Sellability of an Argus C3

[malkav]

Howdy all,

I wanted to ask what the sellability was of Argus C3 from around 1950. I've tried twice on the bay to sell one of mine with no luck. I was asking $10.00 + shipping, and thought that was a reasonable price, but I guess I thought wrong.

TIA for any answers
Ed

[Reiska]

I'm positive, that a "Brick" in good condition would sell at that price here in Europe.
It is true, that shipping makes a big deal of the total cost but still.

A good try could be to offer some other related items at the same time (separately or not)
to lower the share of the transfer fee.

[kiev4a]

There were tens of thousands of C3s made and they were an entry level camera. There are some folks who collect them but you can pretty much buy them by the bushel basket for almost nothing.

[Reiska]

I would like to buy an example of American junk in mint condition to show it here in Europa for people to goggle. But the transfer fee here is more than double the value of the camera. Therefore I suggested to try to sell Argus C3 in a bunch of other trash.

Especially Argus C3 has so unique appearance, that with good pictures it would entice people who haven't seen it closely before.

I googled local eBay(s) and I found only two C3. The other was advertised as Harry Potter Camera (read "Hairy Potter", so it sounds British ;D

[kiev4a]

The C3 was pretty much a U.S. product, I think. It was sort of the Chevrolet of 35mm cameras. Few people could afford Leicas and the C3 made the great unwashed masses feel like they had the next best thing to a Leica--although the non interchangeable lens certainly wasn't up to German standards. The C3 pretty much rolled over and died when Japanese camera companies hit full stride in the late '50s

[Reiska]

Argus was a new start to photography. Like a second wave after George Eastman and a Brownie cameras. Conditionated to modern life, something like digital cameras and cellphones are doing now.

Too overflowing superlatives for a humble camera but more than a half is true

Argus is not a Leica, even it has some similarities but it was not supposed to be a Leica. It is an entry level consumer camera as Wayne wrote. But It has a role in camera history, though mostly American, but a history.
I wonder was any Argus cameras ever exported to Europa.

[doubs43]

Ron, as I recall my father used an Argus back in the 1940's and always thought it did rather well. I have one or two that I inherited from him but have never taken time to give one a try.

Walker

[malkav]

So the camera is worth next to nothing. Just my luck.
Oh well.

[Rachel]

I'm sure you can sell any camera on eBay but you have to be realistic about prices. If you don't sell it in the first auction try again as I've seen items which attract no interest first time but later have lots of bids.