Help me price older Arca stuff

[Darin Boville]

I have a few good-condition older-style Arca items I want to sell (not now!) but there are very few to none on E-bay nor here. Need a little price guidance. Here is what I have:

1 - older style 40 cm rail

1-- Arca 171x171 board, with baffles, with #1 hole.

1 - Generic 171x171 board with baffles, with #3 hole

1- 8x10 bag bellows. Might be leather. Good shape but foam is started to get old.

*Please* no offers to purchase--I'll let you know when I post here or on e-bay. Those are the forum rules. Just need a guesstimate on price so I don't give these away/price them way too high.

Thanks,

--Darin

[Darin Boville]

Guesses?

--Darin

[Darin Boville]

Well, no advice :( but thanks anyway. Items are on sale on the "for sale" section.

The bellows sold with the back I had advertised earlier.

--Darin

[Frank Petronio]

It's hard to come up with a price since eBay "completed sales" are so infrequent and random for items like these. No doubt they are important to people who need them but some of the more obscure, older gear seems either very high or very low.

Prices fetched are illogical too. Last year someone sold an older 8x10 Arca for peanuts after it languished for weeks, if not months, even though it was an ideal camera for most of the people here who want an 8x10 that is light, rigid, flexible, and inexpensive. Yet another person will drop more on a beater Deardorff or several times more for a Chamonix or many times more for an Ebony, none of which would really match the weight, strength, and flexibility of that camera.

If you had an 8x10 Arca and wanted a bag bellows, you'd be paying camerabellows $500+ (I guess) to build one for you and it would take three or four months.

Right now there is probably someone spending $450 with Arca to get a new 40cm rail, even though the old and new rails are interchangeable.

From your description, I am not sure if those lensboards will fit a modern F-line Arca or not. I think I remember trying a modern board with light baffles on an older model and I couldn't get the light-trap foam to compress enough. So clarify that to start....

I guess it is just a matter of luck to hit the timing right when people want your item. Good photos and descriptions, maintaining a good reputation, and cross-posting in other photo forums all help. I no longer think eBay is worth it - better to reduce your price to reflect the gouge eBay would have taken - and it will make your offering all the more attractive.

You could always sell it to a dealer....