8mm Forum: Advice on selling

This is topic Advice on selling in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 05, 2017, 03:50 PM:

Hi all,

I apologise if this is the wrong place to ask.

My father passed away earlier this year. He was a cine buff back in the day and had collected a lot of bits and pieces. When clearing out his house I couldn't bring myself to bin it until I checked out all the 8mm home movies first, now find myself with a load of old films and cameras etc.

As it stands I have several projectors, possibly a camera (not checked all the boxes but he had one) and a load of films/bits and bobs(wide angle lens ect).

I tried out two of the 16mm projectors and a few films to just see if they worked. I noticed one had a cinema leader (if that is the correct name for the bit at the start of the film) with some hollywood/copywrite stuff printed on it. Does this mean it was an original cinema film rather than a copy, one of his friends who used to be a projectionist some years ago so it might have come from him. There was also a couple that appeared to be advertisement films.

I tried searching for the film names but couldn't find them on ebay so I kind of gave up and decided to come back to it over Christmas, but it made me realise it might be difficult to price this stuff up. I also don't know if there is increased value if it had a cinema header.

Apart from searching on here/ebay are there any other resources to look at when I get back to looking at them. Whenever I try searching all I get is people offering to transfer films to DVD.

I plan to go through everything one by one and research on the web to see what/if it is worth anything, then put it all up a as job lot at a reduced price, preferably to a collector rather than a retailer.
It would be nice to know someone wants them for what they are rather than what they are worth.

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on October 05, 2017, 04:05 PM:

Hi Jon - There are more experienced people than myself on this forum who I am sure will advise you on pricing.

However, can you just clarify..... the films you mentioned... are we talking package movies ( ones bought from a shop) or your own personal family home movies.... or both? If so, what sort of ratio of home movies to package movies,please?

Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 05, 2017, 04:42 PM:

There are some home stuff but I wouldn't sell those, if any good I'll get them transferred to DVD.
Most are proper films (i.e. IMDB listed).
A quick glance at the boxes, by no means a full list. Just a selection to give an idea and still to be tested to make sure all there and they are mot empty/correct films

8mm
Blitz on Britain (several reels)
The Jolson story
The toughest target
A farewell to arms
Dambusters (several reels)
King Kong (1933 several reels)
Airport
Sounds of music
where eagles dare (3 reels)
Saturday night fever
flying cage (no case but if memory servers it is a cartoon, poss tweety pie)
confessions of a driving instructor
Elvis
Dr Zhivago
We dive at Dawn

16mm (most in tins so only checked a few of them)
Jack frost (B&W silent cartoon)
The sellout (Oliver reed)
Touch of mink (dorris day)
Kansas lilly (Wyatt Erp with Columbus pictures details on leader)
Wagon train
Coast to coast

Other stuff.
16mm ilford elmo F16-1000 (lens looks different the ones I found on the internet)
16mm tqm 2692 as
At least 1 8mm and camera (not checked the models), there could be others. Also a couple of speaker boxes and screen. a box of bulbs, lenses and other things I have yet to work out what they are.

I still haven't gone through it yet so only mentioned what I can see easily in the boxes bags to give an idea.

I'm not looking for prices or to sell yet, just some help in how to put a value on it all.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 06, 2017, 03:03 AM:

Jon
Most collectors will already have the 8mm titles. Are they standard 8 or Super 8?
The 16mm titles are a bit more attractive.
You could put them on eBay with a low starting bid, it is quite unbelievable how high final prices often get.
If you want to sell the lot in one go, no doubt a dealer might be interested.

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on October 06, 2017, 11:50 AM:

Hello again,Jon.

I have sent you some advice in a private email that does not display on this forum.

Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 06, 2017, 03:25 PM:

Thanks for the replies (and PM's)

I expect there will be some super and some standard 8 (I certainly remember my Dad starting back in standard 8 days).

I will look into the ebay auctions when the time comes.
The only reason for thinking of a job lot was down to the time it takes to watch each one all the way through (to gauge quality) and then auction it. There are quite a few films so it would take a while to get through them all.
If I have the time when I get round to looking at them the auction would certainly save me having to try and price everything up first.
Believe it or not I had actually forgotten ebay was an auction site, As I always use buy it now on there [Roll Eyes]

Posted by David Guest (Member # 2791) on October 06, 2017, 06:54 PM:

re your films and equipment why not have a stall at my north west film fair in novemeber and have a great day out in the bargain or put them on the bring and buy or put them in the auction email me on dwgdodgems@hotmail.co.uk thanks david

Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 07, 2017, 03:07 AM:

Thanks for the offer of a stall but I'm going to be a flat out with other things between now and Christmas.

It would also need me to be able to prices everything up which is the original issue I was having.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 07, 2017, 04:33 AM:

Jon
Remember the old saying.
A thing is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.

Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 07, 2017, 06:06 AM:

Very true.

I'm not look to make a load of money from the this, I'd just rather not throw anything away that someone might want.
Any items that don't sell will be offered for free to a good home.

It is unlikely there will have anything really rare but he did know some cinema projectionists back in the day so who knows what is there.

As I'm on here I did take a photo of the one projector with the different lens (so I could google the name later) and noticed it seems to a different lens to the pictures I found on the web. Purely out of interest does anyone know what is going on with it, is it a wide angle or long throw lens or something like that. It's not really important at the moment but I was just peeked my interest.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 07, 2017, 06:18 AM:

It looks like a lens is attached to the basic lens.
As I can read NORMAL on the attached I am wondering whether it is a zoom attachment, i.e., a lens to alter the focal length of the basic lens which is, no doubt, a 2".
Quite an unusual projector as it is badged ILFORD ELMO, something I've never seen.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on October 09, 2017, 01:43 PM:

I believe Ilford imported Elmo cine and slide projectors and cameras in the 1960's and early 1970's. A local discount chain "Headquarters and General Supplies" always had Ilford Elmo in their lists, they even mentioned the ElmoScope lens bracket on some. Some of my oldest Movie Maker magazines also have them as Ilford Elmo.

Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 09, 2017, 03:20 PM:

Seems my last reply didn't make it through, maybe I forgot to hit post.
I'll check out the lens to see if it is an adaptor next time I get the projector out.
I remember my dad saying he preferred Elmo to other makes and talked highly of them over others he had when others asked. It is the only projector name I remember due to his enthusiasm for them.
Sadly the really old brown projector that I remember wasn't in the house so he probably gave it to his mate (an ex cinema projectionist) or sold it. That one looked like it was around during the war (maybe he swiped it when he was demobbed lol), it would have been interesting finding out it's history.

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on October 09, 2017, 06:45 PM:

quote:
It looks like a lens is attached to the basic lens.
As I can read NORMAL on the attached I am wondering whether it is a zoom attachment, i.e., a lens to alter the focal length of the basic lens which is, no doubt, a 2".

As Maurice stated that's the Elmo Zoom Converter. You could put it on a 2 inch lens(50mm) and make the image projected on the screen smaller or larger using the attachment.

Posted by Jon Edmunds (Member # 6099) on October 10, 2017, 02:19 AM:

Good to know, thanks.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 10, 2017, 02:35 AM:

Here's some information on Ilford-Elmo products:-
https://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Elmo.html
And here's the AR-16 projector:-
https://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Elmo/ElmoAR-16.html

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