RE: Buying an M6

["Patrick G. Sobalvarro" <pgs@sobalvarro.org>]

At 11:51 AM 10/24/97 BST, you wrote:
>I'm in the UK where the economy is currently very strong, so new Leicas are
>very good value at the moment.  I visited a local Leica dealer yesterday who
>had a v.good condition M4 with MR4 meter for just over 1000 UK pounds.
>By contrast he could also sell me a new M6 body for around 1300 pounds.
>The M4 is obviously worth a lot more than it was when it was new, so in
>that sense it was an investment for the person who bought it new and
>subsequently sold it on.

Uh, no, the M4 is not worth a lot more than it was worth new.  This issue
has come up before.  I did some calculations about it then; some of the
numbers have changed now because Leicas have recently become cheaper.
Here's the message I sent to the LUG 1.5 years ago about investing in Leicas:

>From pgs Mon May  6 20:11:29 -0400 1996
>To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
>Subject: Re: Lens Hood Prices
>
>So, to make this whole inflation discussion complete, I thought I'd
>make the calculations into today's dollars for the couple of 1960's
>Leica prices that were posted, using the U.S. government's consumer
>price index (CPI).
>
>We have, courtesy of Marc James Small:
>
>(1960), the IROOA/12571 lens hood is listed for the 2/35 at $4.50
>
>The CPI conversion factor for that year is 0.189, so in 1996 dollars
>that's $23.81.
>
>The 1965 CPI conversion factor is 0.201, so for the 1965 hood:
>
>(1965), the 12585 lens hood is listed for the 2/35 at $9.30
>
>we have $46.27 in 1996 dollars.  The 1995 conversion factor is 0.971,
>so the 1995 price of $59.00 is $60.76 in 1996 dollars.  So the
>increase in cost between 1960 and 1995, after correction for
>inflation, was 61%; and the increase in cost between 1965 and 1995,
>after correction for inflation, was about 24%.
>
>And courtesy of Jack Hamilton, we have that the list price for an M-3
>with 50mm f2 Summicron was $447.00 in 1960, which is $2365.08 in 1996
>dollars.  The list price of an M-6 today, body only, is $2795.00, and
>one would need to buy that 50mm f2 Summicron as well, at $995.00, for
>a total list price of $3790.00.
>
>This means that the list price in the United States for the base Leica
>rangefinder camera has increased, after correcting for inflation, by
>about 38% since 1960.
>
>Not too good for people buying today, actually, but it compares
>remarkably well to the price increases for real estate in Palo Alto,
>California, or to tuition at a top-ranked private college in the
>United States, or to the price of a visit to a physician in the United
>States.
>
>Another question you might want to ask yourself is whether an M-3
>bought in 1963 by a speculating collector and kept in its original
>packaging and never opened would have been a good investment, compared
>to (say) a portfolio of stocks that achieved the performance of the
>DJIA.  Actually, I can answer that one for you.  It would have been a
>terrible investment!
>
>-P.
>