The Camera Markets - Still Dancing

The Workshop Camera Club's Photomarket is an event that has been a part of Perth's photographic scene for over 25 years. I've attended lots of them - sometimes as a buyer and sometimes as a seller. Each one is completely unique and new... and entirely the same as the last one. This has led to the blindness of familiarity on my part, so I determined to go along this last Sunday and look to see what actually was happening. a. Sellers were rocking up early in the morning with boxes, roller bags, trolleys, and whatever goods they wanted to sell. Some old faces - some new. Those who corral their stock formed an orderly queue and the others just did their best. The Town of Leederville has never been all that helpful with their No Stopping sign, but then they weren't around being officious so it didn't matter. The Workshop Camera Club people probably get there at the crack of dawn - the sellers are let in at 7:30. The buyers have to cool their heels and wait until 8:30, but at least there is a shaded gazebo to do it in. b. It costs very little to get in - if you're a seller a table is $ 15 and a buyer passes the entry desk for $5. I'm not sure what the warning on the sign is for because generally the only risk you run is the bit when you persuade yourself that you need your 17th Ilford Sportsman... c. The aisles are orderly, and the buyers courteous to one another. They occasionally collide as the several streams of gawkers pass both clockwise and counter-clockwise with their eyes on the tables instead of where they are going, but the pace is not frantic and the impacts are low-key. d. The sellers are accommodated with chairs to sit down on, which is a darn good thing. Dealing from 8:30 to noon on your feet - if your feet have not been hardened by years of retail service - can be tough on the tooties. e. There is still a very good selection of very strange gear here in Perth. I don't say that we haven't been a hub of technical progress over those 25 years, but stuff has gravitated here that might not have got out of the cartons elsewhere. And people have bought it, tamed it, learned it, used it, and in some cases made a living with it. The makers may have gone from the scene but the products still soldier on. I'm not being flippant about this - I worked at CE behind the counter - and up and down the stairs - for nearly 8 years and for a fair number of those years I fell over more odd gear than you've had hot dinners. Some of it was marginally useful ( there's an euphemism...) and some of it was extremely useful. Some of it was never exploited to its full potential. A lot of things just needed to meet the right people to become the best thing since sliced bread. Hopefully, that spirit has also prevailed at the Photomarkets. But take a caution. I've sold lots of things at the markets over the years and I can happily say that I never sold bad goods. I was canny enough when I bought things not equip myself with junk. I might occasionally have saddled myself with something that was unnecessary, but it was never unworkable - and whoever bought the stuff I didn't need got working gear. But such is sometimes not the case. You have to be able to be able to analyse a piece of equipment on-site and determine that it really works - not just hope that it does. Photomarket sales carry the caveat that they are not practically protected by state government legislation or manufacturer's goodwill in the same way that retail sales are. With the increasing complexity of the digital age, buyers have to ask themselves if the risk of buying hidden trouble is worth it. f. One thing that is worth it, and always has been, is the coffee and cake stall run by the Workshop Camera Club. $ 3.00 to take your pick of fresh baked goods and hot coffee, and at 9:00 in the morning with the sound of shutters in the air, that is a very welcome thing.