Christies sale in London today

[Andrew3511]

As I was after a 35mm for my M2 and had the time off work I went up to London today to an auction of various photographic equipment including a lot of Leica M stuff at Christies. I had thought that as the dealers would be using places like this to get their stuff to sell to the punters it would have to be cheaper. Ah well, you live and learn...There were 5 35mm Summicrons in the sale and a Summilux. The early chrome one (admittedly in very good though certainly not unmarked condition) went for £850!!! add buyer's premium and VAT and that's well over a grand. There was a doggy old version 2 with play in the focus and cosmetically very rough, though optically OK that went for £300 - again add 20% and the VAT on the 20% for what you pay. The other 3 went for £450ish. The guy sitting next to me picked up one of the few items to go for less than the low estimate, a Noctilux, early F1.0 version for £700.

Amazing - was it just people being carried along by the auction thing or what? You can get the same items for less from dealers and with a guarantee. The Summilux went for £550 and for comparison you could buy the same in the same condition but with a box and hood from Classic Cameras in WC2 for £599.

I'll have to stick with the Summaron f2.8 for now. Maybe it's worth getting the fungus cleaned off the rear element as good 35mm lenses seem so hard to come by

 

[doubs43]

For whatever reason, people at open auctions seem to lose sight of reason and bid things to astronomical amounts. That's why using Christie's sold prices can be misleading when trying to establish value for items such as Leica lenses. I also imagine that most people attending Christie's auctions have rather deep pockets compared to the rest of us.

Walker

 

[ch1]

Yes, as doubs43 notes, at a "live" auction the bidding intensity sometimes results in people losing their senses and cents! 😀

I was once at an auction of Shaker furniture (known for its basic simple functionality w/o any adornment whatsoever). The auctioneer held up a wooden stick with a hole in the center. He explained how the Shakers would loop a piece of twine through the hole and use the stick as a clothes hanger. The darn thing went for $800!

After seeing that, I told my wife we had to go out into the woods behinkd our house - because we had a lot of Shaker "hangers" out there! 😀

BTW: I wonder if those pricesyou quoted include the "buyer's premiums", or if the actual sales prices were even higher?!

 

[Andrew3511]

The prices didn't include buyer's premium, that's another 20% and you have to pay VAT on it at 17.5% (the premium that is).

I have had another productive day today trying to dismantle my f2.8 Summaron because there is a small bit of fungus on an inside element. Unfortunately I have found the lens unit itself impossible to dismantle and all I have succeeded in doing is failing to get the ball bearing for the aperture click stops back into the correct place (how do you do that????) and finally, predictably, pinging it off into a corner of the room where I have no hope of ever finding it :bang: