Post your wacky lens ads, auctions, sales!

[goamules]

Deardorff "never used"....ad. 231304614880 So many collectors in other fields pay a premium on "never used" items. I see people clambering over "unfired" Coleman lanterns in box, Colt pistols, and the like. I see that hotwheels and matchbox car collectors only pay big money for unopened, in the box. I guess it has to flow over to cameras. But come on, you buy a Deardorff, pack it away for 38 years, "afraid to mess it up?" Then try to sell it as an "investment", implying the next owner should do the same? If they weren't so expensive, I think people would buy brand new cars, seal them in bubble wrap, and wait out their lifetimes for the "investment" to mature.

Yes, a clean anything is better than a ratty one, but this is starting to go overboard. On the other collector forums I'm in, people are always questioning "dare I use this, it's UNUSED!??" These items were made to be used. Not to be drooled over on some shelf.

Rant over.

[Jmarmck]

Same can be said for guitars. You want to see crazy? Check out the collectables and how much people are willing to pay. "A strat with Jimi sweat $50,000!" That is probably grossly underpriced.

[goamules]

Yeah, star appeal is always a hook. But the collectors of exceedingly common consumer items "in the box" just amaze me. I mean, I'm sure someone collects Sunbeam blenders "unused, in the box" or 1970s TVs "never turned on"....but it smacks of neurosis to me.

There is a guy in town that tries to sell old cameras on craigslist and several antique shops. Everything is from between 100% and 1000% too high, and never sells. About once a month I am suckered in with another listing, and call him, before I realize who he is. He has a Seneca Improved 8x10 in an antique shop, for example, for $1600. He doesn't know if the bellows are good, barely knew what format it was, has no clue what the lens and shutter do. But says "this is the BEST condition I've EVER seen in 40 YEARs of collecting!" every time I try to tell him it's a $400 camera. He's the type of "collector" that has $75 on Argus C3s.....And a $995 5x7 (he doesn't know what type it is, I told him a Century) bicycle folder. And all his collection just sits....forever....waiting for him to die so someone else can buy it for a reasonable cost.

[Jmarmck]

Smacks of car salesman on commission to me.

[Jmarmck]

Not exactly a lens auction but when searching for Schneider SA 47 XL I got this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Steel-Bo...item2ed1c20c83

Go figure

[Drew Wiley]

There's an auction ad up right now where someone is asking $33,000 for a "very rare" process Artar in barrel. That should incite quite a bidding war, since there are simply tens of thousands of collectors of oddball barrel lenses out there. Somehow I got most of my rare barrel process lenses for free, so guess I'll pass. I prefer
chunks of petrified wood for bookends myself.

[8x10 user]

There's an auction ad up right now where someone is asking $33,000 for a "very rare" process Artar in barrel. That should incite quite a bidding war, since there are simply tens of thousands of collectors of oddball barrel lenses out there. Somehow I got most of my rare barrel process lenses for free, so guess I'll pass. I prefer
chunks of petrified wood for bookends myself.

Where? I see a process camera with Artar for 15k.

[8x10 user]

Collectors value is a strange concept to me.

I have seen first edition (1 of 50) noctilux sell for 30K, and even rarer prototypes have gone for over 100k on live auctioneers.

I could not imagine why someone would think a regular process artar would be worth 30k. Where is it listed?

[8x10 user]

Correction the prototype Noctilux went for 160k + 23% buyers premium = $196,000

I'd rather buy a house!

[Steven Tribe]

I had to venture into the center of Copenhagen to-day, to have my own 2 lens checked at the optician!

I discovered that there was a new shop selling "our" equipment. The "old" shop, Photographica, gave up stocking old items and lists everything on Ebay without any retail attempts. It is now just a source of chemicals, paper and film.

Anyway, this new shop had a display outside the door consisting of a European copy of the Century bi-poster stand, a 1900 Görlitzer studio camera mounted with a Dallmeyer 3B. It has stood there a long time over this summer in direct sunlight and the rain showers of the last few weeks. Surprising, the mahogany has stood up well so far, just a little mat and bleached.

But the real shock is the pricing of the Dallmeyer 3B ( and another 3B in the shop). Both were set at at 25,000 DKK which comes out at about 4,640 USD. Neither was in great condition with scratches and achromat separation/discolouration. I suppose that retail sellers use the more outrageous Ebay listings to fix their asking prices. So the current trend for fantasy BIN or starting prices prices on Ebay for any old brass is having an effect way beyond the Ebay world.