FILM STARS Sell buy debates
A few years back, at a general auction, there appeared a tray of five cameras. Three were snapshot models. The fourth was a Compass (rare and valuable) and the fifth was an Ilford Witness (equally rare and extremely valuable). The auctioneer’s estimate was £80-120 for the lot. They sold for a little over £16,000. There are two morals to this tale. One is that there are still cameras being sold by people who don’t know their worth. The other is that it only takes two people bidding at an auction for the value of a lot to find its true level.
So is it still possible to make money buying and selling vintage cameras? The answer is yes, provided that you know what you’re doing.
Finding the right cameras
We all have dreams of discovering that old camera in the loft, junk shop, charity shop or boot fair and finding it’s worth a fortune. It does happen. But not very often!
The first task is to discover the name of the camera, usually found somewhere on the body; and the lens,
