Found a camera for sale - is having the original box worth an extra £300..? ($400)

[bluestar01]

I am looking at picking up an Epson R-D1 digital rangefinder, and have found a couple on eBay that have caught my eye.

• One listed in the UK (my home country) that has just the camera body, batteries + charger and SD card. For an extra £250-ish ($320)
• One in Japan, that has all of the above, but also comes with the original box and manuals, and a Voigtlander wide angle viewfinder (not really any use for me personally).

I am debating wether or not to go for the one with the original box and manuals. Do you think it is worth the extra £250 to get the original box and manuals, plus £50 and a 2 week wait for shipping? How much will I need those later down the line in regards to re-selling etc.? Are having the box and manuals alone going to affect resalve value for a currently pretty expensive camera a lot? I just don't wanna regret it later..!
I need to pick up an M-Mount lens for it so the saved money would go toward that. If I got the cheaper one in the UK, I would likely pick up 2 Voigtlander lenses rather than just one.

Which one would you choose in this situation?

 

[retinax]

You're not saying what viewfinder is included with the one from Japan but that, rather than the box, might be a major difference in value. Why do you focus on the box instead? I wouldn't spend a cent on packaging materials, or not more than what I could expect to get back in the event of a resale.
TWo further questions to consider: are these private offerings or from commercial vendors who offer returns? And have you figured in tax for the Japan import?

 

[James24]

I looked on ebay, and think I can see which ones you have in mind. As Retinax above asks, have you thought about import duty from Japan? It will be around 25% which would put the price in M9 (with a new sensor) territory.

The UK one looks good, and I believe the seller is reputable, but it's a lot of money.

 

[farlymac]

If it's that zoom finder than that's what drove up the price more than a box and manual. Plus it's coming from a different market, so prices in general may be a bit higher. Add in the VAT and you're paying extra for things that don't really raise the value of the camera itself. I usually try to find a dealer in country to avoid excessive shipping fees and long arrival waits, and in your case added tax. With an item having to travel all that way problems could arise from rough handling, and it's a bit more difficult if you have to return it. Keeping the money in country helps the local economy too, so that's always my biggest thing to look out for. I recently bought a diopter piece from a shop in London (Mr. Cad), and when it arrived it was nothing like the photo as it was for a different camera. So I had to then wait for them to send me another one, and when it arrived it did not match what it said on the box (was supposed to be a -2 and was actually a +3) so their staff obviously didn't know what they were doing, and I was then forced to buy one from a US dealer, which eventually meant I then paid double what I had wasted on the first diopter (wasn't worth the hassle trying to pursue a refund). So always better to shop closer to home from someone you can trust.

PF

 

[DownUnder]

I've thrown out every box of every piece of photo gear I've ever bought. So no sympathy at all from me.

Oops, wrong. I still have the original box that came with the Rolleiflex 3.5E2 I bought in 1966. Don't know why, but I do. It sits somewhere in one of my archival boxes in the garage. I should go and look for it. Who knows what it may contain - maybe even the Gossen Lunasix 3 with all its nice accessories, the one I mislaid in 1980.

Buyers who insist on boxes are obsessives. To quote my late French grandmother, they are to be pitied, not censured...

I think the OP should wait for the item he wants to buy and try to get it from his home country. One at the right price will eventually come along. It's good to keep the cash flowing where it belongs - 'charity' rightly begins at home, as the old saying goes. I also agree with saving money. And the heck with the box.

 

[ranger9]

I have to say that the box that the original R-D1 came in is a very nice box. Epson was one of the first to grasp that unboxing an expensive camera should feel like a really special occasion, and they designed the outer and inner packaging to give a sense of theater to the experience of gradually revealing your new purchase. Since then a lot of high-end companies have picked up on this concept of “the reveal”… I've read that prestige car manufacturers give a lot of thought to how it will feel to open the hood and display the engine to your admiring friends… but Epson was among the first.

The later R-D1 models, though, came in nice boxes with handsome graphics, but the packaging was simpler and designed with less of a sense of drama. So if you're going to pay extra for a box, make sure you're getting the good box.

Disclaimer: I made most of my living for upwards of 20 years designing graphics for product packaging, so I'm nerdier about boxes than almost anybody you'll meet…

 

[mpaniagua]

I would say that boxes may have price difference for a collector. I've seen substancial price difference for collectors items (example, special camera editions, like Leica) when they have their original boxes. Otherwise I don't think it makes a difference. And, as much as good camera R-D1 is, it certainly not a collector item IMHO.

I do keep boxes for the items I bought (used or new), in case I sell them on the future. It may be nice for the new owner to have the boxes and manuals, For my Leica M6, I still got the white clamp box but not the cardboard box.

Marcelo

 

[pixelated]

In the antiquarian/rare book world, for some books, an original dust jacket is worth more than the book. Hardcovers in jacket are almost always worth more than the same book without it, rare or not.

For cameras, I don't think it matters much unless the camera is a collectable. For a camera that you will be using, condition is much more important than whether or not it has a box, IMHO.

 

[jsrockit]

Some people just like to get the box, but not at this type of money for a non collectible. You are certainly paying for the viewfinder and not the box.

 

[lxmike]

yes I wish I had kept every box from my past buys but where would you put them all, the wife would go nuts if I did