[Leica] Leica prices

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

David R. >>>Price is only a problem when you DON'T own Leica. Once
you've finally bought Leica you're glad it's overpriced (unless of
cource you bought it on credit, in which case you won't be glad until
you've paid the cards off). Leica gear is certainly a better investment
than baseball cards<<<


I tend to buy and sell camera gear a lot, in order to try different
things. The worst investments I ever made were a new Exakta 66 and
Schneider 80mm lens, which I had a really hard time finding a buyer for
and lost my shirt on; and a used Hasselblad 500 C/M which I "rented"
from Don Chatterton for a short amount of time and a usurious amount of
money (I bought it from him for a high price and sold it back to him a
few months later for an absurdly low price. That was the last time I
dealt with him, come to think of it).

You lose more if you buy new, of course. I've also noticed that I tend
to lose proportionally more on things people want less--offbeat or
oddball older cameras, for instance. I guess I want them more when I buy
them than the people I sell them to want them when I sell them.

The equipment I have lost the _least_ on over the years is Leica M gear.
Used stuff really holds its value. If you have the spare cash to invest,
you can almost use M stuff for free (well, you may lose the interest you
may otherwise have earned). Buy smart and sell smart, and you can use
$3,500 worth of gear for a couple of years for free or, at worst, the
loss of a couple of hundred dollars, which works out to a very mild and
reasonable rental charge.

I could have bought an M3 when I was in Photography School for
$400-$600. Its value would have even kept up with inflation since then.

If you look at it that way, the "cost" of using Leica M gear is really
pretty absurdly low. It would be very cheap right now for newcomers to
try an M6, for instance. You can get users for $1300-$1500 and they're
just not going to lose very much value--they may even gain value. A
$1400 used M6 bought today is certainly not going to be worth $450 in
three or four years, which might be the case with a new Wunderplastik AF
35mm. "Try an M6 for a year for free"--sounds like an ad campaign.

The only way it costs a lot is if you keep it, but by that time it's
painless, because you've already parted with the money--and you've
already decided it's worth it to you to keep.

- --Mike