Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ok, for now I will become a member of this club as we have our first and second child in about two months and need $$ for other dippers _____________________________________ Thanks, Mehrdad - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Photovilla@aol.com Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 1:12 AM To: leica-users-digest@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] nikon s3 <<Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 23:20:22 -0700 From: "Mehrdad Sadat" <m.sadat@verizon.net> Subject: [Leica] nikon s3 Message-ID: <FKEMKHBBDEGFGKMBDFMAMEBICPAA.m.sadat@verizon.net> References: what is the deal with this camera and why is it so expensive? I don't get the point. what is a collectors item? you pay 4800 to sell it for 5500 10, 20 years from now? why _____________________________________ Thanks, Mehrdad>> Mehrdad, Read all the following with tounge-in-cheek. I'm not ranting at your post, more just pointing out the irony of all our situations with these highly priced machines... It has proven that cameras don't make great investments time and time again here on the LUG, so I won't go down that road. Perhaps no tangible asset is really going to be as good as the many other finacial vehicles which are available to you ...unless perhaps you are going to turn them over 100x each year. In that case, you are really a dealer, and it is really a job... more than pure investment. (...and it is a LOT of work despite how it might appear...) So far -my experience in being a dealer is that- it pays a lot less than my last job, though it is a lot more fun... Over the past year I have had literally hundreds of visitors pour in and out of my tiny store here in NYC and I have heard about just about every camera and company: 1) it is "obsolete" 2) it is "classic" 3) it is "cheap" for what it is 4) it is "waaay to expensive" for what it is 5) "they" (insert camera manufacturer of your choice) will be out of biz in a year 6) if only it has an "x" or a "y," then I would buy it 7) if it didn't have that x or y, then I would buy it 8) x and y company should combine, buy each other out, or give back their stolen names 9) they don't make 'em like they used to/digital will do away with that in one year 10) I'll gladly pay you Tuesday to "hold" that camera for me today! I think these are the tenants of "camera obsession" as a religion. I dare you to tell me you haven't uttered one of these last time you were in a camera st ore too. It is almost the password to get in the club after all! If you walk in B&H and say "nice" looking at the latest/greatest x, the guy next to you won't say anything back after all will he? Now, all I can really offer you is that, if you don't see the beauty or purpose in a collectible camera...then it has no value for you! I don't think you should pay $1 for one if you don't intrincically get the "point" of why you would pay xxx for one. This goes for the new S3, the many-engraved cameras and the ever-so-rare antiquities auctioned off at various stores/sites/blocks. I think I really realized this point when my girlfriend's best friend came to my store one day and said, "People actually collect cameras? Why?" She couldn't comprehend the point of "collecting" such machinary and by the end of an hour long explaination from me I think she got it even less!<g> It was the first time I had someone in my store that just couldn't connect with the stuff on _any_ level and was quite entertaining to the both of them how much that bothered me... Please, the history, the esthetics, the fine optics and great stories about HCB and friends... Complete disbelief was all I got -and to this day- I think she never got over how "really weird" I am and what a weird little place I have created for myself in the city. She has never mentioned cameras to me again since that day!!! I guess the little bit I took away from this experience (that I still remember 10 months later) is that this stuff only holds value for those in the "club" -this little micro-cosm that we have. That is, those who give a hoot about any of it! That is why you always hear stories of cat burglurs breaking into a place, stealing a P&S wunder-cam and leaving behind the gold plated M6J or what-have-you. They are only "worth" it because there is a microcosm of folks that will pay for it and I suppose that this is how much of economics work as well... cheers! Rich