to photographic
>>and stereo gear, stuff I know something about, and not books and
>>bric-a-brac trash.
>>
>>And the little Camedia C-2000 Z, with its measley 2mp, plus an old set of
>>Vivitar close-up lenses, coupled with the right lighting (which nobody
>>seems to know how to do anymore) is way more than good enough for
>>photographing the one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-seen-again items I shall
>>offer on line as I make enough money to buy one of those McMansions. And
>>I won't even have to rename or archive the damned files, just upload 'em
>>and wait for the money to roll in.
>>
>>Walt
>>
>>
>Wow, I didn't know things were that tough on the other side of the
>river--slums, McMansions, Republicans, OH MY! So Walt, do you think all
>those huge homes house only aging boomers and old farts (your term :) ) who
>own the kind of photography gear you're looking for? And just what are you
>looking for? 35mm?, MF?, LF? Antiques? I'd wager that many of those
>"affluent" folks are not much different than the ones who've surrounded my
>30 odd year old slummy part of town-they're half our age and think a manual
>focus 35mm of the 70's/80's era is an "old" camera. They came of age with
>auto focus, SLR or P&S, and quickly gravitated to digital. Not all of
>them, of course, but a lot of them. Don't casually dismiss the older
>homes. There's gold in them there slums. In the nearly two years I've been
>frequenting the Dunwoody/Sandy Springs garage sales I've found very little
>of the good stuff out on a table. I usually have to ask the homeowner if
>he/she has any photography related gear they're no longer using and might
>have put away in a closet or drawer and forgotten about. That sometimes
>elicits a response along the lines of "are you a collector?" while the
>dollars are adding up in their head. I've invented a few creative replies
>that have a basis in truth.
>
>With the exception of a Yashica A TLR I bought, I don't recall any
>opportunities to buy something other than 35mm. Maybe you'll have better
>luck. Don't forget to take along some batteries (AA, AAA, SR44, Mercury
>1.35V) and a small flashlight. A lot of cameras that aren't battery
>dependent can be had for even less if the meter's not functioning. As for
>estate sales, the operators...wait minute! Why am I telling you all this
>for free? <G> They'll probably teach you all this and more at that eBay
>University course you and the missus signed up for.
>
>Seriously, I've had a lot of fun selling photo gear, etc. on eBay. Once I
>got past the initial learning curves it came down to having the opportunity
>to play with a lot of cameras and lenses before parting with them. After
>you take the seminar and are ready to crank out the sales write me off
>list-I'll be happy to pass along a lot of what I've learned-both on and off
>eBay. Well, happy so long as you don't invade my turf-just kidding.
>
>Gary
>
>
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|