Buying used 8mm home movie films can be hard task if you want to do it right. If you aren’t experienced, you can make crucial mistakes that will result in wasted money. And of course – no one wants that!
I will list here in this following few paragraphs a list of potential problems and issues you have to take care of.
First thing to look for is whether the movie film has vinegar smell. What that means? That means that the 8mm and 16mm movie film is becoming useless. It will break down. In short – simply don’t buy it.
Vinegar syndrome is usually a consequence of poor storage. The place where movie film was stored was either too hot or too cold. In both scenarios result can’t be good. That’s why you should always ask whether the use 8mm and 16mm movie films have that smell.
Also, make sure that you’ve checked whether or not the owner of the movie film actually watched it. Otherwise you might end up buying blank film or something completely worthless.
Also, try to buy films with leader. If the 8mm or 16mm movie film doesn’t have leader, you might miss something at the beginning of the film that way.
Also, good advice is to look for movies that were filmed in cities. That way you might get some really good footage. You might get lucky and see someone famous. It like playing lotto. You can’t win if you don’t try, but the odds of winning are small.
In order to save in postage, try to look for someone who will send the films via media mail.