Are stereo slides worth anything ???

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since Marc offered to give stereo slides for free, rather than throw them 
away, it is time to present my thoughts on the value of stereo slides.  

Die-hard print makers, like my good friend Bill Walton (he pretends to take 
slides too so he can "preach" the superiority of prints -- Bill, I am 
kiddding!!!), claim that there is no market for selling stereo slides, only 
stereo prints.  I disagree.  

There is a market for slides and I am a buyer and seller.  Prices are lower 
than buying/selling prints mainly because of cost, size and appearance.  
The big advantage (for the seller) of prints is that they are copies of the 
original and the maker retains the negatives and the option to make more 
copies.  With slides in most cases each piece is an original, which is an 
advantage for the buyer since he is buying one-of-a-kind images.

I collect stereo slides in Realist format from the 50s to current work.  

** I will pay $0.10/slide for any size lot of run-of-the-mill stereo slides 
with the option to accept or refuse the entire lot.  

** I will pay from $1 to $5 ea. to buy good quality stereo slides with the 
option to accept or refuse _each_ individual slide.

Similarly, I have decided to sell some of my work and take advantage of my 
trips to Greece and my experience and use of good stereo equipment.  I am 
thinking of the following price scheme:

** $1 for "reject" slides mounted in bare aluminum mounts.  Since I only 
keep a few slides per roll, my idea of "rejects" might not exactly match 
that of the general population.  In the past I have thrown these slides 
away but now I am thinking of selling them to recover part of the cost, 
which is more than $1/slide (note: only the cost of the mount is $0.25)

** $3 for good slides (Dr. T "keepers") mounted in aluminum mounts plus 
cardboard foldover, properly labelled, etc.

** $5 for good slides (some at acceptance level in PSA competitions) 
mounted in glass.

I would like feedback regarding these ideas and prices.  Do they sound 
reasonable?  I am open to trading slides of similar quality in a one-to-one 
basis.  There are many people in many parts of the world and we could all 
build an exciting inventory of slides based on such exchanges.  

The idea of stereo slide exchange was proposed in the past in photo-3d.  I 
was quick to reject it but now it makes perfect sense!  In our last trip to 
Greece I took over 500 stereo slides.  2/3 of them ended up in the trash (I 
only kept 150 and was pushing myself to throw out more for a target of 100 
keepers!)   Perhaps a good home could be found for some of those slides... 
Plus, with a possible slide exchange in mind, I can try and shoot even more 
pictures, including some extra $5 ones!

Your thoughts please!!!

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George Themelis, mailto:DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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