When selling cameras, never leave them out in the open.

[Worker 11811]

It was the Regional Manager who was in charge of the theater during the aforementioned house cleaning. I was called in to handle the technical side of the business until the problem was smoothed over.
He and I, plus two line-level employees who didn't get caught in the drag net were the only ones staffing the building.

We ran the entire 20-screen megaplex theater complex with a four-man skeleton crew for a week until the new general manager could be flown in from out of state.

Yes, it was one of those industrial trash compactor/dumpster contraptions. Yes, I agree that it should be kept locked for safety.

Finally... Yes, I also brought up the issue of the large sum of money lying out on the counter to the regional boss the next day when I came to work. It was an interesting (humorous) discussion.

[Lens Flair]

really should not be broken by people handling it. Someone was saved from buying a product which would have broken on them within a few weeks...

[Argenticien]

Was wandering through one of our local "antique" malls, I stumbled across a nice clean little Nikkormat, with a clean 50mm f2 lens. Only problem was the mirror was stuck in the up position, and it looked like,the self timer had been cocked, and was stuck as well.

The antique mall near me actually has one vendor who does nothing but cameras!! He leaves out on tables the Brownies, old meniscus-lensed folders, 1980s P&S cameras, etc., and already-broken/parts cameras. Anything intact and over about $50 is in the locked showcase. This is a pretty good balance. The broken/parts cameras in the open are useful to me, because I'll sometimes find something that I've never met in the flesh (only seen on eBay -- I live in mostly a camera desert) and can at least handle it, even if it is broken. It was from this handling that I for example discovered how BIG the Yashica TL Super is for an SLR, and first got to look through an OM viewfinder (wow).
--Dave

[spacer]

I think a broken/parts camera shouldn't have any problem hanging out in the open. If I thought there'd be enough interest, I'd set up a space at Trade Days... probably need to diversify for that, though. Maybe a few rustic-framed photos would entice folks a bit.