# Stuff you love that’s worthless



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I had a 6x9 cm dichroic head color enlarger with transformer, halogen lamp, and all the trimmings. Perfect condition. Very costly in its day. Those who know this stuff will know what this is.

No camera or photo equipment shop would take it, even on consignment. Called around to a few schools with photography courses to donate it, and there was no interest at all. Last week I took it apart and put it in the garbage can.

How about you? Is there something you have that you treasured in its day but now is worthless?

(aside from your LP collections of course!)


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

KenOC said:


> I had a 6x9 cm dichroic head color enlarger with transformer, halogen lamp, and all the trimmings. Perfect condition. Very costly in its day. Those who know this stuff will know what this is.
> 
> No camera or photo equipment shop would take it, even on consignment. Called around to a few schools with photography courses and there was no interest at all. Last week I took it apart and put it in the garbage can.
> 
> ...


Yes. My first 35mm slr camera, a fine Pentax S1A, first marketed in the 1960s. No light meter, no frills, but the damn thing still works perfectly. I just cannot face dumping the Pentax and my numerous redundant lenses and other otiose photo-desiderata.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

KenOC said:


> I had a 6x9 cm dichroic head color enlarger with transformer, halogen lamp, and all the trimmings. Perfect condition. Very costly in its day. Those who know this stuff will know what this is.
> 
> No camera or photo equipment shop would take it, even on consignment. Called around to a few schools with photography courses to donate it, and there was no interest at all. Last week I took it apart and put it in the garbage can.
> 
> ...





Pat Fairlea said:


> Yes. My first 35mm slr camera, a fine Pentax S1A, first marketed in the 1960s. No light meter, no frills, but the damn thing still works perfectly. I just cannot face dumping the Pentax and my numerous redundant lenses and other otiose photo-desiderata.


I feel your pain. The last assignment I worked with film cameras was in 2005, and even then it was "just because." It bothers me that once I was an expert film camera and darkroom whiz, but now I have to stroke just to keep up with the kids. In the intervening years, digital photography has closed the quality gap in color, almost in B&W and is much easier and less time consuming to deal with, both in image tweaking and transmitting to clientele, but it no longer makes me happy. Of course, so does no longer being in my mid thirties/forties  . But isn't that just the age old complaint?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I have a 10-inch-long piece of railroad track sitting in my basement that was there when I bought the house. Can't bring myself to get rid of it. It's not like you can just go to the store and buy a piece of railroad track you know.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

^^^ similarly, I was also left something by a previous owner when I moved house - a dozen 12"x12" sheets of plastic modelling material. I've kept them for 34 years (and they have moved house with me 8 or 9 times) but I still haven't thought of a use for them .... and yet, they seem to good to throw away


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

I collect-- accumulate is more accurate-- the super cheap classical records that used to be sold in dime, drug, and grocery stores; almost never in record stores. The jackets were flimsy, prone to splitting, and useful liner notes were almost nonexistent. The LPs were pressed on inferior vynl and intrusive surface noise was the rule. The records were intended as impulse purchases and were usually stored in a revolving wire rack at the end of the aisle or near the checkout lane.

One thing I have learned is that the same performance was ofen circulated among various labels with multiple pseudonymous names for conductor and orchestra. Scheherazade in particular was prone to this " adaptive reuse". There are rarely "treasures" among the performances which were often indifferently recorded and performed although that bothers me not at all. With the help of a couple of websites and my own experience I am gradually untangling the provenance of many of the recordings. 

Incidentally, the early years of the CD saw some of the same skullduggery. I have the same recording of Scheherazade (!) under different conductor and orchestra names on at least three CDs.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Please don't laugh, but ... I have a Betamax. I can't bring myself to chuck it.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

I've got a small piece of railwaytrack too ! We should form some sort of society.
My intention is to shape it into a cute little anvil, but not sure I will live long enough; the project is pretty low on the bucketlist.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Jos said:


> I've got a small piece of railwaytrack too ! We should form some sort of society.
> My intention is to shape it into a cute little anvil, but not sure I will live long enough; the project is pretty low on the bucketlist.
> 
> View attachment 87510


You'll be able to join the chorus of _Il trovatore_.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Jos said:


> I've got a small piece of railwaytrack too ! We should form some sort of society.
> My intention is to shape it into a cute little anvil, but not sure I will live long enough; the project is pretty low on the bucketlist.
> 
> View attachment 87510


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

My railroad tie piece is not fancy, just a short section with rough edges where it was torch cut from the rest of the rail.

But speaking of railroad tie music, did you know that the way to tell the difference between a cast iron and forged steel automotive crankshaft is that you set it on a carpet and ding it with a metal object such as a wrench. If it goes thunk, it is cast. If it rings like a bell, it is forged. Good to know if you are ever trying to buy a used crankshaft for a high performance automobile engine.

Now that brings up another treasure, a Volkswagen Beetle crankshaft I have sitting on a stand in my basement. If I were not married, it would be on the living room table. :lol:


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## Guest (Aug 8, 2016)

I have in my attic a cheap plaster bust of Beethoven that I bought many years ago that I painted metallic blue (an Airfix paint you could buy in addition to the assemble-yourself WWII Spitfire airplane kit...). I had it on my desk for years and once knocked it over. So, to now be more precise, I have in my attic a metallic-blue cheap plaster bust of Beethoven minus his nose, but I'll be damned if I ever throw it away! Total tat, but I love that crappy old bust.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

You never know. I have a collection of old $2 Canadian bills. They were "worthless", as in most retailers would no longer accept them, most young cashiers not even aware of their existence, but last year the Canadian banks announced that they would begin buying them back at $20 a piece. I'm still hanging on to them.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Couchie said:


> You never know. I have a collection of old $2 Canadian bills. They were "worthless", as in most retailers would no longer accept them, most young cashiers not even aware of their existence, but last year the Canadian banks announced that they would begin buying them back at $20 a piece. I'm still hanging on to them.


One time when I went to cut my hair the Arab hairdresser did not accept five kronor coins from the time of the former king despite that they are legal tender and they turn up all the time. That was the last time I cut my hair at that saloon.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Well some Canadian businesses are starting to not accept cash, period. I should start preserving fresh bills from the banks now because cash probably won't exist at all in a few decades.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Couchie said:


> Well some Canadian businesses are starting to not accept cash, period. I should start preserving fresh bills from the banks now because cash probably won't exist at all in a few decades.


Yes it is very important for the banks to know everything you buy.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Well some Canadian businesses are starting to not accept cash, period. I should start preserving fresh bills from the banks now because cash probably won't exist at all in a few decades.


Why not Canadian Maple Leaf gold bullion coins. That is real money. Paper is not real money but that the government forces it to be accepted.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Sloe said:


> Yes it is very important for the banks to know everything you buy.


That and we are going to have to set up the begging homeless with contactless electronic payment systems.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Florestan said:


> Why not Canadian Maple Leaf gold bullion coins. That is real money. Paper is not real money but that the government forces it to be accepted.


Gold and paper are not the real money anymore. The real money is electronic ledgers of transactions maintained by trusted financial institutions and held accountable (ostensibly) by governments. Bitcoin operates on this principle directly, its value is entirely derived based on faith in the integrity of the decentralized transactions ledger.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Of zero material value but couldn't bear to throw it away??
This thread!


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

My Pokémon. 15 characters.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

A picture of me and my youngest son celebrating wildly at the Etihad minutes after Sergio Aguero scored that goal to win City their first title in 44 years and one I thought I'd never live to see.


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## Scopitone (Nov 22, 2015)

Merl said:


> A picture of me and my youngest son celebrating wildly at the Etihad minutes after Sergio Aguero scored that goal to win City their first title in 44 years and one I thought I'd never live to see.


That's not "worthless".

It's "priceless".


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> How about you? Is there something you have that you treasured in its day but now is worthless?


A attic full off childhood memories .


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

An old, half-rusted away, two-man saw that we found buried under a stump in our back yard.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Merl said:


> A picture of me and my youngest son celebrating wildly at the Etihad minutes after Sergio Aguero scored that goal to win City their first title in 44 years and one I thought I'd never live to see.





Scopitone said:


> That's not "worthless".
> 
> It's "priceless".


Definitely what Scopitone said!


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

TalkingHead said:


> I have in my attic a cheap plaster bust of Beethoven that I bought many years ago that I painted metallic blue (an Airfix paint you could buy in addition to the assemble-yourself WWII Spitfire airplane kit...). I had it on my desk for years and once knocked it over. So, to now be more precise, I have in my attic a metallic-blue cheap plaster bust of Beethoven minus his nose, but I'll be damned if I ever throw it away! Total tat, but I love that crappy old bust.


Reminds me of Fawlty Towers how the British treat the Germans: Spitfire on Beethoven


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Scopitone said:


> That's not "worthless".
> 
> It's "priceless".


Yep. I have a favorite stuffed animal that I still love lol. But it's not worthless, it's just priceless. Peter Griffin on Family Guy once confused these terms:

LOIS' FATHER: I'll pay you a million dollars to leave my daughter forever.
PETER: Lois may be worth a million dollars to you, but to me, she's worthless! I love her!

I can't really think of something I have that was once worth more and now isn't...maybe I haven't lived long enough for that. Maybe my Pokemon card collection. But who knows, maybe some day they will be worth a lot more.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Of zero material value but couldn't bear to throw it away??
> This thread!


You can easily skip a thread you know.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Scopitone said:


> That's not "worthless".
> 
> It's "priceless".


its not "worthless" .... it cost them hundreds of millions to 'buy' that title :devil:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Scopitone said:


> That's not "worthless".
> 
> It's "priceless".


One the other hand, the price was right and well deserved.


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