I bought it from him directly, actually. $300 for a Zeiss Ikonta with a Novar, in good condition.
I had asked for a good "working" camera, as I was going to use it and made that fact very clear to him.
When I got it, there were several light leaks in the bellows. I had to send it back 5 times for him to fix everything. From the beginning, the mirror on the rangefinder was bent (it's on a thin post on those cameras and easily bent- easily fixed, too).
Basically, I ordered a working camera from him and got one that he hadn't obviously tested. I had taken several test rolls (>6) of film and had them developed (no small cost there!) and printed only to find persistant light leaks and focusing issues, to say nothing of one of the cells of the lens with a damaged/missing coating that was quite obvious just by looking at the reflections in the lens.
When all was said and done, we finally DID get the camera working (and I say "we" because I had a local shop columnate the camera, and I pulled the top myself to bend the rangefinder mirror back into position), but by then, the karma associated with it (he did include a lens hood for it on the final trip back to me) didn't come close to making up for what was truly a mediocre camera meant to fill the need for a small and portable medium format camera.
He might be better- his standards might be higher, and he might be more thorough with his rating system, but being burned by the fact that he obviously never tested the camera with film leads me to stay away from him.
I did learn several lessons from the experience. I will buy from someone after spelling out the very specific requirements under which I'm willing to purchase. I make an agreement that the camera will come to me in a specific condition for the use I intend for which to use it. I will no longer send cameras back to people that "assumed" that it worked fine. I also want them to pay for return shipping and the associated film developing costs.
ANYWAY. Buyer beware.
