Am i in the wrong place?

[belgiumreporter]

After seing this website www.mrmartinweb.com/camera.html  i feel like i'm living in the wrong place.
This Mr. Martin has a nice camera collection, i own many of the cameras he has, but i seem to have paid them way to much.
With every camera he describes on his site he tells the story of where he got it and how much he paid for it. The prices he payed for his cameras can only make me envious.
For instance he claims he paid 50$ for an original 1959 canonflex and an additional 15$ for the 50mm f 1:1.2 lens. I was glad i finally found a canonflex in Australia (wich is the other side of the world for me) for 240$ as they are so rare i was giving up hope ever finding one. Then there's the olympus pen Ft with the ultra rare 1:1.2 42mm for wich he paid 40$ i bought mine with the "normal" standard lens for 120€ and thought it was a steal. I'm not even going to start about what he paid for his nikon collection.
Now allmost all of his cameras were bought in California- La Mesa in garage sales others where on craiglist or an occasional Ebay. Now i ask you if someone lives in that area or has been there, do you know if these prices are common practice in that part of the world (and are the streets lined with gold???) I mean as long as i am collecting i've never EVER found a "real" classic for peanuts, allways had to pay the price, exept for some less desirable cameras wich do sometimes pop up way below their list price . Anyway seing the camera prices in La mesa CA garage sales i'm seriously thinking to spend some time there cleaning up those garages !
BTW. Mister Martin has a very nice and informative website.

[Stephen]

Part of this is the American concept, the Garage Sale. It means sellers have less idea of the values as they are often first time sellers.

In the UK garage sales were unknown till a few years ago, and even techincally unlawful in local authority terms as you risked being classed as a street trader, and using a household for business purposes.

This led to an explosion of "Car Boot" sales, where a field is hired and stalls are rented to allow anybody to sell items. Usually held on Sundays to get around Sunday Trading regulations before they were relaxed.

At first many bargains appeared, but these sales have become more profesional over the years and the sellers often charge the going rate. Even the newcomer knows what to charge just by looking at all the other sellers stalls.

So only a real garage sale will turn up bargains.

In the UK the other source is the Charity Shops, they are legion these days. but they are usually careful to check out prices, and after all the income to the charity comes first.

I find that cameras also turn up at Motor Clubs Autojumble sales at the Clubs Auto meetings, I got my Chequer Rollei at one, also a Meopta 120 TLR, as they were sold by sellers with no camera experience.

Another source in the UK is second hand book shops, they often buy clear out boxes of books and end up with occasional cameras and lenses.

Stephen

[Stephen]

By the way the link is not working, error 404

Stephen

[camfiend]

also discovered link doesnt work.. I buy quite a lot of cameras from all sources in Australia and from ebay etsy etc and have found some very cheap prices advertised in the US but by the time I pay the huge postage costs and sometimes need to wait 6-8 weeks while they lose and re-find my purchases I wonder sometimes if its just better to pay more and buy locally

[Stephen]

www.mrmartinweb.com/camera.html

This one works.

[camfiend]

WOW I'm suitably impressed, some very nice cameras but yes some of those prices paid seem almost unbelievable
wonder how much air fare is from Australia to US

[paulhofseth]

I have found that the trick is to buy just when fashion has turned. Alpas, their Switars, Kinoptics , Angenieux and Spectros cost very little once they were outmoded. I remember a stall in the Paris flea-market having two trays packed with dead-cheap Kinoptics. Zeiss Contax\yashica optics and Leitz R ones went cheap once the digital wave really hit-. Now it is too late for those to pick up a bargain.

Some East-European quality products are still remarkably cheap. If the present day autofocus-auto aperture stuff hasn't fallen apart by then, Canon L will be dead cheap once another innovation takes hold.

p.

[cameradoodler]

I have to say from looking at all the cameras he found at yard sales and estate sales, etc., he has a target rich environment. I live in the metro Atlanta, GA area and go out looking at sales sometimes on Friday or Saturday mornings. I have what I thought was luck, however nothing like he does. I will brag about one find I made years ago. Went to an estate sale, it was the 2nd weekend they were having it, and there was still a lot of things left for sale. Out on the carport attached to the house were tables and bookcases full of all sorts of odds and ends. I looked through boxes and bags finding nothing of interest. By luck I picked up a shoe box and opened it. Inside i saw some camera manuals and a couple of old flashes. Then under those items I see an old fold out Kodak camera that i didn't recognize. 

It was a Kodak Duo 620 with a built in rangefinder. I had never seen or read about one before. I took the unpriced box to the checkout area and asked what they wanted. I walked away with the box in disbelief that i got it for $2.00 US. I knew the manuals were worth more than that to me, not to mention the old flashes. 

When I got home I pulled out my McKeown's and started looking through the Kodaks. To make a long story short I had found a nice one and never even realized it when I bought it. I had no idea that only about 2,000 of them were made. Bad timing at the German Kodak factory, they literally started making them September 1, 1939.

So don't give up hope, there are always cameras out there, just often a matter of luck. Oh one other piece of advice, always ask if you don't see anything. I am not joking, probably 25% or more of the cameras I find come from asking if they have anything they have forgotten about in a closet, etc. Those are often the ones you get for the least cost. Many really think that no one is interested in old "junk" 35mm film cameras.

[hannes]

Here in Austria it is still possible to find some cheap treasures sometimes. My last findings are a Nikon F3 and a F90X body for 25€ each. They came from "Willhaben.at" which a platform for private sale without fees. On ebay I got my FG with lens for 6€ about one year ago. You just need to be patient and have some luck.

And do not count the lost auctions where your bid was way too low.

[Peltigera]

Dec 12, 2015 14:07:20 GMT -5 hannes said:

And do not count the lost auctions where your bid was way too low.

I browse Ebay most days for auctions that are being ignored. Sometimes these are because of poor descriptions (my Ikoflex was listed under "folders" and described as a box camera. Mine was the only bid), sometimes no description ("Camera. See photograph" accompanied by one out of focus picture) and sometimes because, actually, no one is currently interested. I place ridiculously low bids and am almost (only almost) always outbid. Occasionally I get a nice camera for 99p.

[philbirch]

Dec 12, 2015 16:10:12 GMT -5 Peltigera said:

Dec 12, 2015 14:07:20 GMT -5 hannes said:

And do not count the lost auctions where your bid was way too low.

I browse Ebay most days for auctions that are being ignored. Sometimes these are because of poor descriptions (my Ikoflex was listed under "folders" and described as a box camera. Mine was the only bid), sometimes no description ("Camera. See photograph" accompanied by one out of focus picture) and sometimes because, actually, no one is currently interested. I place ridiculously low bids and am almost (only almost) always outbid. Occasionally I get a nice camera for 99p.

My best bargain was an ebay listing that ticked all the wrong boxes: 8:45am finish time, bad listing 'Canon camera was my dads collect only', dark, blurred photos, high start price (£20), No description and collection only. It went with no bids and was re-listed. Then I noticed it was in my town. I contacted the seller and arranged to see it. I offered £30 on the spot which she took. Canon EF & 50mm f1.4, Canon 24mm f2.8 and four other lenses.

[yashica1943]

I think that as far as I am concerned it is just a matter of luck or bad luck sometimes. I go into charity shops in various towns if I have time. I have bought two or three really good film cameras in good order, but not at spectacular prices. If I go to my local small car boot sale, eight out of ten times I buy nothing, but when a good one comes along it is usually cheap. Three very recent buys stand out. A Lordomat in case in good working order, £5. A Ricoh SLR with a good Pentax 50mm on the front. £5. A very clean working Olympus OM-10 in case with manual adapter, £8.
Best of all, two years ago a Leitz Afloo manual film winder, I picked it up off the table, the seller said. "You can 'ave it for 50p.!". I sold it for £50. But I keep an open mind, there are quite a few cameras out there that are dirty, ill treated or just don't work at all. I once bought a good Olympus OM-10 from ebay for £0.91p. The seller had listed it as 'Olympusom 10. But this sort of thing seems to be very rare now.

[camfiend]

As people become more aware of the collectibility of cameras they start to think there's money to be made and prices rise, sometimes ridiculously... there are those out there that think because they discovered an old dusty, often damaged camera in grandpa's shed its worth a fortune.. and thats not often the case

Bob