HU M3 down to $500

Erik van Straten said:
It's a Canadian built one. Rare! The 'big' M3 engraving proofs it. It's a pity that the vulcanite has been replaced.

Erik.
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I always wondered about the effect of replacement covering and camera value. Both my M's have Aki-Asahi coverings as the original vulcanite was brittle and chipping off with use. My cameras are in vg+ user condition so they're not collectible, but they are cleaner than most. To me, replacing vulcanite is like putting new tires on your car. No more original but better now. Stu
 
My M3 is original Wetzlar and still mint. I have the paperwork with QC checked by Leica when camera was first sold.
 
Stu W said:
I always wondered about the effect of replacement covering and camera value. Both my M's have Aki-Asahi coverings as the original vulcanite was brittle and chipping off with use. My cameras are in vg+ user condition so they're not collectible, but they are cleaner than most. To me, replacing vulcanite is like putting new tires on your car. No more original but better now. Stu
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This is a rare, collectible camera, therefore it's a pity it has been recovered. But one can swap the recovered housing with that of another, normal user M3, so even for a collector, it's not much of a problem.

Erik.
 
How interesting, it's from the same batch as mine - I have a 998xxx with large M3 engraving, and it came with a collapsable summicron very close in number to this one (mine is 1219xxx and this one 1191xxx). Mine was formerly owned by the British jazz photographer Val Wilmer, but I don't know it's provenance beforehand. It's probably been in the UK for at least 30 years of its 48 year life and is still going strong - and it's not been recovered.

I didn't realise it was quite collectable - I paid £480 (ie around $800 then) nearly three years ago.
 
Austerby said:
How interesting, it's from the same batch as mine - I have a 998xxx with large M3 engraving, and it came with a collapsable summicron very close in number to this one (mine is 1219xxx and this one 1191xxx). Mine was formerly owned by the British jazz photographer Val Wilmer, but I don't know it's provenance beforehand. It's probably been in the UK for at least 30 years of its 48 year life and is still going strong - and it's not been recovered.

I didn't realise it was quite collectable - I paid £480 (ie around $800 then) nearly three years ago.
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Well this one is in fairly poor shape - I don't think it would demand much of a premium over another "small M3" version in like condition.
 
gdi said:
Well this one is in fairly poor shape - I don't think it would demand much of a premium over another "small M3" version in like condition.
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I agree, the Canadian M3's aren't that rare. So whether the vulcanite has been replaced or not doesn't make any difference at all in this case.
 
Well there wasn't that many Canadian M3's made so it is very uncommon and some would say rare. However, rare doesn't mean it is worth much more if any premium over a standard German made M3. I have a Canadian built M3 with serial number 1,00X,XXX in mint- condition and I only paid $600 a couple months ago
 
payasam said:
A 1948 Bentley, for example, with fresh paint is still "original".
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He he,

New paint Original? Maybe. New tires? Original? Maybe.

Even those with OEM tires are not 100% original because the air in the tires have been replaced. Same with the oil, gas, etc.

As an antique car enthusiast, I still don't get the rusty, bad leather, rotten tires collectibles. I prefer to see one driven, maintained and in some cases restored to some degree. Same with cameras. But that's just me.
 
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Austerby said:
How interesting, it's from the same batch as mine - I have a 998xxx with large M3 engraving, and it came with a collapsable summicron very close in number to this one (mine is 1219xxx and this one 1191xxx). Mine was formerly owned by the British jazz photographer Val Wilmer, but I don't know it's provenance beforehand. It's probably been in the UK for at least 30 years of its 48 year life and is still going strong - and it's not been recovered.

I didn't realise it was quite collectable - I paid £480 (ie around $800 then) nearly three years ago.
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Hi Austerby,

I sold that camera for Val! Did you buy it from greenwichpaul on eBay, or from someone else? And did you get the print?

Val bought the camera used in the late 70s. If I recall correctly, the camera was lovely, ice viewfinder, altho the Summicron wasn't too great. Using that camera for a couple of days really turned me on to the M3, so my main camera is a... late s/n M3 with a Collapsible Summicron!
 
pkuglin said:
Well there wasn't that many Canadian M3's made so it is very uncommon and some would say rare. However, rare doesn't mean it is worth much more if any premium over a standard German made M3.
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You're right, "uncommon" is more accurate than "rare". After all, there were 7080 M3's built in Canada. The Canada engraved, however, are rare (probably less than 100).
 
For $500 I might have been interested, but this example looks as though it'd been put in the clothes drier, spun around and left there for a while to bang about everywhere... pity. I like good deals and might have tried to come up with the $500. But thuis one is too used.
 
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i would be tempted but it's on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
With all the shipping and import duty and blah blah, it gets just too high.
But a similar priced similar user condition M3 over here.. would be indeed.. tempting 🙂
 
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