Re: [Leica] That eBay thing

["Paul Klingaman" <pklingaman@hotmail.com>]

My Online Auction deals:

late Chrome M6, I'd swear it was brand new: 1400.00
Saunders 11X14 4-bladed Universal Easel, like new condition: 75.00
Minolta Autocord, exc. cond.: 66.00
Nikkor Enlarging Lens f2.8, like new: 45.00
Nikon 8008, 35-105 AF, both like new: 400.00

If you are patient, and careful, you can walk away with some great 
bargains.  The great thing about Ebay is that as a seller, you can get 
close to(and even sometimes above!) what dealers get for equipment; 
instead of waiting forever in newspaper classifieds, or taking a bath on 
selling to a dealer.  I think some people in the "Ebay community" are a 
little bit out of control with their requests for positive feedback, 
however.

- -Paul

>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
>
>

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