[Leica] Re: "a la carte" & "certified pre-owned"

[MEB at GoodPhotos.com (Michael Eric Berube)]

>Douglas and Karen wrote:
>
>Leica should get into the used camera business.Buy up all
>the second hand stuff CLA, re-box and re-sell it with a
>guarantee,at least we'd be sure of the quality.

ACK! This would ensure that the used price for a Leica goes back up to the 
level where only Dentists, retired Engineers and Lawyers can afford to have 
one! 

I got my IIIc for $100 off the M5 that I sold to a LUGger (I had to sell the 
M5, I couldn't stomach the thought the cost of having to repair a camera 
that I 
had spent that hard saved $1600 for.) I got my well worn M4P a few years 
later 
from a work PJ who needed to fund his D1X purchase. The M4P cost me a mere 
$500. It has the requisite 'chroming' and ding in the top plate, but works 
flawlessly.

Thean affordable used market (eBay and LUG) and affordable new CV glass from 
Mr. Gandy are the great equalizers of the Leica world. They are the gateway 
drug to total addiction. They are what allows the college student or blue 
collar shooter to get try RF shooting just once (kind of like crack) and to 
then completely jones over (and save scrupilously for) that shiny new 
MP/Nocitlust combo (or whatever.)

Unless Leica is going to sell the certified used (sorry, 'pre-owned') 
cameras 
for current market values, I think this is a bad thing for consumers in the 
long run. Personally, I'd rather have a beater that I have the option of 
sending to Sherry or DAG IF it breaks.

Then again, I've got my Leicas for as long as they make film for them. I 
have 
no real personal stake in it.

Be well,
Michael Eric Berube
AnotherMaine.com
GoodPhotos.com