What's Your Best Bargain Find?

far, far, far too many to even remember

far, far, far too many to even remember

the only way I can afford this confounded hobby is by scoring deals and trading off or selling the excess to cover and trading up what I use

lets see.. a linhof 4x5 tech for 25 bucks (to the guy who told me a camera was in a dumpster out back)

two M3's and box of lenses for 300

a nikon sp for 275

from an estate sale..a box..like a big box of stuff including a mint 1F and about three lenses and filters and books and ...and ...and...for 25 bucks

a rollei 2.8 plannar for 25 bucks

a robot royal and two lenses for about 50

my favorite and one of the few I still have is an old hollywood wood - hand cranked 35mm motion picture camera for 250

I feel priviledged to have gotten to handle and use some of this stuff.

I probably should have photo-documented it as I went
 
The funniest thing happen on flea markets here ( I guess that is carboot sales in the US). Most of the time, no matter what camera it is, the asking price is around 10 bucks. I got the Kern Switar c mount 75mm (the seller told me it is a russian lens) for $7 - that was wicked. Another guy sold me a 90mm SP Tamron for 5$. A guy asked me to pay 10$ for a Zenit E with a 135mm Takumar mounted on. I unscrewed the Takumar and gave him 8$ after a looooong discussion- he was quite happy - me too !!. About four weeks ago I was on flea market, a quite proffesional one with lots of antique furniture and stuff. I was quite late and the market was just about to close. I come across a guy and he has a little box with cameras. I start to have a look and he says "take it all for 10". I said "let me have a look first". Nothing really interested but than I open a case and I see a Agfa Selectronic S. I did not even know this camera exists. A beauty of a rangefinder - it was the high end rangefinder of Agfa in the 70s. I would have paid 20$ straight away for that !!! I tell the guy I like this one and even that it would fit nice to what I already have and ask for the price. He say "give me 3$". Usally I would say I will give you 2$ for that, but at least I kept my style not to be unrespectfull. 3$ was a deal and I walked away....Than I think about the rest of this box while walking around...The fleamarket was over and everybody packed up... I went back to the guy and told him that I may need some stuff out of the box. Just an old case or maybe a lenshood... So he gave me the rest of the box for a fiver. Once home I discoveres that there was a mint Agfa Silette SLE with a nice 2.8 50 Color Solinar in that box. Even with manual. Stuck shutterblades I could fix in a snap with some lighter liquid. The camera runs smooth again. And the Agfa Selectronic included leaked batteries inside. But half an hour later it was back in perfect condition.... Waiting for the next market....... Oh I forgot that mint Pentax-M 50 1.7 - I was 5$ more poor after that deal....And you get bored about all that Zenit cameras with the nice Helios mountet on that you find almost every time below 10$.


On the other side I lost around 80% on the Nikon F100 I bought 10 years ago. But than bought a Konica T4 for 5% of the price I got for the F100 🙂
 
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Some of you already know this, but I got my black paint M4 with 50 summicron+hood for $1200, and from the same seller I got a 35 'lux pre-asph for $120, and Leica-meter MR-4, leitz polarizer and Leitz yellow filter for $40 more. Sold the 'lux and got all my money back plus some profit. The rest of the kit will stay with me.

Edit: also, my Contaflex I for $9
 
I picked up a Yashica CC at a consignment store a few years back for seven dollars and change. I had the intention of making it a desk ornament.

I had no idea what I actually bought until I Googled it.
(Surprise!)
 
Rollei 35S which was about £100 I think but I ordered it from America and it was in extremely good condition and I got a very very new Canonet QL 17 GIII for about £70.
 
What did you find?
Why, the Rangefinderforum, of course!😉

What did you pay and what do you think the true value was?

Nothing paid but the value has been immeasurable.
 
An excellent Zeiss Planar T* 50/1.4 in C/Y mount $35.

I bought a "Tashica" T4 on eBay for $20, including shipping.

A mint Nikon FG with an E series 50/1.8, and an excellent Konica FS-1 with a Hexanon 40/1.8, with a working Kodak Signet 35 "thrown in", for $9.99 + shipping.

A very nice Yashica T3, along with five other point & shoot cameras, in a box lot for $4.00.
 
periflex 1 pigskin (sr N° 6xx) with lens... working... 100€
Leica n°1505 (factory modified to leica II) working ... 100€
UGEIN III (1943) only know exemplary worldwide ... 20$

all on ebay
 
Today I got a Leitz Focomat and a Focotar lens for 74 bucks from a guy who works in a thrift shop here in Stockholm. I bought it sight unseen, but hopefully the guy is telling the truth about the condition of the gear.

I also recently bought a Minolta M-Rokkor 28 for about 170 dollars, though it has a case of the spots and some light cleaning marks, I still reckon it's a bargain since I can't see any ill effects on the photographs I've taken with it.
 
Just pulled the trigger on ebay (Buy it Now) and picked up a chrome M4 for $400. My best Leica M find to date. Can't wait for it to arrive!
 
I found a near-mint Bessa I 6x9/4x6 for $40 in a local camera shop. Great lens on that one.
Also a lightly brassed Leica III with an excellent Nippon Kogaku 35/3.5 for appx. $300.
The near-mint $200 Ricoh GR1 I just bought is also a steal in my opinion.
 
I found a perfectly working Olymus XA at a camera show for $15 a few months ago, and before that, a friend of a friend who owns a camera store near Lancaster, PA, gave me a perfectly working (showing some wear) Nikon F3 for free!
 
Thanks to Thambar (Jim Shulman) of our Philly RFF contingent, I was able to purchase a mint Rolleiflex 2.8F with working meter, with leather case, metal tropical hardcase, multiple rolleinars, multiple filters, rolleikin, leather binocular focusing hood, rollei pentaprism, panorama adapter, rollleifix, rolleigrip, and two flash attachments for less than half the going rate.
 
I've already mentioned this is another thread but I bought a Nikon F with it's metered finder at a garage sale for $10 (he had an ad in craigslist) Serial #64650xx

A few weeks before that a friend gave me a box of camera stuff which contained;
1. Takumar 28mm 3.5 lens with case M42 mount
2. CPC Phase 2 CCT 135mm Macro 2.8 lens Pentax K mount
3. Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm 1.7 lens with box, both caps in near mint condition
4. Pentax ME Super

I'm keeping the Pentax stuff...that 135mm lens is pretty good...never heard of that lens before...

I took the Minolta lens to my local Camera shop guy...
He had the correct Eyelevel prism for my Nikon F so we traded...
 
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