Estate Sale Finds and a New Passion

June 26, 2018

Jen and I have been attending Estate Sales on a regular basis on Saturdays for probably the past six months or more.  We try to attend one at least every week, whether it be close, or an older historic home in Pensacola or nearby area.  We'll usually travel up to twenty miles to find a good one. Over the past two months, I've been lucky enough to find a Nikon N65 w/lens, Nikon point and shoot, and Nikon N75 body. Yeah, they're plastic and fantastic (to me) but I didn't gain too much joy out of spending more on the CR2 batteries for the bodies than on the camera and lens.  I shot a roll through the N65 (it was in better condition--need to remove some gummy junk off the rubber of the N75--and, I've heard by some that they like the N65 better!) Unfortunately I'm just not into these type cameras, so I'll probably sell them at the next yard sale we have.  Buy at estate sale, the flip at a yard sale...we have a neighbor that does a yard sale every week, so it kinda sucks for traffic in our hood, but we'll see how that goes.  Jen is happy I'm actually getting RID of one for a change.  

So, back to estate sales--three weeks ago, the same time I found the N65, I was able to score a NIMSLO 3D camera for $15.  Wifey was NOT happy I spent $21 on two cameras, but I argued the point that she got a brand new rug, still in cellophane from the estate sale before, and spent more than me for the day.  Win.  Also bigger win was smile on wifey's face when she saw what the 3d cameras from the 1980's are going for on ebay!  

My plan was to run a roll of b/w film thru the Nimslo and check the results before putting it on eBay--of course it is very cool.  Learned how to make GIF's on Youtube using it, and created some. It's a really neat and fun camera, but, unfortunately, i'll probably hit the sale list, as i'm constantly hounded by her to get rid of some #x+1 factor in action.  I'm selling bikes though, and bikes are much bigger than cameras to store! I might be winning, i'm not sure. 

Anyway, here are a few shots from the Nimslo. 

So, as you can see the 3d effect, you can probably also understand how it commands about 20x what I paid for it at the sale. I can only hope to sell it for what they're going for! I might have to find another one though before I try to get rid of one. Kidding.  I'm going to sell it...after I test it about 20 more times.

I also picked up another point and shoot earlier this month.  Since the AF35ML did not strike my fancy the way i thought it would, i took aim at a Canon SuperSureShot F2.8 at a yard sale. It appeared to be in great condition, but, of course, once again, the 2CR5 battery that it required, which again costed more than the camera, was ordered to get it to work.  I use the 2cr5 in my A2E and that is the much more important camera to me right now, so off to Amazon I went and ordered multiple ones. 

The battery arrived and I installed it using a screwdriver to take off the battery door. I've heard of the Sureshot ACE that actually has a waist level view finder, but I think my camera purchases will stop for a little while. I did actually have two failures at recent garage sales:   A Canon Sure Shot 38mm f2.8 that had an exploded battery port that couldn't be fixed, and a very cool Minolta point and shoot, however it took that Advantix film, which is pretty expensive, small format and totally not worth it.  The Minolta point and shoot went directly to the Thrift store donation stack. Didnt' even wanna waste time to try and sell it.   

So the test run of the SuperSureShot gave me decent results, but not really what i was hoping for. I think i'll probably take the 2CR5 battery out of it and save it for the A2e, if ONLY I can find that damn tiny screwdriver! The color rendered well, but once again that focal point was a little off-kilter...worth $3 though that I spent on it. 

Mimosa trees on the trail at sunset. Light and dark tests Canon Super Sure Shot F2.8

selfie Canon Super Sure Shot F2.8

Tower to the heavens. Canon Super Sure Shot #fujifilm200 #superia

Old Jeep truck 70's Canon Super Sure Shot F2.8 superia 200

Son from bay to plate. Redfish he caught, cleaned and cooked. Supersureshot 2.8

I'll mess with it a little more before I make my decision. If anything, I really like giving point and shoots to friends or my kiddos for them to shoot, with my own bnw film inside, then I like to develop it. Gotten some interesting results from my daughter after letting her use the Nikon AF110 Zoom compact and some VERY Expired Kodak 400 film--the negs had a green tint to them which made the final results turn out pretty cool. She likes graveyards. 

I also scanned these in B/W, but liked the red. 

Purple Hue Avery Nikon AF110Zoom Expired Kodak 400 GC

Finally, the new love I've found at estate sales is finding old slides--with the history of the area where we live, i'm always hoping to find older pics or scans of super old stuff. In March I found three boxes of old Ektachrome/Kodakchrome slides that i bought for a dollar--by that time the people were just trying to get rid of whatever they had left.  I finally had time to scan them last weekend under a rain delay at home and the color on positive film is simply amazing.  These are from 1963 in Japan from an unknown to me family.  Creepy as it may be, I have developed a new passion for these little time capsules in other people's eyes. The amazing colors don't hurt either. 

Saving the best for last--this is one of my all-time favorite pics, it's timeless and to know it's from 1963 makes it even better.  This i should sell as an album cover :)