I have a lot of camera's

[norman]

I work as a volunteer in the Salvation Army charity shop in Cambridge. I been tasked with identifying if the cameras that they have in storage are of any worth to a collector, for parts or whatever.
So being a member of this forum to find out about my Fathers NAGEL camera some while ago [successfully I might add] I thought that I would see if you could be of assistance to me.

I have been through the camera's and to date there are 30 of them! I have attached a very crude spread sheet of what is available.
The problem is that I have no idea if these camera's are still of use.
If not, then they will be disposed of.
We would even consider passing them on to a specialist charity if necessary.
So if folks could read the attached and offer any opinions, thenAttachment Deleted I would be most grateful.

That's not the end though.
There also lots of lenses just crammed into a box and I know that many of these will only fit certain cameras.
If there is any interest, some guidance on the best way to catalogue these would be helpful, so I can then post details of them here.

Thanking you all in anticipation.

[lloydy]

Norman, I help a few local charity shops by looking at their donated camera gear, and giving some sort of price to sell it at - if it is fit for sale. The charity shops don't want to sell faulty or untested equipment of any sort, so ratty old fungused lenses with dented filter threads are just junk to them, the same with cameras that have no battery, the battery holder might be corroded, the light seals and mirror bumper have turned to goo, they just can't sell this stuff. It's not worth the hassle of selling something that isn't working properly to someone who might not know enough to realize what they are buying.
I throw a lot of stuff in the bin, the APS cameras, the cheap compacts, and flashguns with old batteries stuck inside just get binned. The better and hopefully salvageable stuff I usually end up buying, but I do take a chance on a lot of it. I paid £5 for an OM1 that is utterly jammed, and £10 for a Contax RX that had no battery, but is fully working and mint condition.
It is a problem for the charities, they get this stuff and it's a limited market for it, especially the untested and scruffy stuff. To us it's too good to throw away, to them it's taking up space.

[daveh]

Norman, I'm sure most, if not all, the gear will be sellable. One of the charity shops (Oxfam, I think) near to us used to have all sorts of interesting photographic gear. then it dried up. When I enquired it turned out that if was all being sent to central depot, evaluated and then sold on ebay.

Anyway, it's a nicely laid out little spreadsheet you have done. I suppose it's a case of all of them are in use, but none of them are - if you see what I mean. They are yesterday's cameras, but someone will buy them: as Lloydy says, they are too good to throw away. If you don't want to try to sell them singly, perhaps set up a few "job lots" to sell on ebay.

[lloydy]

Oxfam do sell camera gear through some of the busier and bigger shops, I have had some good stuff from the Keswick shop ( In the English Lake District - Cumbria ). They do send all the camera's donated at various places to a shop / warehouse where someone assesses and prices them, so the prices are less than ebay but they certainly don't give the stuff away. It's all listed on their web site as well, and despatched from the few shops that hold the stock.
The last time I was in the Keswick shop the very knowledgeable guy who does the assessing showed me a pair of large camera cases full of Leica's and lenses, all in pristine condition, that he had checked out and valued at £2,500, which is a lot of money for any charity and they simply cannot afford to let it go for next to nothing, which the smaller charities that get less donations are often forced to do because they simply don't have the people to assess the stuff, and it's not just cameras. I got the Contax cheap after explaining that it was potentially a valuable camera - if it worked. The manager let me have it cheap as a favour for what I do in assessing their cameras, and often replacing light seals and cleaning a camera for them to sell, with some degree of confidence that the customer won't be disappointed.

Norman, the list needs to be a bit more detailed. Some of the Canon's like the EOS300 were film or digital, although the digitals did have a D after the name - so I would say they are film ? And, what lens is fitted to them? there's a chance that the lens might be worth a lot more than the camera it's attached to. Put the lens details on the list, and a quick reckoning of the condition, make a note of obvious damage and fungus. Then the list will be of interest to the people who are the likely buyers. There are Facebook groups out there that you could just post the list on and wait for the buyers.