If I may ask, how much do you spend a year on films? I am wondering how much a good customer for CHC, Foster, Osborne or whomever is using on their shops. Myself, I think I use around 3-4000 GBP a year, which I feel is too much, yet not enough to get what you want :-)

I don't spend as much as that Vidar, at least I hope I don't!!

I suppose the difference being, I only collect on one gauge so that simplifies things a little for me I guess. If I was trying to spread the funds over even two gauges, I think at times, I may get a little frustrated by what continually would be passing me by.

I still let plenty I'd like pass me by, but on the whole, if there is a title I have been seeking for a good number of years, I will try and find a way to get it if I can.

I think at least that Vidar, I know madness man, but if I sell terminator 2 I could get half of it back, and spend it all again. I did splash out on braun nizo pro camera, a lovely balanced
machine to hold, I was going to get some footage of the German market in Birmingham during next week on a day light shoot, but I may need some body guards when I turn up with that.

Vidar, whatever it is you do for a living count me in
If i bought one full length film and spent £300 i would have to call it a day for rather a long time. Which is why i have stashed me die hard money & continue to sell stuff on ebay to raise funds, ( not just films, its surprising what crap you can get rid of and raise film funds).

I am actually disabled :-) But spend nothing on smoke, dope or alcohol, all film :-)

You're a saint Vidar!

well vidar, im going to say this because i dont think anyone else will, but you must be getting a fantastic disability payments to spend
four grand a year on prints

I'll have to look at my eBay purchase history as I truly don't know. Probably less than $300 per year for the last two years of collecting. But then again, my purchases have been limited to digests and extracts. $5 here, $10 there...it's easy to lose track. :-) But I've also received gifts from collector friends here that has helped my collection to grow too. :-)

Disability pension is around 1500 GBP a month, so it's not too bad :-)

That's better than many UK residents get paid Vidar for disgusting totally anti social shift work.

You'd get a fraction of that amount here in the UK so Norway certainly boasts a superb welfare system!

Of course the bottom line with anything like these topics, no able bodied person would ever swap places Vidar, so I'm pleased financially at least, you are relatively speaking, well taken care of.

I also am acutely aware that your overall health isn't always what you'd choose for yourself, so again Vidar, enjoy your life to the fullest you possibly can and if this means you spend sizeable amounts on something you love....then good luck to you!

Thanks, that is the thing I enjoy most, lucky to have a nice wife too. So I want to enjoy as much as possible before my eyes give out totally. Getting worse by the day it seems, not enough time to get all I want to see, I suppose, but will enjoy the ones I can

Enjoy it while you can Vidar,life's too short after all you can't take it with you.📽📽

I have no idea how much I have spent, and I don't want to know :-) But it is not in the same league as Vidar. I haven't spent much on some special films, but there have been many Disney's etc for 15-20 GBP, and when I add up all I have bought it is way more than I like. When I think about how much I spend I often forget about shipping cost and taxes. When I looked at the last two credit card bills I had spent WAY more than I liked. I don't get into financial trouble, but I would try to reduce the cost a bit anyways. I have enough film now to not see the same ones over and over, so I don't need to buy so much, but it is hard to stop :-)

Posted twice?????

As we are on this subject of spending, I'd like to offer a few words which may reflect those of others both here and elsewhere from other long term collectors past and present.

First of all, let no one ever fall into the trap that any of this is in any way a competition. There should never be any pressure felt by anyone within the hobby to feel as though they have to "keep up with the Jones's" or "stay ahead of any pack" so to speak.

You buy what you can afford, you have a lifetime to seek what you search for, and no collector ever had every title they ever wanted. It never worked like that.

That's what makes this hobby somewhat compulsive. It is because you can't just go out and find and then buy every top title film that was ever released. They are all too scarce to do that now.
That's why when you do find the ones you've been seeking for years, it feels the same to us as when Charlie found the Golden Ticket against all the odds!

That's exactly how it can be with film. Sure there are many people with much more, there are many who can spend much more, but every once in a while, even with just a miniscule of good fortune , there is good chance you'll stumble on something you regard as very special, that even the most seasoned and dedicated collector, will not have.

Don't fall into the trap that I've even heard psychologist collectors can do and that is to finish up almost an addict to the buying of film to the point where it is beginning to destroy your life. You have to always remain level headed about spending limits.
Yes live a little, you're only here once and all...I'm all for that.
But let's never forget, this is only a hobby and there are far more important financial demands placed upon us all as mature sensible adults, that should always be given priority over any hobby.

If I were to lose my job tomorrow, then tomorrow is when I stop buying films.

Very true what you write, Andrew. A competition is the last thing I am interested in. I like it when people show screenshots of something they are happy about getting, no matter if it is a flawless low fade film or a silent completely red digest full of splices etc. I buy things I like, and although a have some nice ones I have mostly cheap films an many red ones. I buy what I find interesting. And I have other hobbies too, and won't spend it all on film. And it is very true that we have a life time to collect.

I totally agree, Andrew. Even within my short period of time getting back into this hobby, I've noticed that each enthusiast/collector has his/her own very particular interests, which means that competition is, or should be, irrelevant.

A few months ago, I decided that I was going to concentrate on 16mm with emphasis on Bell & Howell, its lenses, and specific Cinemascope feature films from the 1960s and 1970s. I'm pretty sure no other collector is getting engaged in quite the same way as me, or has an identical wishlist. I'm quite happy to sit aside and wait until titles or hardware I'm interested in start to pop up online or at conventions. The waiting in itself actually makes our hobby delightfully pressure-free.

It's often the wait that excites me also Martin. The thrill you feel when you finally get your hands on something you wished for since childhood is unbelievable!!

Totally unmatched by any pair of socks, dvd, scarf and gloves, new sweater etc etc you may ever receive at Christmas!

Even a brand new car would not thrill me anywhere near as much as finding certain films I seek, much to my missus's extreme disapproval!

I have had to cut back on my spending, saying that not many titles about I really want at the moment. A couple of Disney features I never could afford at the time are on my list and a few more.

Think I might set-up a film collectors clinic for the obsessive collector. The walls won't be padded just covered with silver discs. No straight jacket just HDMI leads suspending you in front of a TV forced to watch nothing but digital video.

I was not intending it to be a competition, just wondered if I was weird or normal :-) Appears I am weird. Things are filling up here, I am soon forced to sell off films soon (ouch, it hurt my collector heart)

I guess all of us here are weird at one level or another :-)

Definitely a thrill, Andrew. I thought my Epson/M&K/Parasound/Dolby Atmos home cinema was ticking all the boxes until very recently.

But nothing in the past few years compared to the thrill, for example, of picking up my 16mm copy The Dove (1974) from Mr. Guest last week. He'd posted it as a regular 1.37 print on eBay, and when I got it home, found it was in scope, and in near perfect condition with glorious colours. It wasn't one of my target films, but I saw it first on 16mm when I was a boy at school, so it was an absolute treat - and it has one of my favorite scores of all time by John Barry. Better than Christmas, as you say. I also bought the Super 8 3 x 400ft of Where Eagles Dare with OBs finally from Luis here on the forum, another title I never thought I'd find. So cool...

The thrill of the REEL Martin, is something totally different and unique to all other forms of screening, it has to be said!

Love John Barry scores Martin! Reminds me of my 1970's informative childhood years every time I hear a piece of his music.

He was brilliant again when I watched and reviewed "Raise The Titanic" here earlier this year and who could ever forget the work he did for the Bond movies as well as such TV classics like the Persuaders.

An incredible man who sadly left us all in 2011.

He left a lifetime legacy of fantastic music to accompany many great great productions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barry_(composer)

I really do wish I had the patience and the resolve you guys are showing. I'm afraid that I would be one of David's first customers if ever he managed to set up his clinic.

I've had to lie low for a while due to a torn abdominal muscle and resulting hernia, but with me and projectors its more a case of 'monkey see- monkey want'. And even 'what monkey cannot yet see - monkey still want.' And it's starting to get that way with films. If it wasn't for the housework and taxi duties I would probably spend a large portion of my time watching films. I reckon I have spent close to two grand on projection equipment and films since may and the urge to get super 8 is so strong that if Phil Sheard hadn't sold the last of his sankyo 702"s last week, I would have gone through to his shop last thursday and picked one up. There's a wealth of material on super 8 that I won't see on 16mm in a month of sundays and at my age I don't feel like waiting around. As my grandma used to say, you're a long time dead. And the problem with the grim reaper is he doesn't always give advanced notice of a call.

On my 'still to get' list is a fumeo X1000, a 35mm projector ( portable for space reasons ) , a bell and howell 644 and a quality super 8 job with a 150watt lamp and an earphone socket so I can watch films late at night without disturbing wifey or the neighbours. I'm restricted to watching silver disc stuff at night because I can bluetooth the sound to my headphones. But I really don't like 4K . Too much detail - it reminds me of the time I spent thinking how much better my portraits would be if I had some 'L' series glass on my old eos 5mk2, so I got some and the equipment was brutal - it exposed every facial flaw and blemish to the extent that I spent ages blurring the results in photoshop so as not to upset the models. What a waste of time . Give me real film wherever and whenever possible. A good 35mm print is as good as HD stuff anyday, and much more satisfying as far as I am concerned.

I don't think you are weird at all Vidar. Buy the stuff you enjoy while you can, and if ever you decide to sell any 35 mm prints .... :)

I usually spend in the $250-350 range for films so far each year since returning to the hobby two years ago. A year ago when I got into 16mm as well, that of course drove the spending costs up even more. Like Tim mentioned above, in Super-8 I collect digests & other short subjects. In 16mm I have a mix of features, shorts & trailers. As much as I enjoy my films, it's not my sole hobby (or even my main one) so that too impacts what goes out of my wallet.