For the seller

Are old cameras worth anything?

Some old cameras are worth a great deal, most are worth less than people hope, and a few surprise everyone. What decides it is the model, the condition of that particular camera, and whether anyone is looking for it right now. Age on its own counts for very little.

Almost every family has a camera in a drawer, and almost everyone assumes it must be worth something because it is old. Sometimes it is. Here is how to tell, without paying anyone and without taking it apart.

What makes an old camera valuable

The maker and the model. Leica, Hasselblad, Rolleiflex and Contax hold their value because they were built to last and are still used. So are some cameras nobody paid much attention to at the time: the premium 35mm compacts of the 1990s, like the Contax T2, Nikon 35Ti, Ricoh GR1, Konica Hexar AF and Yashica T4, are now sought after in a way nobody expected.

The condition of this camera, not of the model. Two cameras of the same model can be very different things. What matters is whether the shutter fires at the right speeds, whether the meter works, and whether the lens is clear. Scuffs on the body matter much less than haze in the glass.

Whether it is complete. The original lens, the box, the manual, the case. With some models the box matters almost as much as the camera.

Demand, now. Film photography has come back, and it has come back unevenly. Cameras people want to shoot with are wanted again; cameras people only want to look at mostly are not.

What is usually worth little

Being honest about this saves a lot of disappointment. Most box cameras and folding cameras from the first half of the century, 110 and APS cameras, early digital cameras and the plastic point-and-shoots of the 1980s and 1990s are rarely sought after. Many heavy 35mm SLRs from the 1970s and 1980s are wanted more for the lens on the front than for the body. There are exceptions in every group, which is why the model name matters more than the category.

How to find out what your camera is

  1. Find the exact model. The name is usually on the front or the top plate. Write down every word and number, including the lens markings.
  2. Look it up. Many of the models we see most often have their own page in The models: what they were, what goes wrong with them, and what collectors look for.
  3. Compare like with like. A tested camera with a clear lens and a working meter is a very different thing from one described as untested.
  4. Look through the lens towards a bright window, from the back. Clear is good. A milky haze, fine threads or spots are common and matter.

Please do not oil anything, force a stuck lever or clean the glass with whatever is in the kitchen. Most of the damage we see was done in the last week before a camera was sold.

If it is one camera, and if it is a shelf

For one camera, the steps above are worth an evening, and selling it on its own is usually the right route.

For a shelf of them, doing this forty times is a different matter. That is where we come in. We buy whole collections and take all of it, including the pieces nobody would want on their own. How that works is on our Pass it on page.

Short answers

Are old film cameras worth money?

Some are worth a lot, most a little. The model and the condition decide it, not the age.

Is an old camera worth more if it still has film in it?

No, but do not open it. Exposed film from decades ago can sometimes still be developed, and it might be the most valuable thing in the camera to you.

Should I get my camera serviced before I sell it?

Usually not, except on the most valuable models. A buyer who knows cameras would rather see it as it is.

Why we keep the story

A collection is not a pile of objects.

It is years of somebody deciding what was worth keeping, and sold off piece by piece that is the first thing to go. So before anything is sold, we sit down with you and record it: how it started, what the best of it was, the piece that got away. That story stays on every object with the collector's name, and goes with it to whoever keeps it next. You get a page where you can see where each piece ended up.

Three ways the story gets recorded

On camera, where it lives. We travel to the collection and film it properly: you talking about how it started, the room and the shelves as they are, the objects in your hands. Wherever in the world the collection happens to be.

On a call. If the collection is sent to us rather than collected, we have the same conversation over a video call and write it up, with one photograph of the shelf as it stood.

In writing. If you would rather not talk at all, answer a handful of questions in your own time and in your own words. It goes on the objects exactly as you wrote it.

It never changes anything else, and you can always say no to it. Some conversations run ten minutes, some an afternoon. Read the collections we have taken on

If it is a whole collection

We buy whole collections, not single pieces: one person takes all of it, and the story is kept with every object. Tell us what you have and a person replies within two days.

How passing it on works, in full

1The collection
What is in it
Pick everything that applies. Something else opens a line to tell us.
Roughly how many pieces
A guess is fine. Nobody has counted.
How would you describe it
There is no wrong answer here, and a lot of ordinary is a normal collection.
One or two sentences. This is the question we care about most.
2Where it is, and how it could reach us
Town and country is enough.
How could it reach us
Unseend is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Sending and bringing are as welcome as a visit; if it is sent, we pay the freight and insure it.
When does it need to be gone
No hurry is a good answer. It lets us plan a visit properly.
3Condition and photographs
In your own words. Broken, incomplete or untested is fine and is normal; it only needs saying.
Photographs
Three to ten photographs The room and the shelves as they stand. Phone photographs are fine, and a slow walk round on video says more than any of them.Send them to hello@unseend.com
Or attach them to the reply that comes back within two days. Any of them works, and nothing is looked at until a person reads it. Do not clean up first — the shelves as they stand tell us more than a tidy arrangement.
4The number, and the story
A number or a range, whatever you have in mind. You will get an honest answer either way.
Would you tell the story of it
Filmed at the collection wherever it is, on a video call, or written in your own time. It never changes the price.
5How to reach you
The reply comes here, from a person, within two days.
Only if you would rather be called.

Answered within two days, by the person who would come, and by email at every step after that. Nothing you send is shared with anyone, and your photographs are deleted if we do not go ahead.

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