watch out buying from certain e bay sellers....

[eddie]

hi all,

just a bit of a community heads up.

as you all may have noticed there are two sellers on e bay selling what looks to be NOS lenses:

old-aurora-mining-co

&

hometownfarm

now i am just trying to support and look out for the LF people here.

what i have noticed is that most of the stuff seems to be burke and james reworked stuff. almost all seem to be altered in some way. the 19 inch heliar that just sold is one example. the info on the heliar is not like any i have ever seem it was in inches on the barrel. i have only seen cm written around the front of the front element. a friend has one written 11 1/2 iches around the front element but it says made in NY or sometihng like that. there are clear photos showing what maybe dallmeyer glass but in other manufactures barrels. also the writing on many of the lenses are not OEM, neither is the info that they have. many OEM stuff lacked info like FL and f stops on the barrel....for example.

all this is well and good. buyer beware....SO BEWARE....but they have a no return policy and claim to "not be experts" so just watch your ass. you may actually get dallmeyer glass....but if it is a different barrel you have lost most if not all the value....great to use only. (almost like having a salvage title on your car. great for transportation but that is all). there is more but you get the idea.

now maybe i am overstepping my bounds here but my conscious says to tell you so i am.

watch your A$$.

hope this helps someone.

eddie

[Dan Fromm]

Eddie, please have your in-built BS detector recalibrated. The listings seem to be the work of a relatively serious very innocent person.

As was mentioned in a recent thread (http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=50278) Bunk & Junk bought scrap, surplus, and reject lenses, rehoused/repackaged 'em and sold 'em. People bought 'em. Some were good, others weren't. IMO it is best to be skeptical of any lens B&J put their name on. H. Lynn Jones, who posts here occasionally, will probably assert. and strongly, that everything B&J sold was wonderful.

But not all of the lenses your pet vendors offer passed through B&J's and some of the ones that didn't fascinate. I don't have the resources to chase either, would like to play with the 300/6.3 Krauss Tessar and the 500/5.6 Kinoptic Aplanat. The Kinoptic's s/n puts it just before P-H Pont's chronology starts (earliest date 1953, earliest s/n "around 13,000," the lens is #12,374), so it is awfully recent for a real Aplanat/RR.

Cheers,

Dan

[eddie]

thanks dan,

you may be much more informed than others here......some people just do not know.

it was a very genuine be-sure-you-do-your-homework shout out. that is all.

if you look closely at the other lenses that just sold for pretty much top dollar you see many have been repainted, dents and all still showing, re engraved, others lacked parts and the like. i am sure that there is some gems....there always is.

i have learned the hard way. that being said i do not think that others need to learn the hard way as well if guidance is available. i did not say do not to buy i just said beware and do your homework.

i now ask all sellers if there is glass in the front and rear of lenses if i am not 100% sure as getting a one element lens that should have two really sucks....or getting a lens with no iris adn not know it sucks....etc etc.

[goamules]

It is best to be safe. I looked at a lot of these lenses and thought, "wow - mint 20s versions that B&J must have bought and resold." I bid on a Heliar, but it went way high at the end.

It's good to know you are seeing signs of rework, I will not pay top dollar for a reworked anything. As with repainted cars, refinished guns, etc. originality is better. Glass condition is really the one you want to be sure about, of course.

[c.d.ewen]

the info on the heliar is not like any i have ever seem it was in inches on the barrel. i have only seen cm written around the front of the front element. a friend has one written 11 1/2 iches around the front element but it says made in NY or sometihng like that. eddie

You thinking of mine, Kimosabe? The one you shot with last Winter?

Just for the record:

Around the top : No 6 Voigtlaender HELIAR US Patent 716035
Around the bottom: Focus 14 In No 588XX
On the barrel: The Voigtlaender & Son Optical Co New York

What's interesting about the marking is that there's an overstrike on the engraving. You can see that "No 6 HE" was engraved first, then overwritten by the "No 6 Vo", as quoted above.

I've had it apart, and the lens design conforms to the 1904 patent, so I'm satisfied that it's genuine.

Sorry I can't provide a photo; the engraving doesn't show well with the flakey black paint on aluminum.

Charley

[eddie]

You thinking of mine, Kimosabe? The one you shot with last Winter?


Charley

no, tonto it was another....seems like the NY versions had inches written around the lens. the one that went for a G the other day had 19 inches stamped on the side of the barrel in very very clear numbers.....

[community1313]

Interesting thread..What about "the two brothers that were collecting the lens but never used them" it's like treasure island for LF! There are more sellers than the two named above..obviously there is a stock of brand new second hand lens on the market, I would love to have more information, also I am a newbee and a bit wild on top of it I have been lucky, I am in europe and the LF market is different, lots of petzval in england and voigtlander in germany! I think the prices in some ebay shop are just plain ridiculous! more tan 1000$ for a verito?? I think someone needs to be patient and not catch the ebay fever! I like to trade with honest customers like me, ok I just got an Hermagis N01, cross fingers, it's travelling now! $$$$

[community1313]

My Hermagis arrived and it happens to be "the hermagis eidoscop" 10 inch portrait lens coated in perfect mint shape, can't wait to try it..