UPDATE #2, 5:00 p.m. Tuesday: Good news—a reader friend has offered to take all these things away and post them separately on Ebay in August. I'll be sure to alert TOP readers when that happens.
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[UPDATE #1: I had to remove the sale notice. I was hoping to get some offers for all this stuff together, admittedly for my own convenience. It's just that I have no time to part it out and ship things separately to multiple people.
I accepted an offer on my current house that was contingent on a quick closing. It left me without enough time to get a mortgage for my new house and unable to hire a moving company. So I'm having to make an interstate move all on my own and I won't have a house to move in to when I get there. It's something of a logistical nightmare. Lots of work trying to organize everything and get ready. I need to get rid of things, but I have no time to sell things individually.
Very sorry about the inconvenience! It's not that I wouldn't like to accommodate everyone who just wants one or two items, it's just that I'm not able to do it that way at the present time. Sorry again.]
Mike
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Don Davis: "Boy, oh boy! Last year, I was tasked with liquidating long unused darkroom gear at the newspaper. Stacks of Nikor tanks and reels, Gralabs, film dryers, Leitz easels, Leitz and Nikkor enlarging lenses. Twelve-foot stainless sink. The equipment was unused for nearly fifteen years, but in excellent shape. No buyers or takers! We literally could not give the stuff away to schools. I retired shortly thereafter, and the paper moved to a new building, taking nothing with them from the darkroom. Into the dumpster it went. Talk about moving on!"
Ann: "The house is sold. It could be much worse. I had to do the same thing, by the way, on my last move. I got three weeks to pack, move 1,200 miles and start the new job, and the new house wasn't going to be available for six weeks after we got there. We ended up taking two people, a Great Dane, a cat, and six weeks' worth of possessions across the country in a Honda CR-V, and putting everything else in storage until the new house was ready. We spent a week in a terrible furnished apartment, a week couch surfing, three weeks in a Residence Inn, and convinced our sellers to move a week early. It was hard, but we got it done. You will too."
I sold my JOBO ATL 1000 earlier this year dirt cheap because I was tired of it looking back at me. I have reels and tanks yet to sell and I'll bet I will get more for them than I asked for the entire unit. I still have a stash of B&W 120 and 4x5" film in the freezer, but sold the last 4x5" film camera in 2014. I recently bought a new Hassy digital back for my MF tech camera and then a Hassy 500 series camera and portrait lens showed up just in case I want to start a portrait project with the B&W 120. Why is it so hard to give up the idea of not being able to shoot at least B&W film? Good luck with your darkroom sale; you've got a few gems in that pile.
Posted by: Darlene | Monday, 20 July 2015 at 11:26 PM
Mike,
It is great to hear your voice!
Posted by: Dave Karp | Monday, 20 July 2015 at 11:54 PM
(big smile) Well, well, this is the first time we've heard your voice, as distinct from hearing your words. Funny, I always thought you had a neutral mid-Atlantic accent with something of an Australian bias. And deeper. (big grin) I'll never be able to hear your words in the same way from now on.
Posted by: Peter Croft | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 12:59 AM
Gotta say, it feels a bit nostalgic seeing all that stuff. Little absolute overlap (I think the Gra-Lab and the Kodak thermometer are the only two exact pieces in common), but the general feel and theme are very similar.
I'm old-school on the tanks, though -- plastic caps for stainless-steel developing tanks are completely and utterly out of the question. Probably, with modern plastics, they could make something that would last for a while, and you're right about the advantage of not leaking. However, the only plastic lids for tanks I actually used were absolute crap, in that one of them actually split in two on me once. So never again, metal tops only. (Since the tanks stand in a water bath when I'm using them, the outside isn't dry anyway.)
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 01:39 AM
Thanks for posting this. I often get nostalgic for my Dektol days, but your comments about temperature calibration and t-square borders reminded me how good we have it now in these digital days.
Posted by: Doug Nelson | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 04:37 AM
In the eight or so years that I've been reading this blog, I think this is the first time I've heard your voice, Mike.
You sound less curmudgeonly than I imagined! (I jest, probably.)
I hope the packing/moving is going well.
Posted by: Matthew Allen | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 07:38 AM
Would $25 for the densitometer be TOO lowball?
Thanks,
Paul
PS Sorry to hear you're leaving Wisconsin!
Posted by: Paul Whiting | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 08:27 AM
Lest I appear too miserly, I just gave away most of my darkroom equipment to a local high school - where, I'm happy to report, traditional darkroom is still being taught. I donated my Beseler 23CII with 50 and 80mm Nikkor lenses, full set of Ilford filters, 3 8x10 safelights, 4 5x7's, Saunders easel, trays, timer, paper safe. I kept my Nikkor reels and Weston dial thermometers, still like to shoot b/w and scan it.
A new camera store, yes, an honest-to-god camera store, can't justifying buying old film cameras. But he accepts them and makes them available free to the students at the high school three blocks away. At the end of the term, the students may keep the cameras at no charge, or return them for the next batch of kids.
It's a win-win... the students are motivated and excited to learn the basics of photography.
Posted by: Paul Whiting | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 09:18 AM
Mike- Although this was not your intended purpose, I enjoyed looking at all this familiar equipment I have not seen or thought about in a long time. Also, I have been reading your words for years, but never heard your voice! I was surprised that your voice also sounded very familiar! No need to be nervous at all... hope you do some more video/audio at some point!
Posted by: Jeff in Boston | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 09:25 AM
I truly wish I could come and help you Mike with your move. Working together on such a project is how I like to get to know folks. But alas, I cannot travel even for the shortest time. It makes me sad.
I have a bunch of the same darkroom equipment, in a box. Will probably have to go to the dump someday. Sigh.
Good luck on your big adventure, I hope everything falls your way.
Posted by: Ken James | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 11:51 AM
Holy cr**! Good luck to you.
Posted by: Gary | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 11:58 AM
I enjoyed darkroom work but I don't miss it. What I miss is working late into the night in a shared facility with other students.
Posted by: Speed | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 12:24 PM
Mike, good luck on the move, and here's wishing you the best on getting all the details settled. I'm sure you are way beyond stressed right now. I know I would be.
My wife and I just came back from exploring East Lake Road, and drooling at some of the properties we saw. Often right next to what looks like a 1930's fishing shack! We've got three adjacent houses for the week, sufficient for the 20 to 30 of us. (The head count is in constant flux).
You'll have fun here.
Posted by: Mike R | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 01:07 PM
I totally understand, Mike. Best wishes in your next chapter!
Paul
Posted by: Paul Whiting | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 01:33 PM
Well that's fun. Long-time readers like myself know how you write, and how you look, but this is my (and likely many others') first experience with how you sound.
The Internet is weird like that. You have a sense of really knowing someone, at least in how they express themselves, and then you realize that you had no idea what they actually sound like.
Posted by: Ed Hawco | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 01:45 PM
What a great video! I loved hearing your voice. I never imagined it to be like that, I don't know why I say that, but I do. It must have been difficult to do that and talk to yourself, but you made no mistakes at all (was that your only take?). Goes to show how well you know this equipment.
Whenever I read what you write from now on, I can hear that voice narrating it out to me. That alone has made my day.
Cheers, Pak
Posted by: Pak-Ming Wan | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 01:52 PM
Donate it to a state college, they would love to get it but usually you would have to drop it off and it seems that you have no time.
About moving - Angie's List, I found a great mover and they can hold your stuff but only for a specified time without have to pay extra.
Good Luck!
Posted by: Brian Woolf | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 02:15 PM
Good luck Mike & take care of yourself. The one time I tried moving myself, with help from only one old friend, it dang near killed me. And I was younger and fitter then, with less stuff. Thank the Gods for storage containers...
Posted by: Hugh Weller-Lewis | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 02:29 PM
It's interesting to finally hear your voice Mike. You sound nothing like I imagined you would.
You have my total sympathy for your moving situation. You will just have to relax and expect it all to work out OK, though you may have no idea how that can be...
Posted by: Max Cottrell | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 04:20 PM
Donate the lot to a school and write it off as a donation on your '15 1041. By the way, having just moved over the past year, your moving expenses are deductible, including mileage.
Posted by: Bob Rosinsky | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 05:39 PM
Do you need help! I'm here for you.
Posted by: Christopher Lane | Tuesday, 21 July 2015 at 07:31 PM
I just experienced a moment of fan boy ecstasy. Hearing your voice for the first time was very gratifying. I've been reading you every week since I was a teen and I'm almost thirty. Your inimitable musings on cameras, photography, and life have become an integral and important part of my life, and now you have a voice! So cool. It feels like the time I finally saw a photo of Terry Gross after years of only hearing her. A bit of a shock to the system.
Posted by: Caleb Courteau | Wednesday, 22 July 2015 at 12:21 AM
Your voice does not match my imagination (expect a bit deeper) but the way you introduce is very you. Nice sale and wish your move not too hard.
Posted by: Dennis ng | Wednesday, 22 July 2015 at 03:25 AM
I'll be the voice of negativity for a moment, but this whole move seems faught with danger or an uninspected middle crisis or something. Sell your house with nowhere to move? Yikes!! Anyway...
Do you have ABF out there. This is a trucking company that will drop off a trailer like a half semi in length and leave for you to fill, then pick up and drop at your new location for you to unpack. Similar to pack rat but the box trailer is bigger.
Posted by: Dennis | Friday, 24 July 2015 at 01:13 PM