Can we talk about the old camera shop on 5th Street in Riverside?

I stopped in there last month to see if they had any spare parts bins, and the owner showed me a drawer full of pristine, factory-sealed light seals for cameras from the 1970s. He said they've been sitting there since his dad ran the place, completely forgotten. Has anyone else stumbled on a hidden stash of NOS parts in an unexpected spot, and how do you verify the foam hasn't degraded in the package?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahcampbell1mo ago

That drawer of factory-sealed light seals is a real time capsule. You pretty much have to open one to check the foam, which is the scary part. Finding NOS is a gamble between preserving history and needing it to actually work.

the_sarah1mo ago

That whole sealed light seal thing is a real problem. Read a forum post once where someone opened a thirty year old kit and the foam just turned to dust. Makes you wonder what you're really buying. Noahcampbell is right about it being a gamble. You either keep it as a cool sealed artifact or you wreck it to maybe get a part that works. Kind of ruins the fun of finding new old stock when it's basically a mystery box.