Hi Richard,
Bluesman said:
cameras/lenses are about the only FSU-produced things worth buying
Not quite, you have at least watches as well, and some people would include binoculars (and possibly guns).
Not in the same category, but some would include a few models of cars as well, notably the Lada Niva (now built by Chevrolet) which is a very nice compact 4x4 offroader and surprisingly popular in the West.
Bluesman said:
The profit on each camera/lens is huge in Russian/Ukrainian terms (buy for a song, sell for good Euro:s/USD)
It's not as easy as that. I've had some insights into FSU camera economics here because a good friend is dealing in cameras here in Tashkent. It's true that you can buy a good FED-2 for $5 and a Zorki-6 for $10 here, and then probably resell them to the West for $20 or $40 respectively, so it looks like a clean 300% profit margin for the seller. On the other hand, for that he has a lot of effort:
- Getting the cameras. This is more work than it sounds. With common models, for every good camera that can be sold to the West he has to look at at least five worn down, dead cameras that can't be sold at all. If you think the cameras you buy off eBay are bad, if you unlikely enough happen come to Tashkent until September I can show you the mass of neglected junk out of which these are the best picks. Getting good cameras requires a lot of time. With rare models they have to be tracked down. If I go phone my dealer tomorrow and ask him whether he can get me a Kiev-5 within four weeks, he will probably say yes, but then he will do twenty phonecalls to other people who also want their own little share of the profits, and this all drives prices up.
- Getting the cameras overhauled. Western customers are picky. You want to sell cameras in good shape. For that you need a repairman. Any idiot here will claim that he can repair a camera, but skilled repairmen are surprisingly rare over here, and this tends to drive prices up.
- Getting the cameras out of the country. Most FSU countries still have a regulation in place that everything over 50 years in age needs an export license, and this already begins to cover Zorki-5s and FED-2s. Here in Uzbekistan you aren't allowed to export cameras at all, so you have to bribe the customs man to close both eyes. Also there is some privatisation within the postal system going on, so you might have to establish a good working relationship with the head of your local post branch. All this costs money, too.
- Last not least: getting the necessary skills to sell cameras. For example you need to be more or less conversant in English. This is
not common over here in the generation over 35, and learning languages costs money. Corollary: if you come here with working knowledge of Russian, you can save a lot of money on camera purchases, because you get to deal with all those people who
don't have the opportunity to deal on eBay.
All in all, FSU camera dealers have quite slim profit margins. If someone sells you a $100 camera, he probably paid something like $20 for it, but I bet he doesn't make a net profit of more than $5.
Philipp
