Inflated eBay asking prices for Elmar "M" lenses

[Rob-F]

I am seeing a lot of 50/2.8 lenses on ebay, described as "Elmar-M" that are M-Mount but not the actual Elmar-M. Most of them are asking almost as much as an Elmar-M goes for; and some are asking over $700 when a true Elmar-M just sold for $680. It looks like the sellers may be taking advantage of naive buyers who don't know the difference.

So: if you are thinking of buying an Elmar-M: the model that was factory designated Elmar-M--the latest model--is engraved "Elmar-M" and not merely "Elmar" on the front ring. The last time I bought or sold a 50/2.8 Elmar in M mount, it was under $300.00.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Talking about "the last time". Current ebay prices for most of Leica M mount lenses are inflated. Comparing to local deals and ebay prices on same lenses from couple of years ago.

 

[giulio stucchi]

Or naive sellers that don't really know the difference between the 2 lenses.
The buyer looking for one should know the difference.

Giulio

 

[Rob-F]

Or naive sellers that don't really know the difference between the 2 lenses.
The buyer looking for one should know the difference.

Giulio

Yes, now that you mention it, naive sellers may well be the case.

 

[sleepyhead]

Well, there is at least one seller "leica-by-boris" on Ebay who is kinda disappointing, because he is selling an old M mount 50mm Elmar as an "Elmar-M" lens. Shame on him, that is misleading to naive buyers.

 

[oftheherd]

As always, buyer beware. That said, prices on ebay seem most obedient to tides and phases of the moon.

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Well, there is at least one seller "leica-by-boris" on Ebay who is kinda disappointing, because he is selling an old M mount 50mm Elmar as an "Elmar-M" lens. Shame on him, that is misleading to naive buyers.

Use the forum's «search» function, you'll find quite a lot about «Boris» …

 

[sleepyhead]

Use the forum's «search» function, you'll find quite a lot about «Boris» …

Thanks for the heads up - I have not had any dealings with him, so I have nothing good nor bad to report.

 

[jsrockit]

I think you may want to look at actual sold items. There are elmars still being sold for $300.

 

[splitimageview]

Lots of photo gear is very overpriced on eBay 'buy-it-now', some of which are described accurately, some not.

Welcome to the world of eBay. 🙂

 

[Huss]

I see more overpriced stuff for sale here than on ebay. With much worse buyer protection.

 

[jaapv]

As always: Caveat Emptor. If you don't know what you are buying you have no business buying it over the Internet.
As for the Elmar-Elmar-M confusion. It is indeed true that many buyers don't know the difference, as do many users for that matter, but so do many sellers - I am not convinced that all inaccurate descriptions are deliberate.

 

[Chubberino]

I see more overpriced stuff for sale here than on ebay. With much worse buyer protection.

Yup..........

 

[Rob-F]

I see more overpriced stuff for sale here than on ebay. With much worse buyer protection.

When I put something up for sale here on RFF, I check the eBay sold prices, and take off ten percent, since we don't have to pay a final fee here. And when I buy here, I try to check the price against those being asked elsewhere. But that said, I don't mind paying a little more for the opportunity to buy from a forum member I trust.

 

[sleepyhead]

When I put something up for sale here on RFF, I check the eBay sold prices, and take off ten percent, since we don't have to pay a final fee here. And when I buy here, I try to check the price against those being asked elsewhere. But that said, I don't mind paying a little more for the opportunity to buy from a forum member I trust.

I agree with you and I try to do the same. But for better or for worse, EBay reaches many many more people. I had an X100 camera for sale here on RFF for 3 weeks with only 1 semi-interested buyer. Then I put it on EBay at around 10% higher price and it sold within 5 hours.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

There's a lot of people selling stuff on ebay who genuinely, or not, don't know what they have to sell exactly and so they look at other sales and descriptions*. That way the mistakes are copied and perpetuated. It's understandable when you see Summicrons with -R or -C or -M added to the make and model.

Add in the fact that few have extensive experience of film photography, especially the old fashion manual camera version, and you've a dangerous mixture...

Regards, David

* Some even write articles about things they've only seen on ebay, would you believe? Well, that's my explanation for some of the rubbish I see.

 

[james.liam]

Probably a combination of sellers that don't know and sellers that are trying to manipulate the searches by listing as 'Elmar-M'. I've noticed this when looking for other items and things utterly unrelated have an embedded tag that digs it up.