[Leica] Re: Best camera deal you (personally) have ever gotten......., (Cormac McCarthy for Leica)

[cschweda at gmail.com (cschweda)]

re: Best camera deal I've gotten.

I posted a long version of this in the LUG about five years ago, but I
still think this is a cool deal, so I'll post the short version.

Found a hardcover first edition of Cormac McCarthy's 'Sutree' in an
Ann Arbor bookstore. Saw it sitting on the counter and that it hadn't
been shelved yet. I'd been a McCarthy fan for years, but I understood
that this particular book -- Sutree, the one that was two feet in
front of my on the counter -- was one of the more sought after
McCarthy books out there at the time. I asked the clerk how much. She
sorta looked at it, shrugged, said, "Five bucks."

I was stunned. I bought it. For a long time I'd heard stories about
Sutree first editions going for upwards of two thousand dollars.
Needless to say, I paid the five bucks. I was a grad student at Umich,
so spending five bucks meant Ramen noodles for the next few days. But
that was okay.

- Took it home and verified that it was a first edition, not a book
club edition, and all that stuff. Stunned, I put it on my shelf and
vowed I was gonna keep it until I needed fast cash.

- Flash forward five years. April, 2002. Decided I needed fast cash
for a Leica M6. Pulled the book off the shelf, looked at it, and
discovered that not only was it a first edition but that it had a
letter wedged in the middle from someone at Knopf to Joseph Blotner --
the famous Faulkner scholar -- indicating that Blotner may want to
take a look at McCarthy since he (McCarthy) sorta picked up where
Faulkner left off. I was -- and still am -- a big fan of Faulkner,
McCarthy, and Blotner -- so it was interesting to see a moment of
convergence for all three of these folks.

- Anyway, okay. I call around to used book dealers. Found one. He'd
been looking for Sutree for years. We strike a deal. The fast cash
amounts to $1500.

- Get the check from the dealer, turn around and call Rich at Photo
Village. Fast cash goes to Rich, Rich send me a Leica M6, and a week
later, I'm off and shooting tri-x in my own M6 (with a Voigtlander 35
not a Leica lens -- but one step at a time) in the Chicago Loop.

Anyway, that's my deal.

Chris
cschweda@gmail.com