I don’t usually waste my precious moments on electronic items in box lots at auction. Most times, they are old and obsolete, and have lost their raison d’etre. They’ve had their glory years, many revolutionary in their day but in our digital world, they are anachronisms.
That was exactly the case with a box of stuff I encountered recently. I dug down into the box anyway – I’m just curious that way – and it was like opening up a time capsule from half a century ago. I found a Polaroid Land Camera, a Sony transistor radio, a 35mm Yashica camera, a Texas Instruments calculator and a reel-to-reel tape player that actually piqued my interest.
Down in the bottom was a small box held together with so much masking tape that I could hardly see the name on the top. “Leitz Germany Synchronblitzer,” it said, and I knew instantly that it had some connection to the crown prince of cameras, Leica. Even though I didn’t know what the heck a synchronblitzer was. The box contained one attachment that I recognized – a fan-like reflector for a camera flash – and another I did not – a cylinder with an opening at one end with a flashbulb.
I bought the box of items so I could figure out the identity of the Leitz accessory and to see what else was inside it. I figured I could easily get the whole thing for 5 bucks, but when the bidding started high and dropped low, a buyer directly in front of me raised his hand for the bid. Then I watched as he and another auction-goer went at it in incremental increases of $2.50 each until he dropped out at around $10.
So, then I stepped in and got the box for less than $20. I asked the bidder in front of me if there was anything in particular he wanted in the box. He was curious, he said, about the reel to reel.
So was I. The leatherette case on the recorder was filthy with dust and dirt, and bore the name “Stuzzi.” I’d never heard of it and couldn’t wait to find out more about it. Practically everything in the box was dirty. In the past, I’ve worn rubber gloves to keep from putting my bare hands on items that had traveled from and through who knows what.
I removed each of the items from the box, dusted them off with some paper towels I had retrieved from the bathroom, examined them and laid them out on a counter. All were remnants, vintage collectibles that were of very little use now.
Here’s what was in the box. How many of these items do you remember?
Polaroid J66 Land Camera in tan case
No one uses these big bulky cameras anymore – well, not a lot of folks, I presume. They are more collectibles and they do sell on eBay, if not for much money. Polaroid made many types of land cameras that developed film on the spot inside the camera itself. The name came from the camera’s inventor and Polaroid founder Edwin H. Land.
The first of his instant film cameras was the 95, which was released in 1948. The most beautiful of them is the SX-70, which is still a very desirable camera. The J66 was produced between 1961 and 1963, and sold for $89.50. It was said to have been a popular and affordable camera.
Sony 8 transistor AM-FM radio with case
The radio still had a battery in its chamber, and the thing had not corroded, which is usually the case with batteries left for ages in electronics. And the radio still worked. The owner had scratched his name on the front, apparently to mark it as his and no one else’s.
The first transistor radios came out in 1954 and these little hand-held devices were immediately a hit. The first one was made by Texas Instruments and the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates of Indiana. Texas Instruments made the transistors, and Regency made the radio – the Regency TR1. Meanwhile, a Japanese company was also venturing into transistor radios. In 1955 it entered the U.S. market with the TR-55 along with a new name for its company that Americans could pronounce – Sony.
The Sony radio at auction was made in the 1970s. It still is usable, coming in handy in case of a hurricane or snowstorm if the power goes out. I have a larger version that uses both batteries (and AC power) that I kept by my side during Hurricane Sandy two years ago.
Yashica FR II 35mm camera
This type of camera – 35mm’s by Canon, Nikon, Minolta and other makers – comes up pretty often at auction, seemingly after having been put away decades ago and forgotten. I bought my first 35mm Canon AE-1 in the 1970s and it’s probably still in the back of a closet – without batteries, of course.
Some of the 35mm’s sell well, because there are photography purists out there who believe that the cameras still produce some of the best photos. The rest of us, though, want easy; we want to just point and shoot with a small hand-held camera or our smartphones.
This camera was made between 1977 and 1981, and Yashica designed it for the novice photographer as a point-and-shoot.
Texas Instruments SR-10 calculator
There was a time when Texas Instruments was a big name in electronics . You don’t hear the name much anymore, but it still makes calculators and other products.
The SR-10 was the second calculator made by the company in the early 1970s. It was called a Slide Rule calculator, which probably made it revolutionary when it was introduced in 1972 – and pricey at $149.95.
It had “semi-scientific functions, comparable to the capabilities of a mechanical slide rule, though initially at about ten times the cost,” as one site noted. “There followed from Texas Instruments, and many other companies, more models of electronic slide rules, with increasing capability and reducing price until within a couple of years the mechanical slide rule became obsolete.”
The calculator came with rechargeable batteries and a small charger. The box at auction contained a large separate charger – still with its Radio Shack price tag of $12.95 – that was capable of charging batteries of various sizes.
Stuzzi Magnette Tape Recorder
The Magnette was a portable battery-operated tape recorder. “8 LBS. of precision that’s always ‘On the Go,'” touts a brochure accompanying the recorder. The recorder was suggested to be used at radio and TV stations and recording studios, for field interviews, conferences, and voice and music study. ‘The perfect traveling companion,” according to the brochure, which showed a family with the son holding a model boat, the mom carrying a package, and the dad lugging a golf bag and the recorder.
Made in Austria in the late 1950s, the Magnette sold for $269.50.
Leitz Synchronblitzer
I found out that the synchronblitzer was a flash unit for a Leica camera. Since Leica cameras are still very popular, I can only assume that this flash is still very functional.
