No Crime!!! Ask and ye may receive.
I picked up a Canon EF (The Black Beauty) in Excellent Plus condition. I never use the word MINT, but .......
No brassing and a 1.4 lens with cap. Everything worked. One of the few excellent SLR cameras using mercury 625 cells that has circuitry to adjust for later 1.5 batteries designed in.
$60.
Eventually sold it for $300.
I am never to proud to be seen in a Goodwill Super Store. It's incredible how many fine things some people donate.
I hope more generous than incredible, that said, I donate clothing, some of which has the tags on it, I just did not return it, so better to go to the thrift shops, especially warm stuff in the winter. I also arranged for a donation of a $10,000 mini lab to the local high school.
If you walked in to a camera shop with this rig, they might offer you $25, so perhaps the person who donated it did just that and thought better to donate it.
I have a lot of cameras, read, a lot, and many do not look like much, in fact many are not much, but I have no illusions that someone will access and rationally sell it all when I disappear someplace.
I just tell my friends to watch for the yard sale, all those old Fuji's and Lickas, will be outside, am hoping it does not rain, and hoping the people who get the stuff will enjoy and post. Would be nice if the bits and pieces end up with the right cameras.
I sometimes sit behind a table at a camera show, and I try hard to balance the risk of buying something used and a problem child and the potential for something very enjoyable. Have bought some clunkers, (Anyone need some Mamiya 35mm camera lenses?) but have bought some bags of goodies at a hundred dollars more than others were offering.
The M3 with three lenses and accessories for $500 comes to mind, but I did have the camera CLA'd, traded what I did not "need", and kept the rest -- it happens, and this story is not old enough to have grown-- " Well I bought that M6 for $50, and he threw in the Thambor, Tom A winder, a hundred rolls of film, and an MG TD to put it in" He was gettilng offers like $200, he wanted $500.
It is better than Vegas. Good buyers count on doing it at almost every show.
They announced that people who parked on the grass had to move their cars, so I watched a table while Hunter went to move his car, he returned with a good size box of SM Leicas and lenses, the guy did not want to pay to get in to the show, so he sold them for the asking price in the parking lot for $100. He did not even try to talk him down. ;-)
Good buyers pay a bit more at a show, KEH's buyer at the last show spent $10,000 or so for equipment KEH will sell for $30,000.
And finally, I hope when people get these deals, I hope they remember the beginners who would give them a good home when they are ready to part with them.
I hope A RFF member bought the Fed 5 with the Jupiter 12 that sold for $22 last night I ebay, I posted the URL in my post and refrained from bidding as it would be just for money if I bought it, and I would not care to drive the price up against a fellow "artist", plus I have one. Maybe he will give the body away to some beginner?
Am sure the thrift people put the money to good use, congratulations for the efforts that paid off.
Regards, John
