| The tortuous path towards a camera collection Part 4 - The fleamarkets - Classified ads |  |
| Maurizio Frizziero | |
| The tortuous path towards a camera collection Part 4 - The fleamarkets - Classified ads | |
| Maurizio Frizziero | |
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The fleamarkets And now let's speak about Fleamarkets. There is almost quite nothing there to actract you. It is that "almost" which ultimately makes you to go there. Usually there is some trash. If there is something the prices are astronomic (in Sarzana the dealer asked nearly 300 pounds for a VX 1000!), but in these cases I thank the owner and I go away. Other times you find very kind persons, fluently English speaking, with good items at reasonable prices (In Florence, Marino Caliterna has a stall in Santa Croce fleamarket, 39-55-67.06.43). There is the possibility of finding another kind dealer as Mr Guadagnini (39-11-91.91.413) in love with the cameras of Eastern Europe, all of good quality and sufficiently rare. His prices are just high ones, but it is worth the trouble to buy frm him: the second purchase is always more convenient and then he likes to talk, telling you a lot of interesting things about the different markets and when it is better to go to them. Frequently where he goes there are other dealers and so, if you pay attention, you can have a good "map", beginning from Torino, Casale, Bollate. I must however tell that this metod of search, which becomes an occupation, after the initial passion, often brings you to the exhaustion. To look for a thing without knowing if you'll find it, requires in the collector big quantities of fatalism; in the opposite case the frustration is always behind the corner together its daughter, the renouncement. On the other hand to look for a thing where you are certain it is there, becomes too easy, the incentives are missing, we do not enjoy ourselves. So we need to define the goal. I have decided mine. Here is an example. I live in Genoa. The French Riviera is near. On the French Riviera there are a lot of fleamarkets within few kilometers. In France you can find often a lot of cameras. Telòs was a big impoter of Exakta and Rectaflex. If I stay in Nice on Mondays there is an important weekly fleamarket. In the newspapers kiosks there is Aladin, a monthly magazine with the calendar of all the regular or occasional markets. With all this information I could decide to go to Villefranche for the weekend. If, unfortunately, I don't find what I am looking for, I'll still have spent a weekend in an extraordinary village! Yes, it is a good idea, but what about the costs? It depends on the individual possibilities but let's remember also that a double room, in an attractive little hotel, out of high season, could cost less than 30 pounds by night, and that you can have a good French lunch for around ten pounds (if you are rich, it is enough to multiply these values by ten and it is possible to find something right for you!). But if French Riviera is far? Everywhere there are other similar solutions: think yourself to be in Genoa (as I said above). You buy a monthly magazine, the name is Dove (Where, in English), a magazine of tourism and environs. Beetween the headings of the first pages is the one dedicated to the weekend markets. Use the same technique, choose a place you like between those indicated, then, if you are not fortunate for your collection, you have still had a little holiday. If you are fortunate, you'll be a doubly lucky fellow. After some time, continuing to combine the delectable with the delectable, you'll have the habit and what could be a work becomes a holiday. More than the fleamarkets there are the specialized markets based on used and collector's cameras, in Arezzo, Umbertide and other towns.
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 Mr. Guadagnini at Castel SanGiovanni Fair |
During a Sunday afternoon I was lazing watching TV, it was 4 pm. Suddenly I remembered that there was one of those markets today, in Castel San Giovanni (100 km from Genoa), where I had tought to go. I went immediately to the station (I never had a driving licence) and at 6pm I arrived. After a twenty minutes walk I entered the village Sport Hall. A lot of new cameras, a lot of used ones, few items for collectors: at least, that was my first tought. I looked around and I saw Mr Guadagnini, the person who had told me the date and the place of that market. Under the stall he had an anular flash. I didn't have neither found nor seen. I didn't discuss about the price - I acquired it immediately. Then we continued to chat. It was approching 7 pm, and it was time to go to the station for the train, when he remembered that in his trailer he had a Ihagee copy stand with a lot of accessories. He left me to watch his stall till he came back with a box. He arranged everything with adesive tape so I could carry it. I went back to the station with almost ten kilos more. On the train I guarded my purchase and, at 10 pm, I already was at home, with a quickly spent Sunday and with my collection richer. This was one of the times on which I found something. I don't tell you anything about the times when I found nothing - they are not amusing for you, neither for me.
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 Lionel Hughes at Portobello Market |
Here I relate instead a visit to Portobello Market in London. One descends and, immediately on the left hand in the Chelsea Galleries, there is David Chance, a shop with glass showcases. A serious affair, he is there on all Saturdays. (Peter Longden, the Editor of Exakta Times, bought his first embossed VX IIa there). Proceeding on the right, there is the table of Lionel Hughes, who, once a year, sends an interesting list of wooden cameras. Then, in a market within the market, there is The Good Fairy. Here there is a good stall. At the first cross-roads you find, in Westbourn Grove, Lipka Arcade. At the ground floor some years ago there was Paul Pollack. Here I bought many times and I remember the first one, when I bought two VP B and one VP A at 175 pounds, even if this sum was the only one I dispose yet during that year, year in which a monetary ceiling of 750 pounds was in force, due to currency exchange restrictions.. Here I tell of Bolzaneto too, one of the small districts that constitutes the grand municipality of Genoa. On a stall of a small monthly market, where was not even the shade of a camera, I had been able to locate a hood extension for a VP, practically new, in its original black fibre case.
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 Jubilee Photographica at Camden Passage Market Images and stereos |
Or I can speak about Camden Passage, where with the same luck I found a tele Dallmeyer with its extension ring in the original leather case with an internal red velvet; or I proceed with Clignancourt (St. Ouen, Paris) where on a carton box there were in sale a bakelite periscope, a brass frog and an Exakta VX 500. I bought all three items sending the dealer home happy. After a few minutes I found at a good price a Varex IIb in very good conditions. In order to conclude the chat about fleamarkets (I frequented quite a lot of them) it is certain that he who search, finds. This rule is valid even for those who search among the classified ads in the specialized magazines or in the weekly free papers.
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The classified ads My advice is to start, among the Italian magazines, with Tutti Fotografi which currently devotes a lot of space to the collector's ads, even if it commits the error of publishing them scattered among hundredths of offers, all equal, about new and used cameras, that distract and annoy. Even the Fotocamera's list, at the center of the magazine, has lost its attraction for its invariable content. One or more sections dedicated to the collector cameras would have sure more success. Fotografare, Reflex and Fotocine80 surely could complete the range of the offer even if many ads appear on the different magazines. The alternative way is to search on freepapers like Secondamano... where the ad, as it is often written in plain terms, makes it hard to identify the camera. With time, intuition and goodwill this can be the best way to find cameras and lenses at reasonable prices. A Biotar 75mm/f1,5 at £35 seemed to me a reasonable purchase or, at least, a reasonable one for an unmarried man. Unmarried or married, is it not the same thing? No. This is well known by the married collectors who must decide about the priorities of expenses in the respect of the domestic budget, who cannot allow their "vice" to sacrifice other needs. In a situation like this one the device is complicated, the times lenghten: in order to acquire a new piece one tries to sell something else, like a duplicate body, an unnecessary lens, other accessories of other makers found in a stock acquired earlier. In this cases a good system is to apply the same magazines of which we have spoken above. The situation is reversed, the heading is not more that of "Wanted" but that of "Sales", at the limit it could become that of the "Exchanges". The ad is dispatched within the first week of the month otherwise you reach the subsequent edition, the times lenghten but in each case, if the offer is right even in terms of price, the answer arrives. One must make the package, take it to the post and wait for the payment: two or three month from the first ad. But in the meantime one learns... If then one wants to deal beyond the national frontiers, he must acquire Popular Photography, Camera Shopper, Shutterbug (US magazines) or Practical Photography in England, Cyclope in France, Photo Deal in Germany... Looking with attention to big and small ads, with an annual subsription, there is to play troughout a year. It is a small investment that you can use to the year end in American publications; they are the most complete ones concerning the informations about associations, magazines, dealers... but the maximum is achieved by Patrick Hervè Pont with his guide Fotosaga, a pocket tool that contains an extraordinary lot of information, from the shops all over the world to the magazines, from the associations to the specialized book industry and so on... Conclusion: by leafing (the pages) one learns..! (In Italian: "Sfogliando si impara" while the idiomatic phrase is: "Sbagliando si impara!". The translation of the second phrase is "Making a mistake one learns!" which in Italian has the same sound of the first one). Maurizio Frizziero
To the Homepage ...or to Members' articles  In Italiano, per favore! Thanks to Peter Longden. He had the patience to translate my text from "my" English. |