| Author | Message | ||
     Turnergande Tinkerer Username: Turnergande Post Number: 49 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
I see that several nice Voigtlander Superbs (usually with Skopars) have recently sold for $225 - $300 range on eBay - about same price & volume of sales as a few years back in my opinion. I got one heck of a good deal from KEK a year ago in nice shape @ $83; just needed an easy shutter blade cleaning. KEH can often be a better deal than eBay but you have to look often and jump quick on the good deals. As I have narrowed my 'want to buy' list down in recent years I still manage to find a few now and then at reasonable prices - mostly eBay but some via dealers as well. I notice eBay auction prices can escalate on the weekends when more people have time to look. I have found some 'buy it now' bargains that were just recently listed - before they got snatched up by someone else! Some not so common items continue to show on eBay at decent prices or 'buy it now' by honest sellers who do not inflate price - but one may have to take much time sifting through a lot of items listed by 'rip off' or 'clueless' sellers asking two or three times what an item is really worth (too much of that is happening now on eBay). Some fairly common but desirable / high quality items are still readily available at about same or higher price than a few years ago such as Rolleiflex, Rolleicord, Nikon F, Leicas, Nikkor lenses, select Pentax screw mount lenses, etc. Serious collectors continue to look to buy the better quality classics especially early versions of 35mm & med format cameras, top end Japanese rangefinder cameras, etc. Konica III series for example can be much pricier now than years ago and Ricoh 519, Minolta-35 usually fetch very good prices. There are still plenty of classics out there in display cases and the older folks who have collected them won't live forever. 'Trickle down supply' will not end any time soon but prices may creep higher for top quality & desirable lower production items. Unfortunately a lot of estate sellers lack knowledge about what they trying to sell so for the buyer it can be hit or miss. EBay is also cluttered with a lot of junk, especially high production, low value film cameras chock full of electronics - these can be hard to sell at any price. The sellers persist in trying despite the odds. Collectors get a bad rap from the film camera users but at least the serious collectors are willing to get some of the clunkers repaired and restored before passing them along. Better to collect than toss in a dumpster. Plenty of cameras out there still for users as the collectors have less interest in the newer film cameras full of sophisticated electronics & features the older 'fuddy duds' never quite understood to begin with. Long post - sorry about that. |