Pentax in charity shop refused!

[yashica1943]

I thought that I might have found a bargain, but the poor state of the ever ready case was an indication of what was within.
In a local charity shop, a Pentax Spotmatic, the case was in a poor state, the metalwork on the exterior not too bad and it had a Pentax Takumar 50mm f1.4 ! But a look through the lens showed that there was a fine network of fungus running all over one or more of the internal elements.
Then the shutter blind fabric was slightly uneven with white splodges. So sadly even at £20... not for me. Obviously been kept in a damp place.

[philbirch]

They'll sell it though, they always do.

Yesterday I spotted a Praktica with a helios lens in the local DEBRA shop. The lens looked like the baby had been eating his dinner off it and the camera was filthy. They wanted £40. I got it for £20 when I realised that a case, ERC, 135mm lens and a National flash were included. It's cleaned up ok and I'm happy with it

[yashica1943]

I went into the same local charity shop that the Pentax was in, today. There was a nice Billingham style camera bag on the top shelf (not Billingham!)
When I looked insude there were a couple of Yashica FX series SLR in there with 50 mm f 1.8 lenses, both bodies and lenses quite scruffy. There were also a set of Cokin filters and a big hammerhead flash (Not Metz) and some other bits and pieces. The price £65 !!!! I might have taken a chance at £10 - £20.
Having looked at other items in charity shops, generally their prices seem to be getting much higher than they were a couple of years ago.