Someone stockpiles Cameflex motors

Aapo Lettinen · July 9, 2020

I am following eBay listings for various camera models multiple times a day and I have noticed couple of times in a row that whenever there is any kind of spare Cameflex motors on sale, someone immediately buys them in only couple of hours.

The weird thing is that they never seem to resurface again in eBay or elsewhere. Not repaired, not as a part of a larger camera package. So it seems that it is not a reseller trying to make some profit by purchasing for peanuts and then selling for higher price. These cameras are pretty rare for people to actually shoot with so I can't imagine a single person really needing tons of motors for any real world use.

To me it seems that someone really purchases these motors just to fill their inventory with them for some unknown reason. Does someone really collect just the bare motors without cameras?

Because I have seen something like 10 motors go in an instant and never coming back in one form or another.

Pretty sad thing for persons who would want to purchase a Cameflex kit but all of them lack the original motor and there is no motors available because someone somewhere is sitting on a huge pile of motors which don't seem to ever be used for anything ?

Aapo Lettinen · July 9, 2020

the thing is, actual Cameflex kits are rarely sold. Or the camera bodies. Someone just buys the bare motors and nothing else. That is some weird behaviour by my opinion

Zack Armstrong · July 9, 2020

Folks like this are hastening the death of film. Hoarding all the gear, not using and not making it a little easier to get in the hands of the next generations. I see this happening with all kinds of 16/35mm gear. A lot of them see themselves as collectors and want to sell at insane prices. They are real stinkers.