I bought a bunch of expired film from a garage sale and it was a total waste

So I was driving through a neighborhood in Tempe and saw a sign for a garage sale. They had a whole box of old film for five bucks, like twenty rolls. I thought it was a steal. Got home, shot three rolls over a weekend, really careful with my shots. Took them to get developed and every single frame was blank. The guy at the lab said the film was probably stored in a hot garage for years and was totally dead. I wasted that five bucks, plus another thirty five on developing, and lost all those pictures I was excited about. I felt so dumb for not checking the dates or asking about storage. It looked fine in the box, you know? Now I'm super careful about where I get old film from. Has anyone else had a bad run with expired film they bought from a random place?

2 comments

2 Comments

eva_lewis1mo ago

Oh man, "blank" is the worst... I once bought a "mint" camera at a flea market that turned out to have a shutter made of glue and dreams. It's a special kind of heartbreak when you get the scans back and it's just... nothing.

the_cora1mo ago

Ugh, that feeling is the worst. I still have a roll of film from a thrift store point-and-shoot that I was too excited to test. Got the scans, just pure gray. My own fault for trusting a camera that smelled like old pennies and regret. Felt like I paid to develop a ghost. Now it just sits on my shelf as a pricey reminder to check the shutter first.