Date expired film. (Not a buy!)

[yashica1943]

I recently won as a prize, 10 rolls of Fuji 35mm film. I had 4 rolls of Agfa Vista in their boxes dated 2014 that I knew I would not use before they expired so I put them on ebay. When I sold them I was astounded that four rolls of expired Fuji 35mm (not in box) sold for 400% more than the Agfa on the same day. I know about Lomo etc., but this was ridiculous. Why do people pay so much?

[Peltigera]

I occasionally see film on sale on Ebay going for more than the usual retail price and then you need to add on postage. I cannot understand it at all. All the film that is being made at the moment is available retail in the UK via the Interweb which is no harder than using Ebay. If you don't want the film to work properly, just leave the cheaper film on a sunny window sill for a few days.

[Berndt]

I also noticed, that prices of expired film can develop in an "interesting" way ( mostly increasing ), but I thought, that might only happen for very popular films. The question is probably not so much if the film is expired or not, it mostly depends on the fact, if the film has been discontinued or not.

As for an example, my favorite film, the Kodak E100VS, was always around 2.500 Yen for a pack of 5rolls/120film. It has been discontinued in December last year and already a half year before, the price went UP ( not down ) to 2.850 Yen. I actually hoped for a sale, because this film had to disappear from the shelves by 2013, but nothing like that and if you try to buy such a film on an auction, you need to pay nearly the double price ( app. 5.000 Yen ) ... but that's not an exception and it was also me, who just ordered four packs of expired Kodak Portra VC, I would say still at a decent price but already more expensive than the price, this film has been sold at ( before being discontinued ).

However, what can people do if they want to use a certain film, which is not available anymore. Supply and demand are dictating the price then.

[pompiere]

It seems that the Lomographic crowd likes to use old film and different chemistry for the "artistic" effects they get in the images. I read somewhere that consumer films had a pretty long shelf life, compared to pro films, because the average person would only get their camera out for special occasions and snap a few pictures, then put it away until next year. So, the film might be a couple years old by the time it got processed. I buy expired film frequently at garage sales that is a few years past it's use by date, with no problems. Usually it is from someone who switched to digital and stuck the camera bag in a closet, i.e. "cool dark place".