Re: [Leica] dollar value

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

Jim Bauman wrote:

>Regarding Leo's Camera in Vancouver B.C., David Young
><youngs@islandnet.com> wrote:
>
>>They do tend to price their used stuff rather high, but will readily dicker
>>and will usually sell cheaper than I've seen anywhere else.
>
>Last time I was in B.C. I popped in and they had an M4 in poor looking
>condition for $1995 CDN, about $1350 USD. Prices like that I tend to find a
>wee bit insulting. If they "dicker" than why don't they (and other
>establishements with the same policy) just put a fair price on the sticker
>and be done with it. They would please more people then they alienate.
>But, on the positive side, I bought a 180mm Nikkor there in 1979 for a good
>price. They must have changed managers sometime in the last 20 years!

A couple of weeks ago they had a chrome M4 with chrom Summilux 50 for
$2300Cdn. The Summilux was in mint condition; perfect in every way that I
could see. The M4 was Ex to Ex+. I didn't need either item, but they were
good value.

When Leo was running the store (his son has run it for a number of years;
Leo himself died this year) buying from him was an iffy proposition. He had
more used stuff in his store than anyone else, and he didn't seem to mind.
The reason was mainly that his prices were terrible. HOWEVER: if you got to
know Leo, and what he wanted, you could get very good prices. You just had
to be willing to invest some time. If you just ran into the store, and
wanted to buy an item, it might cost you $500. If you could chew the fat
with Leo for an hour, about a large range of photographic topics, you might
get the same item for as little as $250. These sort of discounts were not
unusual. Leo was a sometime Leica R user.

Lens and Shutter is the place were I do most of my buying, but Leo's also
gets some of my business. In both stores I can usually manage to wangle
some discounts if there is any room in their pricing. Kerrisdale Cameras
now has the worst prices for used stuff; consequently you go there to trade
in your old stuff for new stuff, but don't buy used. They have a couple of
black Summilux 50's now in so-so condition that they want $2000 for. They
don't bargain well either.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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