Contax TLA 360 flash unit prices?

[rbiemer]

Never been much of a flash unit user but I have decided that I want to explore what's possible with my N1 and the TLA 360 flash unit.

Started shopping around to see what a decent looking one will cost me and I'm seeing prices that vary by a huge amount for apparently similar condition units.

As in sellers in the US seem to be offering these at around $150-175 or so while sellers in Japan are offering them at $50 to $75.

None of the flash units I've been looking at are new or even "as new in box" but are listed as working and all appear to be pretty close in condition. I'm not looking at "as is" or any that are obviously broken.

What gives? Are there tons of the TLA 360 flashes flooding the Japanese markets? Or are US sellers deciding that "Contax" is worth an extra $100?

Maybe I ought to just buy as many as I can from Japan and add $50 and sell them on here in the US?

Rob

 

[Ste_S]

It's a bad time to buy second hand at the moment as prices are being hyper inflated by a lack of stuff on the market (and uncertainty of shipping from Japan).

You'll need to be patient, either to wait for a sensibly priced one to turn up or for things to start returning to normal and people begin selling stuff again.

 

[rbiemer]

It's a bad time to buy second hand at the moment as prices are being hyper inflated by a lack of stuff on the market (and uncertainty of shipping from Japan).

You'll need to be patient, either to wait for a sensibly priced one to turn up or for things to start returning to normal and people begin selling stuff again.

Well...I am not the most patient person so I thought a bit about this and ended up finding a US seller who had one listed "as new in box" who also had a fairly high starting bid (with 0 bidders) and a "make offer" option.
The auction had about 2 hours left when I saw it and decided to make an offer. I offered about 25% less than the starting bid and that offer was accepted. 🙂

I did pay more than I might have if buying from a Japanese seller but not too much more and so I'm content with this purchase. As long as it works, anyway.

As for "uncertainty of shipping from Japan", I think there really shouldn't be.

Last Friday, I found and bought an FX-3 focus screen (this one has a grid pattern in it) for my N1. It was delivered this morning. So, that was plenty quick.
A week ago, I bought a new lens for my 4x5 camera and that one was delayed a bit. I paid on the Monday, it was supposed to be delivered on the Thursday but it was delayed for a day after customs so I didn't get it until the Friday.

Certainly stuff coming from China is taking longer right now--I bought a fountain pen from a chinese manufacturer and that will get here eventually. But it already has taken about twice as long as the last time I bought from the same company.


Now if I could just find a D-10 data back for the N1...

Rob