what on earth do they do with them?

[labazsisgoingmad]

i run a vintage store on Etsy and one of the things i sell are old photographs.
i like to have a good nose through them sometimes have a giggle at the fashions, the bridegrooms who look really terrified etc.
thing is i sell a lot can you enlighten me what on earth people do with them? i mean they are nice to look at but i have enough photos of my own family without a strangers photos.
one lady has bought 12 off me since Saturday! can anyone enlighten me please!

I’d love to buy some... I’m a sucker for old photos... especially pre 1950s. I’ve no idea what anyone else would do with them but I’d like to use them in art projects ( collage).

I've got a couple of 1920s photo albums I bought on a flea market, I didn't want the people in the photos to just stop being remembered.

You must buy them from somewhere too though surely? It's a good question though. I quite like random old shit to hang on my walls but not sure I'd go as far at buying piles of them.

i usually get them in boxes at auctions. not long ago i bought a box and it was from a local man according to the address. i could not believe it had just ended up in an auction room via house clearance. there were photos of him in the army; love letters written to his wife which made me and OH cry they were so lovely; telegrams to each other when he was serving etc.
what really amazed me there seemed to be a big family; pictures of them in caravans and holiday camps; elaborate weddings; days out etc. surely all the children in the picture some were his and some nieces and nephews, i understand as it was mostly 1940s or 1950s but surely there must be another couple of generations by now?
its all very sad i can remember years ago a bungalow opposite me then the old lady died and her daughter came over to clear the place. she never visited her told us it was not the sort of place she visited.
she hired a big skip and just chucked the lot in her mums Bibles photos all sorts. what really upset me then was her knickers and bras were on the top of the skip you think she could have put them in a bag.

some of the photos that were in the lot

Funnily enough, my daughter loves going in antique shops (she’s 7yrs) and at the beginning of the year she saw this old photo album going for £10. The pictures were of a couple and their little dog on holiday in the 1920s and for some reason my dd was completely taken with it and begged me to buy it and she would give me the money when she had saved it up. She really likes looking at the clothes they wore and thinks the little dog is really sweet. I was very surprised that she wanted to spend £10 on it.

Oh how sad.
Similar thing happened with one of our neighbours who died with no family except one nephew who lived in a small flat. The nephew came and cleared the house in double quick time.Sold most of the stuff unchecked to collectors and the rest to house clearance. He just didnt have the time or interest as he was nephew by marriage .
Made me think that I really shouldnt be keeping so many boxes bits and pieces of sentimental stuff. I must do as I planned and take digital photographs of the beautiful cards I cant bear to throw away.
And not to collect things since they are only of interest to other collectors.

Maybe they are authors and want to build a picture of a character.

Maybe they are social historians and collect images of everyday life from a certain period.

Maybe they are doing art projects like somebody said.

You are reminding me... somehow I got in touch with someone recently who had pics of my GGG-grandmother. They had bought the pics at a car boot years ago bc they were interesting & obvious very old. They were supposed to get the postage details & I would send money to pay for the postage.

I never heard back... this was months ago, irk, who was it? I must find the info. So anyway, some family history buffs do random stuff like that, bc we can.

I collect them, I've got loads. I look for ones with interesting hair and clothes. I studied fashion and uni and got interested in fashion history then. And they're a cheap way to collect something Victorian - they're usually a pound each max.

DH and I went to view a house that was obviously a probate sale. It was apparently an old man who had died. I was very upset that all the cupboards and drawers were pulled out and contents spilled out. The old mans slippers were still under his armchair. On the driveway was a skip and when we left we looked in and there was all this retro items like a 60s coffee pot in there and papers & photos. I so wish we’d gone back and liberated some of those items because the relatives clearly didn't give a shit.