NSA '96 -- Buying and selling

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rochester '96 -- Buying and selling

Many go to the NSA conventions to find things to buy.  And so do I!  

There was a lot of talk about room hopping and all the good things that 
were found.  My story is different.  I arrived Thursday afternoon, did 
the hopping thing but did not find much in terms of good stuff for low 
money.  Could it be because it was already too late?  Maybe...

I did plenty of hopping, but for another reason... To meet and talk to 
people.  Dalia's room (or, better, luxury suite) at 1200 was the place 
to be if you wanted to see and talk to people.  In addition to Dalia and 
family of 3-d soldiers, you could find some of the best names in 3-d at 
one time or another.  Plus, you were offered desert (mmm, I loved the 
carrot cake) without even having to buy anything! ;)  John Dukes was 
there demonstrating his previewing invention.  I was impressed and 
bought a couple for myself and friends.  I look forward to trying it in 
my next roll of film.  

Books, images, equipment, you could find anything and everything at 
Dalia's room...  Also on the 12th level was Jon Golden's room where one 
could find Jon demonstrating the latest RBT equipment.  The setup of a 
Wollensak viewer in a VM stand with a Dr. T. PS-2 power supply was very 
clever and was used to show some amazing Golden 3-d slides mounted in 
RBT (of course!) mounts.  Ron Labbe was there too, so you could not go 
wrong by stopping by...  And then there was the good old Harry Poster 
and Anna, Harry Richards and many other dealers and semi-dealers... You 
did not have to buy... Just stop and chat...

For me there was not much of interest in terms of cheap usable 3-d 
equipment at the trade show.  Tim Smith mentioned the many red button 
viewers going for $100 average price.  I did not find one to buy at these 
prices, even though I was at the trade show at 7:00 am.  Either I was 
not paying much attention or Dalia and her army or radio-controlled 3-d 
soldiers (that was great Tim!) were there first!!!

Price-wise, I found prices to be high, higher than I am used to from 
local photo trade shows.  Realist 3.5s were going for $150 or higher.  
We are not talking about cleaned and serviced Realists here... We are 
talking about Realists that either had obvious problems or needed a good 
cleaning.  I guess I was crazy to let those good serviced Realists go 
for $100-$135... I'll make sure that this does not happen again! ;) ;)

There were many stereo views and boxed sets.  Prices were high too.  
Incomplete set 97/100 of Japan without a box priced at $400!  (I have an 
incomplete set of 60/100 that I bought for $50 in 1988)  100 boxed cards 
from the Keystone Tour of the World set, priced at $200.  Again, I was 
out of my mind to give away all these cards from the Tour of the World, 
India, Palestine and others, many for around $1 a card or less...

For collectors, there was a Contura stereo camera priced at $3000.
But no Banana Panorama made in Havana or the ingenious cow spy camera 
(from Bloomberg's show).

The prices were high but the people were buying... I tried to find a 
Realist 3.5 for a friend on Sunday morning and there were very few 
choices.  The room hosting the trade show was huge but I am not sure if 
the number of transactions was as high as in past conventions...

Oh, I almost forgot... There were plenty of frosted halogen bulbs in the
trade show... ;) ;)

I am thinking... maybe we should pass a law that no transactions are 
allowed before noon on Thursday... That will give working folks a chance 
to find some of the room hopping bargains without having to camp around 
the hotel a week earlier... What do you think?  ;)

George Themelis


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