Good old ebay....

[Ash]

I was looking at strut cameras (again). Blame this on the Dagor in its broken focus helical my grandfather had given me years ago. The story goes it was given to him by his wife(my grandmother)'s boss maybe 30-50 years ago, and it came off a strut camera.

A renewed interest was sparked by Miguel Coquis' 13x18 he restored.


Long story short I was watching this until it finished...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290446410338

Good old ebay to let an auction with no description and no returns policy shoot up to silly money. It was £59 til 3minutes to go, jumped to £90, then finished at over £200!

As far as I can see it's missing the little pop up VF, if nothing else.


Has anyone here got a 9x12/4x5/13x18 klapp?

[Keith Pitman]

Description: "GOERZ 9X12CM BELLOWS BOX CAMERA - 15CM F/4.5 LENS"

Return Policy: "No Returns Accepted"

[Ash]

Keith, your observation skills astound me.

[Dan Fromm]

Ian, I can't imagine why anyone would want what looks like a Goerz Anschutz, even though that one looks much cleaner than most offered.

But if you look at the bidding history you can see how the train wreck happened. The second high bid was placed over a minute before the auction closed, the high bid placed seconds before. Both were more than double the third high bidder's reserve.

The high bid was probably placed by an automated sniping engine. And of course the second high bidder's reserve was invisible until the high bid was placed.

Two bidders who think "I want it, I'll just put in a safely ridiculous bid at the end, no one will come near it" = train wreck.

Ash, I don't see what eBay had to do with the catastrophe. eBay provides the venue, collects isting and final value fees from the seller. The bidders make the stupid gambles. Although, for all I know, since Anschutz cameras are out of my normal range, the apparently wretched thing could be, um, buried treasure.

[Paul Ewins]

To be honest, I don't see anything particularly stupid about the final price. You see Speed Graphics at that price regularly and there is nothing rare about a SG. Sure it's not pristine and the shutter probably doesn't work but it would probably make most collectors happy.

I was actually going to bid on that, but at £59 it was already past my limit, but then I just wanted something unusual to play with. If I was actually a collector of that brand/type of camera my limit would have been a lot higher.

[msk2193]

And that is why e-Bay is the closest thing to a real free market economy. People will pay whatever they think something is worth. No one claims the buyer needs to be an expert.

Just two fools are needed to create a market! Or, what does the buyer know that no one else does?

[Bill_1856]

Frankly, the price seems pretty reasonable to me for someone who actually wants it, and not just a curiosity to play with.

[Ash]

I just found it interesting that (for Keith's benefit) bar the repeated text of the auction title there was no additional information, no public questions.

Paul I'm with you. £59 looked ok-ish to me (because it's quite local) but I knew there'd be a sharp rise - I was expecting under £200 though

[Steven Tribe]

This is a very late model Ango - and very clean. I wouldn't be surprised if the FP shutter actually works. But no Plate/film sheet holders! Ango was on the market so long that Goerz produced 1/4 and 1/2 plate sizes. I know because I bought a "13x18" that turned out to be a 1/2 plate.