[Leica] That eBay thing

["4season" <4season@boulder.net>]

Like some of you, I check into eBay periodically, in hopes of getting a
bargain., and more often than not, I come away wondering if bidders have
actually priced things out in advance, because prices seem to rise up to,
and beyond, normal resale prices from dealers, who take credit cards and
offer return policies! I admit I've contributed a little to this whackiness
in a recent winning bid on a US Robotics Courier I-Modem. Whoops, it can't
use analog phone lines too?? Nuts! Fortunately, I got back *most* of my
money quickly in resale, but it did drive home a point about knowing what
you're bidding on, and at what point you've got to stop and let someone else
carry the goods home!

But I'm happy to say that I've since scored a great deal, and to be honest,
I don't know why: I was looking over some Hasselblad listings, and found a
nice 500c outfit that had only one other bidder. The price was already up to
$700, which would've made it an okay deal, but reading that ad twice, I
realized that though the camera body was old,  it included a prism finder,
modern A12 back and 80CF lens! Evidently not one for glowing descriptions,
the seller left a tersely worded mention of some minor abrasion on the lens
barrel, said that the prism was not pretty, but all else was okay. This
sounded good to me, and at $890, I walked away with it.

What arrived was essentially as advertised, but need of refoaming and a CLA
job for the back. None of this changed my opinion that I had gotten a
fantastic deal. I briefly toyed with the idea of
gathering my older gear into a very attractive vintage starter package,
complete with instruction books and a few period accessories, and getting
top dollar for it, (I've seen one 500c starter outfit which sold for $1200+)
but in the end decided, no, I didn't want to get into the collectables
market, so out the older bits of my system go, at more realistic prices.
Much more interested in dealing with fellow users, anyhow--the notion of
fielding frantic calls over minor dust specks on the viewscreen would give
me a rash.

Still haven't scored any Leica deals there. My best-ever deal was a late M3
with some bright marks on the chrome, but no dings or brassing, at $550, but
this was long before the days of online auctions. Amazingly, I lost money in
resale! Wish I had kept it as a backup camera.

Jeff