I have recently been scouring eBay, in search of some 8mm silent digests that I currently don’t have. It’s been a couple of years since I have seriously looked. I have seen, what I thought were some ridiculous asking prices for films from the sci-fi/horror category. They have always been the most popular with collectors it seems, but they MUST be in high demand these days! I took a look at some actual sales then. According to these selling prices, I suppose the sellers know what they’re doing. Here are some examples of current selling prices for some films that I already own, and paid considerably less for, about three to four years ago. These are mostly silent, and some prices are even for the Headline Editions (50’)! Am I out of touch with what things cost these days, or do these prices sound a bit high?

Near the bottom are two Headline Editions.

Tim, i think it may be worth contacting Barry at Indi 8, he has many silent films in both super 8 and standard 8. I think Paul Foster also has some silent's.
While ebay is a fairly good source for films, unfortunately, many sellers start their prices off at utter ridiculous prices. These are to be avoided. You may well have seen many threads which highlights stupid listing's, like 400ft colour sound films for £5000. Yes thats five thousand!!.
Aside rare titles, i cannot see why silent films would sell for high sums, it seems odd to me.

Thank you for your response Tom. :-) I have indeed seen some of the other threads on this topic. Those buyers paying close to $80 for silent digests must be new to the hobby, and not realize how inflated those prices are! I pay what I feel comfortable with. I feel that I have a sense of what is a fair price to pay. Younger folks sometimes think because an item is ‘old’, that it MUST be worth a lot! When I started the hobby, I was paying only a few dollars for a digest. That was not too long ago. So now, I am experiencing ‘sticker shock’! :-)

Yes i know what you mean. I have paid more than i normally would for film in the past, but these were titles i wanted for a long time.
There are definatly people selling on there that obviously think they have a real antique, as always, the best ones that stand out a mile are those who describe a reel of film as a reel of tape, there there's the ones who start the description as, "vintage" or "antique". And of course the one to steer clear of is, looks to be in good condition but i dont have the equipment to test. Its certainly a minefield.

I think some silent films have been whats termed 'cult' movies and seem to appeal to all ages and Horror films are cult as well. Difficult to explain. I think sellers just see the words 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' and put a high price on it even though its silent version of a sound film as they know horror films will sell. Some silent films seem to have a following. A good example of this is Metropolis which collectors go mad for when it comes up for sale even if there are no screenshots or the film hasn't been run. Metropolis is an ok film but not brilliant, given the hype at the time (I've seen it in edited form but don't really want to watch the full length). It could just be the rarity value that collectors are willing to pay a high price for. As for the above adverts, I do find it strange the prices people will pay for just a castle film (which I believe was sold in the thousands).

Graham S

I guess if people find the sound version they can still run it on a silent machine.

Quote: Tom Photiou wrote in post #7

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I guess if people find the sound version they can still run it on a silent machine.

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You can add the 3 Stooges to that list - silent 200 foot editions - I used to be able to get them for less than $10 shipped, but no more. That was about 10 - 15 years ago.

I was lucky enough to get most of the cream-of-the-crop Universal/Castle horror digests about 25 years ago, in sound, mounted on two 1200 foot reels for $100. Some were missing main titles, but I didn't care. It had FRANKENSTEIN (400 foot), BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (400 foot), SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (included the 400 foot with parts of the 200 foot version edited in), FRANKENSTEIN'S NEW BRAIN (200 foot), FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (400 foot), HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (200 foot), DOOM OF DRACULA (200 foot), HOUSE OF DRACULA (200 foot), and THE WOLFMAN'S CURE (200 foot.)

It was a great deal then, and an even better one now.

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The price of most gauges of film seems to have got more and more expensive as said,especially on flea bay.
One reason may be ,and this is only my thoughts as I have family at various colleges studying,that every art college now seems to offer film studies,production just about anything to do with the moving image.From what I understand students are required to study all gauges and re expected to do do so in a practical manner,therefore they require projectors ,films etc,and where do you get said items from......fleebay.
As I say only my thoughts but I know from talking to some they dont only use the film to be shown as it was intended but also for scratching on the frames to make some strange sort of picture.
Obviously students are not responsible for all the increase in price but I do believe they now add to the growing number of people who seem to have to have old films not as collectors.
I may be wrong and I stand to be corrected but I believe there are some people who buy films not as collectors.

Actually, I feel the prices in general have gone down -- except for the titles mentioned above and some others -- STAR WARS, etc.

Despite those silent Stooges going up, they are not ridiculously priced. There seems to be an endless supply of them, too. They had been of interest to me solely because of their low prices way back then, and the fact that many titles had not been released in Super 8 sound. In the past year I got great deals on no less than 3 titles in the full-length sound editions that were released by Columbia's home movie division.

Most of what I collect (like Laurel and Hardy and others that I mentioned in another recent thread), has gone way down in price. The down side is that I have almost everything in L&H already, and if and when I've tried to sell, I've felt like I was practically giving them away compared to what I paid for them.

Interesting about the students -- even if only 10% become true hobbyists, it would be great for the hobby in general. Makes it less likely that the powers-that-be who run the bulb-making companies won't be hard-pressed to discontinue yet more of the bulbs necessary to keep our hobby alive. I have several projectors waiting in line on my work bench for lamp upgrades from incandescent to halogen. Older silent machines, but I get satisfaction in keeping them running in perfect order.