Here goes nothin'

Updated October 22, 2024

Hello World,

Welcome to my blog. While far from new to the Internet, this is my first attempt at being active on it rather than just using it for research, selling/buying and entertainment.

Generally, I prefer to be behind the camera. This is Nancy and I at our niece's wedding last year. I bought the first new suit I'm wearing for the wedding. Prior to that, I had a tan summer suit, think: Obama shocks the world by wearing a tan suit! and a black funeral suit. I just don't wear them.

My name is Scott Robb. I live happily married to my second and final wife, Nancy in Northern Virginia. Those of you that read car magazines and bother to read the Letters pages, might have  seen my words or name before. I've been published several times in several magazines that way. I guess they like what I write. I hope that you do too.

I was born and lived my first two weeks in Phoenix, Arizona in 1956. Nancy is eight and a half years my junior. She was born in Puerto Rico and came to Virginia when she was two (nowadays, she says three). We've been deliriously happily married since early 1996. Three fabulous grandsons (now five, plus a granddaughter) have so far entered our lives as a result of two of our four daughters. We have six grown kids between us and our former spouses.

I grew up in California, Kansas, California again, and Colorado. We moved as a family to Virginia in 1974. I've been here since (now for fifty years). Nancy never lived anywhere else since 1967 (or so).

The title of my blog: The Robb Collections was chosen because we both have the "collector's gene" as many of you out there also have. We have both started and eventually stopped collecting numerous things. Below is a partial list, in no particular order:

Me: Old Cameras of all formats (also digital cameras and lenses)
Me: Vintage and high end audio equipment
Her: Beanie Babies
Her: Glass paperweights
Me: HO slot cars and track
Both of us: HO train cars and track
Both of us: Die cast cars of all sizes
Her: Glass bottles
Me: Auto racing posters and photos (NOT NASCAR!)
Me: Chronograph wristwatches
Me: Books
Me: LP records
Both of us: CDs
Me: Movie scores in both formats (soundtracks)
Me: Toy and trainer rifles
Her: Clocks wall and floor standing

I know there's more, but that's all I can recall right now. Starting with the first item, Cameras:

I first decided to start collecting cameras after marrying Nancy. We'd gone to a church bazaar one Fall and I found an old Yashica rangefinder camera. It was only a dollar so I bought it. I knew NOTHING about cameras although I had back in April of that same year I bought my first "real" camera an Olympus OM-10. I repeat: I knew NOTHING about cameras! Even though that camera had a clearly marked ON/OFF switch, it never occurred to me to turn it on! Fortunately, the OM-10 was designed for quick use, it would turn itself on, take the image at the right exposure and shut itself off.

Back to collecting cameras. So, now I had two. We visited dear friends of ours and I mentioned that I was starting a camera collection. Well, Jim (one of our friends) excused himself and came back with a leather something and handed it to me. "What's this?" "Open it and see." I found some snaps and opened a flap and still didn't know what I was looking at. "I still don't know what it is." He removed what turned out to be the leather case and pressed a button. Two barn-type doors popped open and a lens popped out. A long metal rod popped up from the top as well. He showed me that the long rod when pressed down wound the film and set the shutter. He showed me how to fire it and focus as well as the rest. I thanked him for showing me the camera (it's a Voigtlander Vitessa). He said, "No it's yours, for your collection. I have a twin lens camera around here too. Once I find it you can also have it. I carried that Vitessa all over Korea during the war. It never failed me." To say I was flabbergasted would be accurate! Little did I know then what a rare and valuable camera it is.
A while later a package for me from Nancy's Dad in Puerto Rico arrived to my surprise. I called her and she said, "Open it!" Moving the newspaper aside, the first thing I found looked like a pot or pan lid but it had no knob, nor a place for it. Weird. Then I pulled out this big black and chrome OBJECT. I still didn't know what I had, but came across what looked like a latch. Once pressed, the front popped down and there was a lens marked "Linhof". "It's some kind of big camera, honey but I don't know what, yet." "Cool." she said. So further manipulations and I had it all open. Turned out to be a Busch Pressman 4" by 5" sheet film press camera. It has a S-K lens in a Linhof mount. It too is a valuable camera. If you remember scenes in old movies of press guys with these huge cameras with flash bulbs, that's what it is. Graflex was the most popular brand.
Still a while later another package arrives again unannounced from my brother, Jim. Inside is another mystery camera: Rollei 35. A tiny 35mm full frame camera smaller than most of the current crop of P&S digital camera. A German gem. Yet again, quite rare and valuable.

So, there without even trying or spending a dime, three people who care about me and visa/versa gave me out of the blue (or a box) three of my rarest and most valuable cameras.

I went to the Library and found a book called McKeown's Price Guide to Cameras. I checked it out and was SHOCKED by how many cameras were made. That was at least ten years ago. I soon bought the 1997/1998 version. The most money I ever spent (then) for a book. The latest one I have is 2005/2006. It cost TWICE as much but easily has twice the information. A HUGE volume.

I began buying everything I could afford through thrift stores and yard sales. I went to my first camera show and was in HEAVEN! It was mind boggling how much stuff there was for sale. I found a Pentax K1000 at one old guy's table and it was marked $85.00. Which I knew at that time was a bargain. I asked, "How much for the K1000?" "What's the tag say?" I told him. "Well, that's what I want for it." So I bought it thinking, "Old grouch."

A few weeks later I was prowling Salvartion Army and a voice behind me asked, "Do you collect cameras?" I turned around and it was the same old grouch with a smile on his face and a cart full of cameras from the back room. He started loading my arms up with stuff. We exchanged numbers and a week or so later I called then visited his home. After meeting his wife. (If you are at all part of the camera collecting scene on the East Coast and Europe you should be able to figure this out: She has the same first name as MS Sommers of Hollywood fame. If you can figure that out you should be able to figure out his name. Ad Colonel to the equasion.) So, he took me down to the basement and again, I was in HEAVEN! There carefully displayed in case after case was THOUSANDS of cameras of all types!

He was well into his seventies then and with the advent of eBay, the camera show scene was changing. He came over to our place and I introduced him to computers and the Internet. At the time, all we had was a 386 with a 14.4 modem. Nonetheless, he quickly realized the value of both. Both he and his wife volunteered at Salvation Army, so getting computers and stuff was easy. His wife took right to it, but he always struggled.
One thing led to another and I agreed to sell his massive collection on eBay. It was a multi-year task and sadly he passed before I finished. Nonetheless, the collection went all over the world through no physical effort on his part. A large portion of my collection was culled (with his blessing) from his.

All are housed in this room which was meant to be a bedroom but I made into my office/library/museum. I designed the CameraLock system and displayed the majority of them on it. Google CameraLock to see what I mean. The collection grew to over 200 and I decided that if I wanted something new, I had to choose one to sell to make room. That worked well. Then I decided to re-arrange this room and reduced to collection to what would fit on the shelves of a 3 foot wide by 5 foot high cabinet with glass doors. Thus abandoning the CameraLock system in it's infancy. So now the collection numbers around seventy, I think. The room works much better and there is now room to display my own photos and all those auto racing photos and posters.

And this was how it ended. I wrote and published it on December 12, 2008. 

NOW, I end it:

Scott Robb

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