Re: [Leica] Bidding on eBay (was: something else totally unrelated)

[Kip Babington <cbabing3@swbell.net>]

Well in one sense, everything you "own" is rented because you can't take it with
you when you go.

But on a shorter time scale, I don't feel any need to commit to keeping a
particular lens forever before I decide to buy it.  I have an old 90 Summicron
and a 135 Elmarit that I acquired to use on my M6 in a small high school theater
where they wouldn't let me run my N**** F3, even without the motor.  Those
lenses have been great in that application, but my second actor kid is about to
graduate, and once he's out of that environment I can just about guarantee I'll
swap both of those monsters for lighter models.  And I'm pretty certain to use
Ebay to make the swaps.  You might say I've "rented" them for 6 or 7 years, but
so what?

And even if the "rental" is for an even shorter period, it strikes me that
renting via an Ebay purchase and resale isn't much different than renting from a
photo rental outfit, and may be more cost effective as well.  For example, at
the moment my daughter is into horse jumping, which around here is done indoors
from November through about April.  Lighting is enough for 1/125 @ 2.8 with HP5
rated at 800.  I got an autofocus 80-200/2.8 for my N**** (you need the range to
get all of the jumps in a single round, and I can't focus reliably fast enough
to use a manual lens in this situation) but I rented one before deciding that it
was indeed the proper tool for the purpose.  There happens to be a shop in town
that rents this stuff (no Leica gear, though) but if I lived somewhere else it
might well have been more economical to buy one on Ebay and use it for a while
than to rent by mail.  And this summer when I try to decide if a 300mm will be
useful at the outdoor horse rings, it's likely I'll buy one on Ebay and use it
for a month or two at different venues, rather than rent one over a number of
weekends (and take the chance that it won't be available at a particular time.)
If it proves not to be worth the extra bulk, I'll just sell it, but at the end
I'll be in no different position than if I had actually rented one for a while,
and if I keep it for more than a couple of weeks I'll probably be financially
ahead of renting.

Cheers,
Kip

Mark Rabiner wrote, in part:

> Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de wrote:
> ><Snip>
> > On the other hand ebay is a place to conveniently buy and sell within a
> > short period of time. If you are not into accumulating gear, you buy
> > when you need something special for a job and sell after the job is
> > done, minimising capital outlay, insurance etc..
> >
> > Hans-Peter
>
> This is to me the single biggest and important effect ebay will have on some
> very basic stuff here. Ownership!  What are we going to when our concept of
> ownership flies out the window?  Everything is in effect rented.