Bargain or booty? Minolta CLE and 28mm Elmarit

Jocko

Jocko

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I'm not sure if this is a scam, stolen goods or an ignorant seller, but I find this rather odd:http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/minalta-cle-w...619608851QQcategoryZ38612QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The seller appears to be semi-literate and know little about photography or the camera he is selling ("minalta"? "Lica"?), has no feedback, wants the buyer to collect and pay in cash and appears to have photographed the camera on the passenger seat of a car. He has also placed it in the wrong e-bay section ("other cameras", not rangefinders). It looks very dodgy to me.

Ian
 
kinda gives you the impression that he stole it from a tourist just a few minutes prior to taking the photo in his car and then uploading the auction at an internet cafe
 
I can't get to eBoy from work (prolly a good thing), but in my experience that type of auction also has the following characteristics:

1) one-day auction

2) asks you to contact him at a different email address if you have questions - that address is usually a hotmail or other freebie

3) cash or wire transfer only

4) has spotless feedback, but not much of it, and has never sold before or sells very different items from what's on offer now

5) eBoy says seller is in UK or Canada or Germany, but auction goods are supposedly in Singapore or somewhere in the Far East

6) Item is intentionally in the 'wrong' category to make you think you stumbled over a rare deal - better get that bid in!

If I got 5 out of 6 of these, I'd be pretty sure it was a scam. In any case, dodgy is as dodgy does - I'd never bid on something like what you describe. My karma is already bad enough, I don't need to be buying stolen kit.

Another RFF'er and I came across a seller last year who was selling vintage Nikon, Canon, and Minolta SLR kit out of a pillow case at a flea market. Uh, no thanks. Really. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
I vote for stolen goods (or bought cheaply stolen).

Local pickup seem to indicate no scam. What can he do? Get you into a dark alley and rob you for GBP 100?

Hardly ignorant honest seller, he would have to buy it from someone second hand at some point and a Leica lens is just not anywhere this cheap (the CLE is not that cheap either). He would know the value and sell it in a better way now, or not have bought it in the first place.

/Håkan
 
Can anyone here imagine having this camera and this lens for "several years" and "never [having] used it"!? I bet collection will be in a pub or supermarket carpark!

Ian
 
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