Learning Curve

OK,

So, this blogging thing is a learning curve. I posted two the same session not realizing that I had to specify new stuff goes UNDER the old. I hope this one goes right.

I need to figure out how to put pictures with the appropriate text. Hey, I'm old! OK, 52 isn't THAT old, but the fact that I'm doing this blog thing is new to me.

BEANIE BABIES

Let me write about Nancy's past obsession with Beanie Babies. She got caught up in what turned out to be almost a fraud. Ty indicated that certain BBs would be discontinued or only a certain number made. Collectors went crazy buying them wherever they could. I had a co-worker that had a connection and sold them by the side of the road. Yes, I bought some from him for her collection.
We have hundreds I think. I know there are pictures of the collection somewhere, but they are film ones so I will have to locate them and scan. I remember she found this rare squirrel one and paid like $30.00 for it! Is that spelled right? Squirrel? You know like Rocky the flying....
Currently they are all in those big vacuum sealed bags under the stairs. She wanted to donate them at one point. I talked her out of that. Too much invested.

GLASS PAPERWEIGHTS

Another collection that I supported by buying them for her was glass paperweights. There are some awfully pretty ones. Many are like the marbles that have stuff inside, like fish and things. Pretty cool. Anyway, they are all up in a very heavy box in the attic. See, here's the thing, I'm all for displaying all the stuff we have. She, rightly feels that we live here, it isn't a museum. So, until we somehow win Publisher's Clearing House and can have the three car two story garage extension built on the house, many of the collections will remain in boxes and bags.

HO SLOT CARS

Now these I can tell you about because although they are in a box, it is right here in this very room and I will tell you about them.
My brother Jim and I despite being less than wealthy on my Dad's salary managed in the 1960's and early 1970's to have quite a sizable collection of Aurora HO slot cars and track. This was post-Vibrators and pre-AF/X.
However, our parents unilatterally decided that we kids didn't need so many toys. So, they "donated" many of them prior to our move to Denver in 1971.
Back to the present. Thanks to our coming across a toy show one Sunday Nancy and I entered the world of vintage toys.
I settled on HO slot cars because they are playable and the kids would and did enjoy them. She chose HO trains because she still had her Dad's trains.
Thanks to eBay I have added some other to the collection as well. Here is a list. A photo to follow. We have 42 of them and they all fit nicely in a Priority Mail box:

TYCO Porsche 956 red/white #56. AMRAC Datsun 240Z race car red/white/blue #1.
AF/X Datsun 240Z race car BRE red/white/blue #46. AF/X Datsun 510 race car BRE
yellow/orange #46. AF/X Porsche 911 race car orange/blue/black #3. TYCO Porsche 911 race car four headlights, red/yellow flames #78. AF/X Can-AM McLaren (?) Orange Autoworld #54. AF/X Can-AM Shadow Black #101. AF/X Can-Am Porsche 917/10 L&M White/red/black stripes no #. AF/X Can-Am Porsche 917/30 RC Cola white/red/blue stripes #16. TYCO Porsche 956 orange/white #3. TYCO Porsche 956 yellow/black #56. TYCO Porsche 917 (1970) Gulf Racing Blue/Orange no #. 4: AF/X Porsche 917 (1970) White/purple, white/green, yellow/blue, Gulf Racing Blue/Orange ALL #2. 2: AF/X Ferrari 512S (1970) 1: Red/white #6, 1: Blue/white #2.
TYCO (1970) Ferrari 512S Red #4. AF/X Trans-AM racing Chevy Monza White/green #0. TYCO Porsche 935 racing Silver/various no #. AF/X Trans-Am racing BMW (?) Yellow/red/orange #3. AutoWorld AF/X Dodge Viper ACR yellow/black stripes no #. AF/X rally racing Ford Escort (English) green/blue stripes #28 has spares on roof rack. AF/X Datsun pickup off-road racing Yellow/black #211. TYCO Ferrari F40 RED no #. 2: TYCO Lamborghini Countach 1: red 1: yellow no #s. LIFE LIKE 1970 Ford Mustang The BOSS yellow no #. NEW Thunderjet 1968 Chevy Camaro green/white stripes no #. NEW Thunderjet 1968 Chevy Camaro Sunoco Racing Trans-Am blue #9. 2: Vintage Aurora 1968 Ford GT40 Le Mans race cars 1: Gulf Racing Blue/Orange 1: White/orange both #5. Aurora Ford racing "J-car" red/orange/white stripes #3. Aurora Lola Le Mans race car black orange/white stripes #3. Aurora Shelby Daytona Coupe Le Mans race car blue/white stripes no #. Aurora 1963 Chevy Corvette split-window coupe blue no #. Aurora Porsche 904 white/red stripe no #. Aurora (?) 1960's Le Mans race car red/white/green stripes #3. LIONEL 1964 Chevy Corvette coupe yellow no #. Mercedes 300 SL roadster red/white top.

That's the descriptions of the cars. They all run. The oldest are from the 1960's and are much smaller than the later ones. All run on the same track. The old ones are more fun because they are slower, have skinny tires and no magnets to hold them to the track.

I ASSUMED THAT I COULD ARRANGE PHOTOS WITH THE PARAGRAPHS THAT MENTION THEM!
HOWEVER, I HAVE YET TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT. BEAR WITH ME. IN THE MEAN TIME TO SEE IF A PHOTO HAS BEEN POSTED RELATED TO THE TEXT, PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM.

What drive's Nancy crazy! The stereos.

OK, now we come to what has become my obsession that took over when the camera collection was finalized. The stereo equipment.

I bought an Orion Audio Blue Book which is like McKeown's for audio equipment less the pictures of the actual equipment. A veritable gold mine of information. Orion makes one for just about every kind of equipment.

In it I have high-lighted everything that I can remember owning over the years. It numbers over 100 pieces of equipment! Fortunately, I buy it, use it, sell it and buy something else. That way, like the cameras, they support themselves as a hobby. I am certain that I'm through with the buying/selling of that stuff too. Nancy doubts that!

It all started in 1975 when I met the Stubbs family in Richmond, Virginia. One of the sons had a nice Pioneer integrated amp with turntable, a big Revox reel-to-reel tape deck and HUGE speakers he'd built with at least 18" woofers. He drove his family and the neighbors crazy with his loud music. I was hooked and intended to have a better stereo, albiet with more practically sized speakers.

In the pre-Internet age we did research by going to the library and reading magazines. Somehow I came across a book called The Audio Alternative. It was a huge paper-bound book that took a non-advertised approach towards buying good audio equipment.

I ended up buying a Dynaco PAT-5 pre-amplifier kit and two Southwest Technical Products Tiger 01 60 watt mono power amps kits. The first turntable was a B.I.C 940 and a pair of floor-model Dynaco A-25 speakers rounded it out. I built the PAT-5 first and then the Tigers. A place in Richmond called Audio Art checked out my handy work and said they were fine. So now it was time to drive MY family crazy!

As the years went by, the pieces died and were replaced. Raising four kids with a wife that didn't work prevented any real exploration of the genre. It wasn't until Nancy came along and we found the Internet, did the buying and selling really begin.

Salvation Army introduced us to surround sound via an old Sansui Quad receiver. Sansui's system was the basis for Dolby's original surround system. As a result it successfully decoded the surround in the VHS movies of the time. And so THAT phase also began.

Currently we have four complete sound systems throughout the house. Two stereo, two home theatre.

Starting in here (office/library/museum) is a set comprised of a Denon PRA-1200 pre-amp with a Kenwood Basic M1 power amp with Sigma drive and DLD. Nominally 105 watts per channel in Class A. Attached are: Denon TU-600 tuner, DR-M20 3-head cassette deck, DP-7F turntable (Stanton cartridge), DCD-690 CD player, and DVD-757 SACD/DVD-Audio player. PLUS, an Insignia HD Radio tuner all playing through an MXR equalizer to LYRIC/Eosone and RCA loudspeakers.
A word on the speakers. The LYRIC 3-way bass reflex speakers I found at Salvation Army. They had 10" woofers and the surrounds were gone. I bought new POLK Eosone drivers and Cerwin-Vega crossovers. I rebuilt them with the above. They sound PHENOMENAL! Google: Eosone speakers for more info. The RCA ones are small cast aluminum surround speakers with amazingly good sound. They are above and behind me. The Eosone drivers are very efficient. It doesn't take much power to cause LOUD music. Eosone speakers were very expensive and they never had a model like I made.

The entire LP record collection is also in here. Over 1100 last count. The 100 cassettes we decided to keep are here also. The CDs, almost 400 are in the living room. Which takes us to the.........

LIVING ROOM SYSTEM. This is the main system but not used nearly as much as the one in here.

It's base comprises of Adcom equipment as the core. GFP-565 pre-amp and GFA-585 power amp. 250 watts per channel and VERY heavy! Also a GFT-555 tuner and TWO ACE-515 power conditioner/distributors. Attached to all these are: Denon DP-23F turntable with Shure M97xE cartridge, Rotel RCD-940BX CD player, Pioneer PDR-555RW CD recorder, Samsung HD-950 SACD/DVD-Audio player, JVC TDV-711 3-head cassette deck and a KLH TNE-7000A Transient Noise Eliminator for LP records tick-free playback. A Coustic HEQ-7000 equalizer massages two massive Optimus PRO-4000 speakers with 15" woofers. I think that's all the equipment in there.

The Family Room has a standard 32" TV with a Sony DVP-NS775V DVD/SACD player. A color matched Hi-Fi VHS player, a Sherwood ST-875 turntable with Ortofon OM-5 cartridge and Verizon FiOS all go through a Yamaha RX-V493 5.1 surround receiver. The main speakers are the phenominal BOSE 301 models. The center and surround speakers are Pioneers and an A-Neutronics 12" powered sub round out the speakers. The sound is quite satisfying. LPs through the 301s blow me away! Nancy bought them for me. Gotta love her!

Lastly is the DEN. It too was a bedroom. Now it houses a Samsung 32" LCD HD TV with Infinity TSS-450 surround/sub speakers. A Yamaha DVD-S1500 DVD Audio/Video SACD player, Sony Play Station 2 and Verizon FiOS all go through a Yamaha RX-V2092 7.1 surround receiver. Being a normally sized bedroom, the screen and system are more than enough to satisfy. Nancy also bought the Samsung HD TV for me!

I eventually was able to afford a used Dynaco Stereo 400 power amplifier (200 WPC) to go with the more recently purchased PAT-5 and FM-5 tuner. I discovered Mitsubishi's original venture into high-end audio equipment and eventually had all the Dual Mono equipement. Then the Adcom pieces I found (again at Salvation Army) replaced the Mitsu's.

I can now sit down in any of four rooms and listen to music to my hearts content. Unfortunately, I like it louder than Nancy does. Except in her car, you can hear her coming for blocks!

I ASSUMED THAT I COULD ARRANGE PHOTOS WITH THE PARAGRAPHS THAT MENTION THEM!
HOWEVER, I HAVE YET TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT. BEAR WITH ME. IN THE MEAN TIME TO SEE IF A PHOTO HAS BEEN POSTED RELATED TO THE TEXT, PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM.

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

Date:

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