Category — Just Plain Random Stuff

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

I’m referring of course to auction sites. Seems like only yesterday that I got the CigarBid.com monkey off my back. Yet I have found a brand new excuse to flag 50 auctions at a time, live-snipe at 3 am and otherwise engage in antisocial behavior — vintage 35mm film cameras.

(What does this have to do with cigars? Nothing, which is why it’s listed in the “Just Plain Random Stuff” category. However, I suspect that many cigar nuts who have fallen prey to C-Bid know just what I’m talking about here!)

Props (or blame) to Trixy, who gently mocked my addiction to digital and sold me on the retro-cool factor of 35mm film. My father, himself an excellent photographer with an encyclopedic knowledge of model numbers, also encouraged my bad behavior. Dad egged me on with gems like, “Of course you need a third Minolta XE-7… for parts!”

Two months later I have accumulated more cameras than an Osaka pawn shop — an arsenal of cheap, bulletproof workhorses I barely know how to use.

Why? Because I have an unnatural interest in photography. Because there’s something wrong with me that compels me to “win” other people’s crap. And because vintage cameras are the best deal since those $9 mazos of Padilla Achilles. (Ah, remember those?)

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