Hype, premiums and scalping: Card machines fall into an "electronic antique" spree

The CCD card machine was once processed at a price of tens of yuan a pound of electronic waste, and now it has become a "retro artifact" sold for hundreds of dollars.

Panjiayuan Night Market stall. Photo by shell financial reporter Li Menghan

Near midnight, as Beijing's Panjiayuan Friday Night Market gradually came to an end, a stall owner wearing bloated down jackets greeted several customers who were still staying, "The CCD that can be turned on has been sold out, everyone come back next time."

The so-called "CCD" refers to a digital camera with CCD (charge-coupled device) as a photosensitive element, also known as a card machine, popular in the early 21st century, and then replaced by a CMOS image sensor with clearer imaging, basically withdrawing from the consumer electronics market.

The stall owner brought hundreds of machines, only a dozen card machines with perfect functions, and the rest had film machines, DV, micro-singles and some Japanese electronic toys from the last century. From 5 p.m. to midnight, there was a constant flow of people in front of the stall, and even though there were no card machines that could be turned on, there were still many young customers who came forward to play and ask for prices.

Card machine at Panjiayuan Night Market stall. Photo by shell financial reporter Li Menghan

This card machine craze dates back to 2019. In 2019, the card machine became a small fire due to the praise of draft star Yao Chi. Since then, with a top star planting grass and various Internet celebrities to boost the relay, the high paste and low resolution of the card machine are considered to be "self-polishing effect", and the imaging color cast caused by the backwardness of the photosensitive element is called "retro tone", and the card machine has also jumped from worthless "electronic waste" to a hot "electronic antique", becoming twice as valuable and in short supply.

However, unlike other Internet celebrity items, the card machine has been popular from 2019 to 2023, and the heat of the secondary consumer market has even spawned a batch of dumpers who specialize in "carrying garbage" from overseas. So, is the card machine so hot a hype or its own unique charm? Bought at a scrap price of tens of yuan a pound and sold for hundreds of dollars, how much profiteering does the electronic antique business have?

Celebrities have Amway, and card machines become Internet celebrity traffic passwords

In front of the Panjiayuan Night Market stall on Friday, a tall girl had been picking for a while, and finally she chose a Canon A-series CCD card machine with a flip screen to ask the stall owner for a price. The color of this camera is not new, many scratches are covered by the stall owner with cartoon stickers, and the body is also coated with a coil because it has changed hands several times, emitting a bright and clear light under the warm yellow light.

After several counteroffers, the stall owner gave a price of 1100 yuan, unwilling to reduce it again. The price of another mirrorless camera was given 1500 yuan. A CCD card machine in the left hand, a micro-single in the right hand, the girl kept comparing and testing and getting entangled.

Panjiayuan Night Market stall. Photo by shell financial reporter Li Menghan

On March 4, 2023, the reporter opened Xiaohongshu to search for "CCD" and could get 1.27 million + notes, while Xiaohongshu's "beauty" category, which has been featured since its birth, has only 3.53 million + notes, that is, the content related to CCD card machines is equivalent to one-third of the content of the beauty category.

Card machines have attracted attention since 2019. At that time, draft star Yao Chi posted his photography works on social media platforms, saying that he had found some cheap and special cameras from idle platforms, with low pixels and rich colors, which attracted the attention of many fans. In 2020, Shen Yue, who exploded with "To Our Simple Little Beauty", sent a boot photo on the Internet, and when she was asked for color grading parameters by netizens, she responded that she did not add a filter, but just used an old-fashioned camera, "Although it is a digital camera, it has a film texture, how to shoot how to look good." Ouyang Nana has also appeared in the video of Amway a number of CCD card machines.

In addition, stars such as Yu Shuxin, Yi Yangqianxi, Zhu Xudan, Bai Jingting, Zhao Lusi, and Song Yanfei have also posted content related to card machines on social media platforms. At present, Yu Shuxin Ouyang Nana with the same Canon A series, Shen Yue Yiyang Yang Qianxi the same Canon IXUS series camera with better color market price is about 1,000 yuan, which is similar to the price of a micro-order.

In the context of retro becoming a trend, CCD card machines have been crowned by Internet celebrities with names such as "film machine replacement", "atmosphere creation artifact" and "film artifact", dominating the screen Little Red Book.

In the view of Lu Qi, a card machine collector, every wave of enthusiasm is closely related to stars, almost as soon as a star publishes a card machine photo, there is a group of people in Xiaohongshu, Douyin and other platforms to relay a wave of "speculation", and the price of card machines will rise accordingly. Last summer, the fairy tale drama "Canglan Recipe" caught fire, starring Yu Shuxin's same card machine attracted much attention, and Lu Qi received a Canon A470 at a price of more than 400 yuan.

Blogger Xiaoyang told Shell Financial Reporter that his best data notes so far came from a card machine improvisation, and friends helped to take a shot casually and brought thousands of likes, while other notes were liked in the dozens. The comments in the comments section of this explosive note asking for the model of the card machine overshadowed other reviews.

Cameras have sparked a craze, and prices have doubled since last year

Card machine.

Lu Qi had more than twenty card machines at his peak.

Her earliest relationship with the card machine dates back to 2019. She told Shell Financial Reporter that at that time, a group of bloggers "boasted" about the card machine, comparing it with the film machine, saying that the card machine can not only shoot the retro feeling of film, but also save the trouble of film processing.

In 2020, Lu Qi frequently brushed CCD camera recommendations on Xiaohongshu, and the trend began to be linked to keywords such as "film" and "atmosphere", and various Internet celebrities such as beauty bloggers, beauty bloggers, and fashion bloggers have posted their beautiful photos. Lu Qi added a lot of camera dealers through Xiaohongshu and bought the first card machine at a cheap price.

At that time, you could buy a card machine in good condition for less than a hundred dollars. After adding the camera dealer, Lu Qi's circle of friends was brushed by various small and cute card machines, and in addition to her heart, she began to collect according to the camera brand one after another, "Even if you don't use it, a hundred yuan is enough to buy an electronic antique as an ornament is also worth it, and the design of the old-fashioned camera is really tasteful, and the current SLR, micro-single is completely different."

Yangyang, a girl who graduated from college just now, only entered the pit in 2023, in order to choose a satisfactory camera, she did more than a month of homework, from "how to distinguish between a dashcam modified CCD and a real CCD" to "what is the style of different brands of CCD photography" to "how to find a reliable seller" and "how to buy so that it will not lose" research one by one. The day before the arrival of the camera, Yangyang constantly refreshed the logistics and distribution information, and also called for consultation because the express delivery was not delivered on weekends.

Xiaoyang told reporters that the market price of the Canon card machine he bought last winter doubled in a few months, at present, the common brands on the market are Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, Samsung, Olympus, Panasonic, Kodak, Casio, etc., especially Canon has the highest price, the same price of the star is thousands, and the average price of the rest of the brands is slightly better at about four or five hundred yuan, within 100 yuan, and even cameras within 300 yuan are extremely rare.

Yangyang, a girl who recently became obsessed with card machines, told reporters that she planned to write a CCD purchase strategy and recommend some reliable sellers, but now the premium is serious, and she can only barely sort out some stores with a price of 300 yuan - 450 yuan, and basically rely on grabbing below 300 yuan.

For the current price of card machines, Lu Qi has always marveled at its rising speed. She told Shell Financial Reporter that at a CCD offline camera exhibition in Shanghai, her friend saw a Canon card machine with a price tag of 800 yuan, with a full set of accessories, and was pleasantly surprised to think it was cheap. This incident shocked Lu Qi, when did 800 yuan become a cheap price? Card machines are inherently cheap cameras? Why is the price getting more expensive?

The high premium can not resist the enthusiasm of netizens to buy. Shell financial reporters noticed that an individual seller's self-use resale post received more than 20 comments within ten minutes, and a few hours later, the seller left the word "sold" in the comment area. Another camera seller with around 5,000 followers has five customer WeChat groups, is limited to 10 orders a day, and has recently been recruiting agents.

Behind the hype: it used to be tens of yuan a pound of electronic waste

After half an hour of entanglement, the tall girl in front of the Panjiayuan CCD booth made a choice, compared to buying a thousand-yuan CCD to catch up with the trend, she chose to buy a more cost-effective micro-order. After collecting the money, the stall owner Xiaodong quietly told reporters, "CCD is all speculated, no one who understands will buy this, it is not worth the price."

Panjiayuan Night Market card machine. Photo by shell financial reporter Li Menghan

Xiaodong wears a pair of glasses and a thick down jacket. He mainly sells all kinds of CCD cameras, mirrorless cameras, and portable video cameras. He told reporters that from film machines to SLR, card machines, and micro-orders have been sold.

Xiaodong told reporters that around 2018, the price of CCD fell to the bottom, in the electronic city, 10 yuan a cheap treatment, dozens of yuan a pound was used as electronic waste recycling, and later with waves of hype, the price began to rise. Since CCD has been discontinued, supply exceeds demand, selling one less, the current market price has far exceeded its own value.

Subsequently, the price of CCD recycling has also gone up. Xiaodong revealed that most of the stallholders selling CCD offline in Beijing take goods from Wukesong Photography City, refurbish and repair old machines and then sell them, but due to the strong speculation in the secondary market, the current purchase price has also increased.

Under the hot market, some people use the remodeled dashcam as a CCD card machine for sale, deceiving some little white netizens who do not know how to do it. However, this behavior can easily be debunked.

With the boom of business, some accounts such as "CCD Camera Taotao", "CCD Camera Haggling" and "CCD Overseas Purchase" under the banner of helping to pick up leaks and identify authenticity are also popular on social media platforms, and various derivative occupations are emerging one after another. There have been stall owners who scoop goods from overseas, carry human flesh back, and sell it domestically.

Compared with the current income situation, Xiaodong is more envious of his friends in the WeChat group, at that time, a friend hoarded a large number of CCD cameras in containers according to the recycling price of electronic waste, removing the machines that have been damaged and irreparable, and about one-third of the machines in each box can still be used normally.

Filmmaker or IQ tax? The next wave of hype is on the way

"The photo skin looks good", "comes with a retro filter" and "everyone is buying", when the shell financial reporter asked why he was so obsessed with the card machine, Yangyang was stunned and gave the above explanation. Qin Xing, a junior girl, told reporters that the card machine has a dim yellow tone, superimposed on the camera's low image quality, so that the people in the photo, especially the human face, are shrouded in an artistic conception, very charming, is "with a retro sense of dermabrasion".

However, in the eyes of the photography industry, the retro effect of the CCD card machine is a gimmick. Mr. Huang, who owns a photography shop in Beijing's Third Ring Road, is a little unimpressed: "People who play photography can't look at CCDs at all, and everyone's worst backup machine is also micro-order." Mr. Huang explained that the reason why the card machine takes "good-looking" photos is nothing more than three points - high paste, color cast, flash, high paste because the pixels are not high for a long time, color cast is because the camera's white balance is not accurate, and the flash can also do it with the mobile phone. "It's incomprehensible to celebrate technical flaws and glorify them as 'lost industrial aesthetics.'"

Another photographer with 8 years of film photography experience Nobita analyzed to reporters that the so-called "card machine can shoot pure film texture" statement is a lie, he believes that the photos taken feel retro purely because of backward technology, and the texture of film is completely different. He said that compared with the obsolete CCD camera, the photos taken by the CMOS camera are more adjustable in the later stage, and it is not good to use the mobile phone to take pictures, and learning some post-production technology can completely replicate the effect of the card machine.

Since the retro atmosphere of CCD can be reproduced in the later stage, why is CCD still so popular?

Xiaodong told reporters his understanding, in the process of setting up the stall, Xiaodong found that the main people who came to buy CCDs were young people, and many people had a sense of freshness about CCDs, as well as nostalgia for their childhood. In addition, to a large extent, the popularity of CCD is closely related to hype, and the root of popularity is closely related to money.

In fact, the phenomenon of the popularity of electronic products is playing out on major social media platforms. Search for 3DS game consoles in Xiaohongshu, you will see many bloggers' grass stickers, beautifying the eliminated game consoles as "Switch replacement", and even gradually derived a wave of using 3DS to shoot stickers.

All kinds of old-fashioned mobile phones such as Nokia mobile phones and Apple mobile phones have been re-put on the shelves for sale under the names of "Internet Machine" and "Student Party Affordable Good Things"... So, what will be the next phenomenal electronic antique?

(At the request of interviewees, Lu Qi, Qin Xing, and Xiaodong are pseudonyms in the article)

Beijing News shell financial reporter Li Menghan