This week sees a new black and white photobooth listed on eBay. The machine, described as “complete except glass that covers front door top flash glass,” has a starting bid of $4500. The machine has also been equipped with a “Mars 2000 series bill acceptor.”
The last photobooth listed on eBay, just a few weeks ago, never made it past its opening bid of $4000, which was then changed to $6500. We’ll see if this one, significantly older and missing the lime green paint job, will make it anywhere.
Also on eBay this week, another copy (second edition) of Billy Childish’s photo-booth, for anyone who’s interested in picking that up. It’s smaller in person, I have to say.
New this week on eBay is a great-looking refurbished Photo-Me booth.
The booth achieves its distinctive look with the help of “1970 Dodge Challenger Lime” automotive paint and diamond plate on the front. The booth, which looks like it might have been something like a Model 20 or 21 in a previous life (edit: a Model 21GB, actually — thanks, Mike), is described as having a “new rebuilt transmission, a new amount adjustable bill acceptor…and new rubber kickpad on the bottom edging.”
The sellers have set an opening bid at $4000, and we’ll be interested to see if anyone bites at that price. It certainly is the best-looking booth we’ve seen on eBay in the last year or so, and we wouldn’t be surprised if some enterprising bar owner or restauratuer took the sellers up on their offer.
Forbes reports on Photo-Me UK’s recent earnings report and the slump in their stock price that followed this week.
Photo-Me International PLC posted a 10 pct decline in first-half profit and warned full-year earnings will fall well short of market expectations after customers put off purchasing digital photo-processing machines.
Shares in the British company, which is the world’s biggest photo-booth operator, slumped as much as 35 pct to a two-and-a-half-year nadir.
Closer to home, Photo-Me reports that due to a series of delays, they “would not be able to supply leading US drugstore chain CVS Pharmacy with equipment this fiscal year,” a failure that made up the bulk of their profit shortfall for the year. Things don’t look great for the company right now — “decline,” “short,” “slumped,” and “nadir” aren’t a great way to be described — so what’s really going on over there? We’ll be interested to find out.
A very nice looking Model 14 photobooth is for sale on eBay. It has the original pagoda-style roof and looks to be in really good condition. The topsign (which I also assume comes with the auction) is in great shape, as well.
And if that doesn’t fill your pop culture quota, bid on two photostrips of Bam Margera (Jackass fame) and his once-fiancee Jenn Rivell.
Oh, and Happy New Year from Photobooth.net.
For if he did, he’d have heard about what happened in Lufkin, Texas, Denver, Colorado, and Mason, Ohio, and he would have thought twice before making out with a stripper in a photobooth.
I guess we weren’t really around to help, because, as reported today in any number of tabloid-ish websites though not yet on their own, The National Enquirer claims today that such an incident happened in 1997, and is just now coming to light, with the photos to prove it. We don’t have any photobooths listed for Atlanta yet — perhaps we’ll get a lead out of it?
We’ve been checking in occasionally on Stuff Magazine’s so-called photo booth challenge, which asks women to “slip behind the curtain of a photo booth near you and show us your stuff… Remember: No nudity. (Unless you’re Jonathan Taylor Thomas.)”
Sadly, only one set of photos in recent weeks has been a real photostrip; all the rest of the submissions posted on the contest page are poor imitations, studio glamour shots taken in front of a curtain and arranged vertically onto a white background. Does this mean no one is taking part in the contest? Who are these girls, and are they all piling into Stuff HQ to get their fake photobooth shots taken? Perhaps all of the submissions from real photobooths are ending up in the print edition of the magazine; any readers out there care to confirm?
Stuff also provides a list of photobooths to visit on their rules and instructions page, a list that looks a whole lot like the one I assembled over many months on Doubleperf.com before Photobooth.net was born. That and a smattering of Dingos.net locations and the results of a few Google searches; come on, Stuffies, can’t you do a little better than all this?
In one of the stranger cross-promotions we’ve seen in recent memory, Procter & Gamble is using photobooths (and actress Nicollette Sheridan) to promote Crest Whitestrips for the holidays. Banking on the tenuous connection of “photo strips” and “Whitestrips,” the company is offering free photoboothing to visitors in San Francisco and New York from December 7th to the 11th.
Will your smile be ready for all your family holiday moments? From photo strips to Crest Whitestrips Premium, strips are all the rage this season! Beginning at 9AM on December 7th in New York City, Nicollette Sheridan will kick-off the holidays by officially opening Crest Whitestrips Premium’s bi-coastal, old fashioned photo booth extravaganza. Smile booths will open to the public at two fun-filled, festive locations — from December 7th through the 11th at Wollman Skating Rink in New York City’s Central Park and from December 8th through 11th at Pier 39 on San Francisco’s historic Fisherman’s Wharf for people to take free holiday photos and learn more about getting their smiles camera ready.
In the spirit of the holidays, everyone to stop by the booths can take complimentary family photo strips…
We encourage Photobooth.net users to visit these booths and take a photostrip and a picture of the booth, because we’d really like to see how they look. You can’t beat free photostrips, so go on out and give it a shot this weekend!
Just in time for the holiday office party season, the Denver Post takes a look at some potential pitfalls for the yearly company party. In an article titled “Libation and litigation,” business columnist Al Lewis describes some of the possible problems that happen when co-workers let loose.
Lewis quotes Denver lawyer Todd Fredrickson, who deals with issues arising from holiday parties each year.
Frederickson said one company he represents had its holiday party at an entertainment complex with arcade games. Two female employees crammed into a coin-operated photo booth and started flashing the camera.
“It was a ‘Girls Gone Wild’ scene in the photo booth,” said Frederickson. But when a disapproving co-worker complained to human resources, it became a potential legal issue. Particularly because, also that night, two other associates (male and female) were caught groping in the same photo booth.
In Frederickson’s esteemed professional opinion, employees “should not be using the photo booth as their own personal make-out booth.”
In my own, unprofessional opinion, they should at least shut the curtain.
Add these anecdotes to the long list of bad ideas people have when they come across a photobooth.
A fascinating article in Pravda this week discusses some of the rare and expensive gifts Russian billionaires like to give one another. Among the extravagant presents are a hover scooter, a suitcase full of champagne and caviar, and, of course, a photobooth.
Nothing compares to a personal photo booth. It can do anything you want it to do e.g. classic or digital monochrome and color pictures and slides. It can also create a fine romantic atmosphere in the house. Guests will be definitely impressed when they see a real prop from some love-story movie.
Does Neiman Marcus ship internationally?
Apple Computer announced their new line of iMac G5 computers today, and included with the new machines is an application called Photo Booth that will take advantage of the built-in iSight camera to help the user take self-portraits and send them to friends.
From MacRumors. com, a description of the new application:
Photo Booth turns your iMac into a modern-day arcade photo booth (minus the coin slot). Just pick a special effect like sepia tint, x‑ray, bulge or squeeze. And smile. Presto — instant high-quality photo. Once you have the perfect pic, take advantage of Photo Booth’s connections to share it via Mail, save it in iPhoto or use it as your Address Book or iChat buddy picture.
How does Stunt Software feel about the name, I wonder?
