What do you do with all your junk? I don’t mean the stuff that’s really worth something. I’m talking about things you’ve accumulated that aren’t individually what it would cost to sell them on eBay and ship them. Things like old cassette players, power adaptors for you-can’t-remember-what, ear buds from long-dead iPods, etc. Like you, I’ve got a bundle of this junk, and I need to get rid of it — to make room for more junk. But I don’t want to just throw it into the garbage and have it end up in a landfill. I’d rather give it to someone else who will throw it into their garbage and have it end up in a landfill.
Is there a website for this or a way to sell it on eBay? I’m happy to photograph and inventory it, but I need to sell it in large tranches — sorta like junk bonds. Got any ideas?
In the ’60s and ’70s I was a fairly serious although amateur photographer. Then, for nearly three decades, I just stopped. I was going to write “I don’t know why” but the dates correspond to the years during which I started and ran a software company. I guess I was just too busy working. During those years, my trusty Nikon F gathered dust and any pictures I took were with the point-and-shoot cameras (film and then digital) I bought for my wife.
But in 2008 we started to prepare for a trip to Kenya, and I got back into it. Santa Claus brought me a Nikon D90, so I had ten months to learn how to use it before the Africa trip. I read all I could about the current crop of lenses and ended up renting a few from BorrowLenses.com, an excellent service. In the six months since returning from Kenya, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures, learning more and more about Lightroom 2 and Photoshop and buying more lenses and other gadgets, new and used. The cost of those lenses now dwarfs what Santa spent for that D90 body, but I really like my current collection:
- Nikkor 18-200m f/3.5-5.6G AF-S ED VR (the upgraded kit lens for the D90)
- Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF (a great portrait and general-purpose lens, which is like a 75mm on a full-frame camera)
- Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 DC HSM (to cover the wide-angle end of the spectrum)
- Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G AF-S ED VR Micro (a terrific 1:1 macro lens, also good for portraits)
- Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S ED VR II (cost a bundle, but an amazing lens)
No longer do I have any excuses for not having great photos. Now I’ve got to learn to live up to the quality of the glass.