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Author Topic: Reels as tables!! Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 07-14-2008 01:49 PM                     I don't know about anyone else, but it really pi**es me off to see perfectly good secondhand movie gear being bought-up to be used as decorative items for so-called 'home movie theatres'! I've been busting my ass recently trying to get hold of some secondhand Goldberg spools without any success. Why? Well, they're all being bought-up and turned into bl**dy tables by some jackass! Now, what on earth would you want with a table made from a movie reel? Apart from anything else, the drinks would keep falling through the flange holes!! It all seems like some sort of patronising insult to what 'real' (pardon the pun) cinema is about! Keep movie reels where they belong (on projectors or rewind benches), not the walls of movie themed bars!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-14-2008 01:54 PM                     I can see your point, yet I look at it as a introduction to the theatre world to those who haven't a clue on what we do or work with. With the growing demand for D-cinema, there is going to be a glutton of these units that we work with that is no longer used. Thus, why not turn them into home collectables and curios to give tribute to the movie industry and attempt to give and keep that 'movie going experience' feeling in the homes? It's simply not an item that you're going to find in any "Big Box" stores to hang on your walls, or place on the floor.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 07-14-2008 02:06 PM                     Trouble is, Monte, I (and I'm sure you too) are still working with this gear. We can't afford to pay the prices for new reels so are dependant on secondhand availability. Turning these items into collectables is helping to fuel the decline of conventional 35mm cinemas like ours! It's nice that we have some sort of appreciative outlet for 'all things cinema' but I'd rather that all that time and effort was put into maintaining working cinema in the first place!  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 07-14-2008 03:28 PM                     All the 35mm stuff is going to be useless in a lot less time than we want to admit. A piece of glass makes a reel a nice conversation piece table, they make interesting clocks too. I've given several broken reels away for those purposes.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 07-14-2008 03:46 PM                        Vididiots will pay a fortune for reels and.....ticket machines!!! Simply the market doing its job! Louis  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-14-2008 07:04 PM                        I love these people! I just sold a useless house reel for $30 on Ebay. It's a good alternative to throwing this stuff in the trash and getting nothing for it. I actually would like to get an Automaticket machine at some point. If anyone (preferably in New England/NY/NJ) wants to get rid of one, I'll haul it away and maybe pay something for it.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 07-14-2008 07:39 PM                        Scott: find an old theatre and buy the Automaticket cheap. I have been getting $1100 for one unit in a case that works! (Video people will buy anything that is expensive and authentic.) Sorry for off topic. Louis  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 07-14-2008 08:00 PM                     I have sold over 50 Goldberg cast reels as displays....14 have been welded into a hand rail located in a lobby of a performing arts center I am also renting reels to festivals since mine are in better condition that some of the well used borrowed from local multiplexes.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-14-2008 09:30 PM                     Andy, Believe it or not...Goldberg sells the reels as Coffee Tables right from the factory! Goldberg is going to try and sell their products in any fashion they can...they could care less how they are used so long as people buy them. They have golden cast reels that are specifically for decoration, "tins" to be used for candy or other gift items and I'd wager that they sell more metal shipping reels for wall decorations than for holding film. I joke with Goldberg that we are probably their best dealer for selling reels that are actually used to show film! We still sell new 16, 35 and 70mm reels all the time. All of ours are for showing movies (or making them up/breaking them down). No ornimintations...but I'd sell em for that if there was a knock at the door for them! Steve  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 07-15-2008 02:03 AM                        Andy, you probably won't like this, but here it is anyway:  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 07-15-2008 03:18 AM                     Paul, I can't wait for twenty years time when they replace all those reels with hard disks!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-15-2008 05:06 AM                     That's pretty cool, Paul - at least they're being used for good use instead of being degraded down to 'anti-flop' spacer reels that TECH uses in their print shipments. Only thing I look for when I get TECH prints is finding the real old, heavy duty shipping reels that have actual date and studio stamping on the flanges - like last year, a reel came in with "MGM" 9-37 stamped on the flange...and I forgot to grab that one as a collector item. Using metal shipping reels is a far thing of the past now since everything is mounted on cores with snap together reel flanges - here in the Americas.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 07-15-2008 08:09 AM                     Over here in the UK we would pay the equivalent of over 650 US dollars for a 24" floating hub 35mm Golberg (new)! That's why I'm always on the look-out for secondhand ones. Because the few inexpensive ones I see, are now being turned into peculiar keepsakes, I'm now really struggling! I'm not too surprised, Steve, that Goldberg are now dealing directly with the 'table making' market. As far as they're concerned, I suppose, it's just another outlet! I suppose I should be getting-out all our old 2000ft spools and buying some gold or silver spray paint! Genuine gold reels for sale anyone?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-15-2008 09:12 PM                     $650USD for a Goldberg 26" floating reel? Really? How do I get in on that racket? You must have killer duties! Steve  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 07-16-2008 03:19 AM                     Yes, Steve, welcome to Rip Off Britain! I was slightly inaccurate in quoting over 650 USD for a 26" reel. I was actually refering to a 28" reel! UK price for above item 295.00 UK Pounds plus VAT (Value Added Tax at 17.5%). This makes a total of 346.00 UK Pounds! Convert this to USD and you get a grand total of 694.00 USD! Even allowing for duties and shipping, this is some mark-up! A lot of the time, the prices quoted in the US (in USD, of course) translate, over here, directly into the same figures in UK pounds! Now, I'm no mathematician but something is going wrong here! An item which costs 40.00 USD in the US should not be marked-up as costing 40.00 UK Pounds in the UK!! What has happened to the exchange rate? Anyway, to cut a long story short, if you roughly double the prices you are paying for items over in the US, you get an idea of what we are paying here - certainly, at least, for Goldberg reels!  |  IP: Logged

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