Vintage Lighting Misinformed Sellers
- Thread starterLes
- Start date
JD
Well-Known Member
Amazingly enough, Asbestos is still manufactured, sold, used, and shipped everyday! Just not in the lighting industry that I know of.
http://www.asbestos-attorney.com/asbestos_today.htm
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Just happen to have two of them in my garage at the moment to work on - thank you but please don't do anything to modify their value before I sell them off - talking my retirement fund.
Just kidding, one is going to my museum, the other to JSU's Museum and will never be sold. Big prop sized lights are currently big in the entertainment industry these days though as a side line. Big lights are not or at least are stable in home owner prop lighting sales I believe at this point, and obviously useless for current theater usage. Worth $500.00, perhaps or perhaps not - depends - at least it's not an Inkie for that price.
Short of E-Bay though, how does one base the worth of one's lights these days? How much is a 360Q worth these days? Less as I have found some good buys, and indeed I have found lots for the museum on E-bay in selling at times cheap.
Perhaps less about the does it include the asbesos comment and more as Derek did actual resarch in figuring out what it was in helping the seller. Seller you never know about in listing a product - might have been a bit of research in stopping short but house wife selling off say a husband's gear etc. for concept. Might think it gold and instead a turd. Lots of stuff out there in both ways. At times when you know better, messaging the seller gets a thanks and perhaps adjustment. Rare on the adjustment but such info passed onto the buyer.
As opposed to thinking glass less full, start with the glass half empty. Oops- reverse that in being nice and not expecting some profit based concept. What people sell they are trying to sell so asking if it's an extra charge for the asbestos and other than help don't help. Help given to them though might help.
Les
Well-Known Member
I like to try to make a habit of correcting the seller if I think it will help them make a sale or increase safety in the event that I see something blatantly dangerous or incomplete and the item is being described as functional. They are usually pretty good at identifying frayed cords, etc though.
If the price is too high, I usually won't say anything in letting them learn their own lesson, or whatever else comes of it. If the price is too low, I buy it
. On the other hand, I see a lot of older fixtures like 360's with no stickers where the seller says "no idea who made this or what exactly it is for" and I will tell them the make, model and maybe a few anecdotes.
Lot's of sellers also come across these twistlock plugs and think they're some 220v thing. I try to correct them on that as well, as those things may deter buyers (even though a buyer really should know better).
Maybe it makes me a bad person, but I generally leave the asbestos discussions alone. There's just too much of it out there to catch everything. Mostly I just skim over a lot of older gear anyway, unless they are being sold as a matching set or something you don't see very often. The old Bardwell "Keg Lite" fresnels catch my eye also because I've been looking for one to put on a stand and use as decor. Seems like those guys are pretty well-informed though -- usually wanting around $250 for them. I am trying to close on a house right now, so my eBay purchasing days are on hold.
If the price is too high, I usually won't say anything in letting them learn their own lesson, or whatever else comes of it. If the price is too low, I buy it
. On the other hand, I see a lot of older fixtures like 360's with no stickers where the seller says "no idea who made this or what exactly it is for" and I will tell them the make, model and maybe a few anecdotes. Lot's of sellers also come across these twistlock plugs and think they're some 220v thing. I try to correct them on that as well, as those things may deter buyers (even though a buyer really should know better).
Maybe it makes me a bad person, but I generally leave the asbestos discussions alone. There's just too much of it out there to catch everything. Mostly I just skim over a lot of older gear anyway, unless they are being sold as a matching set or something you don't see very often. The old Bardwell "Keg Lite" fresnels catch my eye also because I've been looking for one to put on a stand and use as decor. Seems like those guys are pretty well-informed though -- usually wanting around $250 for them. I am trying to close on a house right now, so my eBay purchasing days are on hold.
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Yea, they probably are worth that price, when did that brand get invented anyway? Good advice as I have often also done at times. Indeed buy them and I would be curous about what you found in PM. Got some fixtures to trade if you a collecting.
For sure depends on the fixture and it's condition. Value is a concept - just did today a carbon arc PC for $500.00 and probably if E-Bay would sell for over $1K if only a lens and proper history of it were added to it. Good an bad on E-bay, doing one's research often helps find gear one needs.
Gonna be off the market in the coming months given the wealth of gear I have acquired recently.... back in the Spring perhaps
Les
Well-Known Member
You're living the life, Ship! I love going through people's old and forgotten gear and seeing what they'll give me. Been a while since I've encountered a "honeyhole" (American Pickers). Last one was full of rusty 65Q's and 360Q's. Not complaining - those parts are good to have around.
Right now I'm hoping to get working on what I've got, but wouldn't mind picking me up a nice keg-looking 6" or 8" fresnel. The Bardwells I usually see on eBay are pretty nice and most likely worth the price since they are getting bids. Have to wait a few months until any purchases can be made, but it's definitely on my radar.
Still wanting to put the finishing touches on my vintage 360Q's (which are near mint, just need the usual shutters and lamp sockets) and get started on my inkies. Then it's off to digging out my strip lights and seeing what I can do with them. Wouldn't mind having a set of four nice fresnels. Something like the Strand Patt 123's (at least in design and construction). I love the cast aluminum as opposed to rolled sheet metal fixtures for both durability and aesthetics.
Just ran an eBay search for "Bardwell". Some very nice fixtures there, some complete with stand. Of more interest to me was a few 'parts' lights which were missing components such as lenses and internal assemblies. If I could get them for cheap, they'd be great for household retrofit applications. I have some Altman 6" and 8" fresnel lenses that I could use since they'd only be 'for show'.
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Yea, living the life but only early on as if a monk living with like a $2.00 budget for food for dinner at best for years. Talking donuts or burgers with bones in them type budget while staying faithful to the goal, and buying my own tools for work. Something that cannot be conveyed sufficiently to other tech people in also during a recession and without a name for myself in getting jobs... it was also hard times.
20 years later, I'm probably much like you in having the extra cash - some extra to do stuff with, plus the extra time in doing so. Both still working hard in career but time and ability. Stuff under my work table I'm yet to figure out and missing parts, other stuff been working on for months. Other stuff I have worked on endless amounts of. Shutters and lamp sockets for instance I rarely have to replace for instance these days - normally easy to repair and or parts in stock.
But yea... today was a good day in acquiring fianally what I have stessed about if getting or not for months now. Way too much to keep me busy for less than a few months.
20 years later, I'm probably much like you in having the extra cash - some extra to do stuff with, plus the extra time in doing so. Both still working hard in career but time and ability. Stuff under my work table I'm yet to figure out and missing parts, other stuff been working on for months. Other stuff I have worked on endless amounts of. Shutters and lamp sockets for instance I rarely have to replace for instance these days - normally easy to repair and or parts in stock.
But yea... today was a good day in acquiring fianally what I have stessed about if getting or not for months now. Way too much to keep me busy for less than a few months.
Now THIS is something that looks interesting. Someone did a fantastic restoration job.
VINTAGE CUTLER-HAMMER THEATER - STAGE LIGHTING CONTROL | eBay
VINTAGE CUTLER-HAMMER THEATER - STAGE LIGHTING CONTROL | eBay
I just found something on eBay that makes asbestos wires look safe! It's a poorly made adapter to go from a male "suicide plug" to an ungrounded stage pin plug! It's so bad that I had to buy it. 
MALE Stage plug to FEMALE stage pin adapter, for theater lighting. Lot of 2 | eBay
Sounds like the seller may have more available too...
MALE Stage plug to FEMALE stage pin adapter, for theater lighting. Lot of 2 | eBay
Sounds like the seller may have more available too...
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Nothing at all wrong with the device in question. In fact, the description's nomenclature is more correct than yours. (Except that it's a HALF stage plug.
