Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Gary, That was the title of a recent article in Dirck Halstead's e-magazine......it caused quite a stir in the 'fanatic' community, but was about the artificial 'inflation' caused by the scarcity of cameras when 'speculators' buy 50 or 100 Leica pieces (I've seen it....a safe with 100+ bodies, at least 200 lenses...) His point was that Leica would be expensive, based on quality and scarcity, but only about 1/3 or so the price if bought and sold by 'users'.... I hate to put numbers on it, as someone did here on the LUG, but here's my .02.....if you own more than two or three bodies at a time, or 'duplicate' focal lengths, you "probably" are a collector...now, I can see someone having a model II or something on the mantel, or an old "beater" that one carries in the trunk as a spare, but rows and rows of non-user stuff?....that's a 'collector'/'dealer'! I'm not talking about pre-war/'special' models, etc...... The 'collectors' should preserve these for historical significance.. But M2/M4/M6/common lenses/etc....esp. non-mint.....these should be out there in the hands of photographers.... His example (in the e-zine) while in a toung-in-cheek article, was sound....if not for 'collector frenzy', the M-bodies would probably sell for $3-600 used and the lenses similar... that would be in keeping with inflation, based on their used-status-plus-desirability as users, etc... I agree with this...although believing in "free-enterprise", I don't know what would happen....but the market is not 'free' and 'stable'... Obviously, my message was also toung-in-cheek, but I >DID< sell some excess gear a couple years back, for below 'market', to get it in the hands of users...it was doing NO good in my closet, as I had newer gear that I was using.... Walt On Sat, 20 Mar 1999, Gary Todoroff wrote: > From: Walter S Delesandri " > > >"First, let's KILL all the Leica collectors..." > Hey Walt -- this is group that deals with _cameras_ such as the M1. You > obviously need to find the group that deals with the M1 Garand. > > Gary >