Post your wacky lens ads, auctions, sales!

[Dan Fromm]

Kent, Topogon is a trade name as well as a design. The B&L Metrogon is a Topogon clone. The one Ari directed to us isn't a Metrogon, it is something else again. And the seller traditionally asks very high prices for his lenses, doesn't get them often.

[Two23]

A "waste level finder," for taking photos in a sewer!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rolleiflex-S...item231f58ba2c


Kent in SD

[Steven Tribe]

This a slighty more subtle crazy line from a German seller of an 18x24cm reisekamera who rather messes up his professional layout by saying that the Heliar 18cm is from 1880 - which predates the Taylor patent by quite a few years.

"EMAIL correspondence is possible in GERMAN, ENGLISH, SPANISH and, if you write slowly ;-), also in FRENCH. " !!

[goamules]

It's not really a "wacky" ad, just a mistaken seller. Just because a brass lens says Chevalier doesn't mean it's THE Chevalier from the 1840s. The listed lens was made in the 1870s by a manufacturer that just used that name to help their sales. No relation to the early lensmaker, and very low budget. 350579153082

[goamules]

The above fake Chevalier went for $389 with 15 bidders! Some buyer is going to be very unhappy when they discover they bought a cheap 1870s 4x5 Rapid Rectilinear worth about $30.

[desertrat]

A Wolly series III f9.5 6-1/4" Velostigmat (uncoated) just sold for $406 with 10 bids. To add insult to injury, it's in a later Alphax synchromatic shutter with no aperture scale, and something strange is sticking out of the cable release socket. Item number 320942552788. I bought one last year for a little over 1/4 that amount and all I had to do was clean a lot of haze off the elements. Some kind of old lens insanity is spreading. I can understand big bucks for huge brass 11X14 portrait lenses, but I never thought the little wide angle Wolly would achieve cult status.

[Lachlan 717]

This one's great! Selling "exposed" film. The Seller goes in to some detail about how the envelopes have tears and pin-holes, and explains that the film will be fogged. And then has the temerity to ask $79.99 for it!!

What a goose.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

In communist countries, all prices were (and still are) state-regulated.

Hence, in a free contry, all prices should be un-regulated.

for example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...vip=true&rt=nc

the same in focal length of 100 mm instead of 64 mm, price drop by a factor 7.5:
http://cgi.ebay.fr/Carl-Zeiss-Lamego...-/271001329384

Interesting to see in action the good old trick consisting in adding a prestigious keyword to help making more visible your sale of a less prestigious item.
The funny thing here is that the vendor of the 100mm Lamegon claims that his lens is better than the Biogon

Would you serioulsy advertise for a precious lens, by adding to your "for sale" listing the name of a lens of lesser performance? ;; -)

[Sevo]

The funny thing here is that the vendor of the 100mm Lamegon claims that his lens is better than the Biogon

He may be right. The Lamegon was a extra low distortion GDR Jena Biogon derivate for photogrammetry purposes, and originally may have had much higher production cost than photographic Biogons.

[Mark Sawyer]

Just for fun, compare the "Pinkham" now on ebay: 200793158882

with the Wollensak now on ebay: 120947619430