Some Soft Focus Lens Sales Information

[Jim Galli]

After following a lot of soft lenses auctions on the bay, i came to the conclusion that the surge in sale prices, and the great (maybe in some cases even excessive) interest that many people have for such lenses, had a very bad side effect.
A number of vendors, private or professional, seem to get totally crazy, as soon as they discover that the item they are selling is very desiderable, and that some people are willing to pay big money to get their hands on the object of their desire.
I am not complaining about a few specialized sellers, auctioning over and over the same lenses at unrealistic prices. Probably they are waiting for some uy, with thick wallet, who absolutely wants THAT lens. I know very little about auction fees, but i suspect that they are paying much less than any private, small scale, ebayer.
What i can't really stand are the auctions (with bids!) abruptly closed short time after the opening, or other kind of wrongdoings, or blatant violation of the rules, that take place as soon as the vendor is made aware that there is some serious money that can be made. I have seen Pinkham and Smith lenses (always the same picture!!) "sold" by scammers... but i guess that very few people reading this thread could get hurt, the scam is too naive.
Believe it or not, i feel more disturbed by other behaviors!
I'll report the last example of disregards for the most basic rules. First link is the original auction, it was a big studio camera, plus a nice (albeit a little short, at least for me) soft focus lens. Then somebody probably contacted the vendor - there is a good chance that he got one or more emails from somebody on this forum - and raved about the lens, maybe saying at the same time that the camera + lens combo would be very expensive to ship to the other side of the Atlantic (or somewhere else in Asia or Oceania). There were already bids, but everybody knows that Ebay pays little or no attention to trivial things like this! Despite the fact that the vendor made already public that he was willing to ship the lens free, if the camera was not required... suddenly the auction was terminated (item not available). Of course, after very little, two new auction were opened, and the supposedly unavailable stuff got split in two separate auctions: one for the lens and one for the camera!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=150604473507

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cooke-Anastigmat...item2310e53f80

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wood-Brass-Kodak...item2310e57182

Now a small question:
would you trust somebody who does these kind of tricks?
do you consider it a minor misbehavior, just because so many people seem to follow the same route?

If i were the seller, i would have felt the obligation to leave the auction alone until its natural end. Am i too old fashioned (not too difficult, being 53)?

have fun

CJ

Ohhhhh!! I need that Cooke to complete my set!! Thanks!!!!!

[cyberjunkie]

Nice lens, Jim, isn't it?
Let me know how the vendor behaves, if you win!
BTW, i must admit that i posted the link because i am too broke to afford two 10.5" series II (i have the IIE)
Plenty of lens junkies here... including myself, of course!

Have fun

CJ

[edp]

Now a small question:
would you trust somebody who does these kind of tricks?
do you consider it a minor misbehavior, just because so many people seem to follow the same route?

I trust them more than anybody in the opposite "biggest steal of my life, I got this for nothing but it's worth thousands" camp. Information exchange is good; just because somebody's read a web page first doesn't give them the right to rip other people off. If you want to buy something, it's not unreasonable to expect to pay the going market rate for it.

(On the other hand, I do believe this thread is directly responsible for the inflated market rates for some of the lenses sold today, but that's another story).

[Steven Tribe]

I think this has turned out quite well!

The original listing (camera + lens) was done quite professionally. Good photos, which showed the Cooke to be in excellent condition, and the seller knew something about its use in portrait photography. Anyone on the lookout would have found it.

I originally raised the disappearance of the listing as I was afraid it was another example of a con job with "take it of your hands for £500 to-day" which, as we can see from documentation in the Q&A additions, is a quite frequent occurance. We should only be glad that these may have been in the category "giving helpful additional information" or that the lister smelled a rat and did extra googling.

Someone can now bid for a nice UK-made Eastman camera separately from the x times more expensive lens.

While I agree with edp, I think that the effect is more:

"Any old lens with brass and a name is worth a mint of money".

The high price of speciality pictorial lenses is much longer than the lifetime of this thread. It is growing interest in the images available/boredom with perfect renditions and their relative low production/survival that are the driving force in price rise (or should I say recovery?).

[gandolfi]

professional or not - he has listed the front plate with the lens, leaving the camera without...

soneone should tell....

[Mark Sawyer]

I was watching the auction before it ended, as I'm sure a lot of us were. The listing had enough info to catch anyone searching even semi-seriously, and I doubt that the change will affect the final price much. I'm just glad it wasn't another case of someone getting a quick "buy it now" bargain after convincing an unwary seller that the lens wasn't really worth much.

Sellers might get nervous seeing no bids at all for the first few days of an auction, as the snipers hide their bids til the final seconds. I think we might do better collectively to start putting in a few low-ball bids just to show interest and keep the auctions from ending early with no bids.

[eddie]

Bid high and bid hard.

I have been waiting to get a good judge of value. It is $675 now. With 7 days to go. I bet it hits $1450-1550. Any bets?

When the dust settles I will be ready to sell mine. Har Har Har !

[goamules]

The phrase "All's fair in love or war" comes to mind. I recall, and have sometimes been party to, the different complaint trends about difficulties purchasing good lenses.

The first trend was rising prices. People bemoaned the fact you could no longer find a Verito at a camera shop for $35 or an old brass Dallmeyer for $75. Closely followed by complaints about "hoarders" or "collectors" and how they didn't deserve to buy a lens as much as a true, certified "user." Then it was complaints about the sniper bid process...and how bad it felt to think you were winning an auction only to get "robbed" in the last few seconds by a "cheap shot." And now this one, that a seller shouldn't be allowed to split up a camera and sell the items separately for more profit, if I read the post correctly. Basically, that once he starts selling, he can't change his mind and stop.

Buying collectibles have always been high stakes. It's not like going to your local store and buying a standard item at a fixed price.

But what we are experiencing is classic human nature of buying and collecting, coupled to a fairly new, global electronic market. The behaviors of capitalism, risk taking, sense of fairness, greed, level of effort, etc. are all still variable with each seller and buyer.

But now in the information age, all the answers are there for the asking. All the information and technology can be used to work for you...or against you.

[Jim Galli]

One of the lenses in my top ten........Eidoscop #2 375mm............$888.89 320697884595

Sorry Eddie. Nothing wrong with it either. Should have been $2200.

[Two23]

The prices on these things go up and down. I'm just not going to buy anything fancy right now. I think once Nikon starts making new cameras and lens offerings again, a lot of the money that's currently chasing LF stuff will go back to buying the new big money Nikon stuff. At any rate, when prices go high I stay away and buy something that others aren't. I have pretty wide interests.


Kent in SD