When you buy in a collection are you tempted to keep many of the titles for your personal collection, or was it that way in the beginning. Back in the early 70s I visited a record dealer just off the Portobello Road, after reading an interview with him in 'New Musical Express'. he said that when he first opened his shop, people were bringing in records, and he kept saying to himself 'i'm keeping this one, that one', and soon realised that if he kept doing that he would have no business. Did you have the same temptation?

I asked Ian a similar question once Robert, given the fact he was an enthusiast himself.
He never considered any of his stock as his own I think he replied! 😂

I think the vast majority of the dealers past and probably present have a different outlook to most collectors in that if the price is right, everything is for sale.

Many a collector would never part with certain films they own, not at any price.

I think you must be right there Andrew. My films are one of the few things I couldn't put a price on, I expect you feel the same.

I remember asking paul foster some years ago a similar question. He said at that time that he only projected blu ray.
It must have been so tempting to keep some though.just look back at old lists and see all those top titles.

I do indeed Robert.
Having said all of that I've sold the lot before now so if circumstances ever dictated I'd be left with no other choice than to do the same, that's what I'd do.

I love the films but they cannot live at home so everything is now dictated by circumstances at any given time.

Many have made the switch like Paul, few seem to be over sentimental afterwards.
Having done both, both ways around, I think I'd personally always miss the entire thrill of using film projectors and projecting real film far more now than I ever did previously, but as said, none of us can ever predict what is around the corner in life.

A friend of mine was most dedicated to his collection but he sold off all of his best titles to raise the necessary funds for essential work to his home during lifestyle changes, so it really is all circumstantial.

It's only a hobby after all!

It's better to have had and lost, than never to have had at all.

Agree with everything being said. Given we film collectors are already a small lot, particularly nowadays, I figure whatever little money to be made selling any of my films wouldn’t be worth it, so if I get rid of any films, I give them away to collector friends whose enjoyment of those films makes up for any small money I could make off of them.

However, while I don’t live in the nostalgia for the past, I tend to keep the majority of my films and only buy the prints that I truly want.

In the beginning of returning to the hobby, like many, I purchased all kinds of prints, some good, many not so good.
I then at that time, placed a small maximum amount against any film I would buy.

My problem then was that although I had a decent amount of titles, it was generally lacking in quality for the most part.

I have quite a wide spectrum of interest so far as real films are concerned so I then quickly changed my outlook and began only seeking quality films of titles and genres of which I enjoy.

Over the years now, it is these later purchases that have offered me personally the best value for money given the usage I've had from them and the enjoyment gained from them.
They'd also be the ones which would most likely make me some money if I ever decided to sell them, so overall now, I always prefer to buy only quality films and titles covering many different genres of interest to myself.

I wouldn't ever buy a film of a genre of no interest to myself, no matter how good the print nor how much of a bargain. Simply because I'd never watch it again.

who ever buys a collection of films is taking a very big gamble especially when half the films are well known titles and the other half are not .to be fair to seller and buyer the ideal way is to view every print to see what print is like is it good colour faded red black and white print of colour vs title and end scratches tram lines sprocket damage and so on .but who has the time to do this as it would take months to do it especially if there are 300 plus like I bought recently ,so unless you know the seller and know he has took good care of his collection or it could be a person you don't know big gamble for the buyer .so you just look at a few of the good titles and if good colour like they should be then prey all the others are the same but not always the case the most popular titles always have faults not like the not so popular are always usually decent prints .then the buyer has to hand over a large amount of money and they always want cash .then when you done that you have to start to sell a few and whoever buys them always wants a full description of what films is like .any one wants to have a go at doing this then come over to my place with a suitcase full of money and see if you are in with a chance

Aside from dealing my own personal prints, dealing other people's prints gives me shivers personally.

I think anyone in this day and age who takes the gamble of handing over any large sums for a collection deserves a medal for bravery.

For a start now, collections which come to market are multi sourced given the fact that new prints haven't been around for years by and large.
What this means is nearly all in a collection found now will have had a minimum of two previous owners and quite possibly many many more.

Some may be like new, many may not be.
It's purely a gamble unless its a collection of your own or one of which you know of and have seen personally.

Being a dealer would never be something I'd consider doing personally.
Way too much hassle and not a lot of it is in your own control.

I very rarely keep anything that comes in 'for myself', I did in the early days collect a few rare trailers that came through my hands, but eventually, one way or another they ended up on my lists. Most of my own collection has been brought straight from the various dealers over the years, I bought a lot of Derann back in the day (it helped to have a delers discount, though!).

This is the first year where, up until now, i have not bought any super 8 films. I bought part 8 of thats entertainment purly to give my 4 odd parts an ending and my bid won at a very reasonable price from our own Stuart here. But unless something special comes up mow that i really want i am now no longer interested due to the amount of prints ive bought and paid good money for only to find fade or scratches on them or both. Sometimes its embarrasing viewing it knowing the blu rsy was only a fiver. Now i am slowly slowly reducing our 8mm to hopefully end up with all the good stuff.
I think if i had been a dealer i would have flopped because any of those top titles that came through would have been keepers for me. Just imagine all those 80s films from derann(not to mention all the other dealers),the die hards,platoon,the alien films, robocop the terminatir films, the list goes on.
Mind you, you'd have a good start to your pension pot now if you sold them all off.
How many wish they had 10 copies of each of the three stars wars films?
Probably all the remaining dealers

I tend to cherry pick anything that comes my way, I keep what I fancy and sell everything else, like Barry though, a lot of it eventually does end up being sold. I'm like Andrew now though, it has to be good to get into my collection, fed up of faded/red/pink prints.

Ironically, a little bit of fade here and there I can take and fully accept if there is no other version of the film out there that's any better.
To me condition of print is my own number one priority.

I am certainly in no way a fan of the old "you can't beat black & White" adage.
To me, I'd much prefer a film made in colour with a little fade to the same film printed on black & White stock.
I cannot imagine colourful Disney films on black & White personally. One half of the wow factor would be completely absent.
Fair enough if its old classic and that's how it was made, but even then I don't tend to find myself drawn to watching old black & White films anywhere near so much as a lovely vibrant colour print.
Maybe It's A Wonderful Life and Smallest Show On Earth would be my only exceptions on this one.

Everyone is different of course so far as preferences and tolerance levels are concerned as I know for example, some can tolerate scratches far more than I can.

Some colour films I can watch as B&W prints, then another time you see an interesting title, but it's a B&W copy of a colour film, and you're not interested enough; take Robin Hood and the greenwood all in B&W, doesn't sound interesting. Although it's possible to still get films virtually like new, i'm getting more these days that have splices, maybe a bit of clipped dialogue; nothing serious. I would rather have this than just a disc. Going back to the original question, I think if I was a dealer, and had just bough a collection from a house clearance, I would probably find myself keeping too many films for myself, especially if they were vintage ones, 1930s to 1950s.

We have Bugles in the afternoon on both STD8 and 16mm in b/w. As an old western this works very well, i didn't realize this was originally a colour film until Robert mentioned it, so as you say, some films do work very well in b/w but a nice colour print would be great.

Yes looking at davids post he is absolutely right ,for me i like to check every print all the way through if i can it takes a lot of time to do and you often find that a good film has faults so the price you thought it was worth it no longer is ,many a time i have brought a collection of good titles only to find that the good prints with nice colour have scratches or splices and then a faded print will be free from scratches or splices its the nature of the game im afraid ,im not a big time dealer so if i can get my money back and a small profit im happy , 16mm is the hardest format to check and sell id say as some films come on 2 spools and then some on 3 or more so sometimes you can even be a spool short which is another problem as i have good titles missing parts ,and then you might get 1 faded and one good colour of the same feature the example of this is CONDOR MAN which i have for sale on ebay as we speak ,so add the chance of vs and broken sprokets etc its a risky game ,but for me i love it but it does take up a lot of time and then more when someone is not happy with the film despite the description but such is life ,but yes unless i sate other wise i do watch all my films the whole way through and of course i get to watch 100s of films id otherwise never ever see.

Tom, I agree 100 percent with your post (#11), as it perfectly articulates my reasoning for now only purchasing true black and white films (and leaving color to other, more consistent technologies).

We must be separated at birth! 😀

Looking at your screenshots Nigel; it's funny how parts of film can fade to red, while other parts retain a good bit of colour. Am I right in thinking this was the one that Michael Crawford made for Disney; I remember on my visit to Pinewood studios he was in the middle of production of a Disney film.

hi robert
yes part one is faded whilst part 2 has good colour very strange pity because its not a bad film and in scope ,yes he did this for one disney ,i remember seeing it at the cinema as a kid .

I guess it's of those rental prints where reel 2 could have been a replacement reel due to damage. A pity reel 1 wasn't damaged too as you'd have a lovely print of the whole thing! It's a daft but enjoyable romp that takes me back to my childhood when I saw it at the Drake Odeon in Plymouth.

yes very true i think it will sell none the less as lots of interest.

All this talk of binning prints elsewhere really annoys me. I'm glad there is a lot of interest in this film. A very good price you started at, and the buyer will think themselves lucky, and get years of pleasure from it. It's not one that I have seen come up before in my 11 years of looking for 16mm prints.

As Dave Guest said, buying a collection is taking a chance. There is not much chance of examining all the films before purchase to cherry pick, the seller wants to get rid of all the films in one go. However, it is one way of buying many films for a relatively cheap orice.
Over the years I bought three collections and did very well, selling off any duplicate titles. However my last big buy was a total disaster, most films being damaged by damp storage. We live and learn.
One day I might say who is this seller was, but, in the meantime, don't ask me.

That's a shame Maurice; I was told by someone who visited Pinedene films, that all the films were stored in a shed at the bottom of the garden, and the seller has no clue what titles he has. You wonder what condition these are in.

You can't buy films that have lived in a shed at the bottom of a garden.
They'd be fit for nothing. Slugs, Snails and Spiders etc crawling all over them quite besides the damp.