KEH prices INSANE now

[uhoh7]

If somebody makes a FF EVIL with a short register at around 2k or less, katie bar the door.

on the lens side, the 4/3 consumption is still growing, and the nex shoots with everything at 1.5x---initially *** poohed, now its becoming aparent how well it works with legacy glass, esp RF glass which retains small footprint.

On the open market, sexy stuff, like the Canon 50/1.2 is punching into the 700 range, but the 1.8 is steady at 150, and the 1.4 at about 280.

the 100/3.5 is still not bad, and I saw a 100/2 lowered to mid 3s after no interest at 450.

The CV 35/1.4 and 38/3.5 are gaining, while the 21 and 35/2.5 are steady more or less.

Rokkor-M 40/2 seems to be at 400, CV 50/1.5 at 450.

Obviously there are spikes--these are what seem to be "good" deals at the momment, except the canon 50/1.2, where a good deal seems to be about 5. You would think the nokton 1.1, running around 850 would hold down the canon, but it's so damn big.

no more nikon 50/2 ltms at 150 🙁

as these lenses become more widely known, it's inevitable some buyers think, heck, I'll get a rangefinder body too for fun.

keh is watching the high ebay auctions, of course.

 

[shadowfox]

My first experience buying from Keh netted me a good camera (not popular) for much less than ebay and the gang.

Expecting popular cameras to be cheap just doesn't make sense.
You just have to find sleepers 🙂

 

[HLing]

While I was in Hong Kong last month with my quest for B & W film (details in the Hong Kong photo club posts) I visited the Leica rep shop (Kinefoto) on Stanley street in Central once, where I got some TMax film. The next time I was there (within 2 weeks I think), a brand new Leica shop had opened just next door to it, though selling new Leicas, not used.

Elsewhere there were shops ("New Fransisco" in the Wing On Market) that were stocked full of beautiful, old cameras for the Mainland shoppers.

Maybe this article from the South China Morning Post on March 20, 2011 explains some. Pardon the scan.

 

[wlewisiii]

Man, people need to take a deep breath and calm down a bit. They're just cameras. You'll live if you can't buy one TODAY.

This. I'd upding you if we had that here.

Demand goes up, prices go up till they're too high, then demand goes down, and prices go down. 🙄 The only real question is what is too high for the market. I'd bet KEH knows that better than any of us. 😛

 

[shadowfox]

Are we photographers or commodity dealers? 😀

Keith,
All photographers care about gear prices if they want to be honest (to themselves).

Except those who regard M9 Titanium + Noctilux as a beginner's kit 🙂

 

[jsrockit]

Maybe this article from the South China Morning Post on March 20, 2011 explains some. Pardon the scan.

Thanks for this...

 

[Roger Hicks]

Keith,
All photographers care about gear prices if they want to be honest (to themselves).

Except those who regard M9 Titanium + Noctilux as a beginner's kit 🙂

Dear Will,

Not always. There's really very little that I want -- and the very few things I'd really like, I can't afford. I don't think there's anything much I want under $5000, except maybe an old Noctilux, and $10,000 is nearer the mark in many cases. Prices of used gear? I used to care. But now I buy very little and sell even less.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ishpop]

in the late 90s/early 2000s, as a vinyl collector and DJ, I would make frequent trips to a handfull of record shops in Pittsburgh. It's not as though Pittsburgh is any more of a vinyl mecca than any other midwest city, but we did have one spot, Jerry's, which had a reputation in the vinyl collector world.

Anyways, over the course of a couple of years, we started noticing a lot of Japanese guys coming to the store. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but they were from Japan, and seemed to have come to Pittsburgh just to visit Jerry's. Pittsburgh is a great town, don;t get me wrong, but not a lot of tourists from Japan are flocking to the steel city! haha.

But what made it even more interesting was what they would walk out of Jerry's with. On many occasions there would be 4-5 japanese guys hauling boxes and boxes of records into a van. I'm talking about 10-15 boxes.

Long story short, Japan had at that time insanely high prices on most 60s/70s/80s collectible vinyl. Genres such as Disco, Hip Hop, Soul, Funk, all were being sold in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc..., for anywhere from 10x to 100x the price. After a while we started noticing we simply were not finding gems in the bins at Jerry's. The fun in going to a record store as huge as Jerry's is that you would spend 3-4 hours diggin and walk out with 3-4 rarities, cool finds, all for $4.00. But no joke, they were cleaned out!

Anyways, postng all of this to say that I sure do see a lot images taken with rolleiflex, leica, and [insert cool vintage camera brand] showing up in my flickr stream. And there always seem to be Chinese characters next to the person's name. 🙂

 

[ferider]

Anyone else noticed this? Prices in brackets are the prices I recorded in December, when I last bought anything:

Nikon FM2N 'BGN' = $199 ($119)

Nikon FE2 'BGN' = $179 ($89)

Leica M2 'BGN' = $959 ($751)

It was bound to happen but where are the bargains now? Or does this mean there are no bargains anymore? Cos my salary sure as hell hasn't increased by 40% in the last 3 months.

KEH is just following ebay prices, with a long lag, and they are still below the typical used prices. Not insane at all. I just bought a Zuiko 180/2.8 for US 350 (EX) that now always runs north of US 500 on ebay ...

Let me ask you this: if you "need" an FM2N for your shooting, what difference will US 80 make ? Compared to > US 1000 for an X100, > US 2000 for a Summilux asph, etc. My point being, if you really use the camera, it makes no difference. If you just want it as a toy (which is OK in my eyes), pay the market value, it's not really the seller that's "insane", it's buyers like you (and me) who drive the price up.

Roland.

 

[Calzone]

But the Mamiya 6 bodies and lenses really have shot up. BGN Mamiya 6 bodies are now selling for about $1,000 (I paid about $1100 for a really nice EXC+ one about a year ago) and EX for $1369, which is more than Mamiya 7 bodies and in the range of a comparable or better Mamiya 7 II body. I was in B&H Photo in NYC a little while ago with a well used Mamiya 6 body with a 50mm lens and a salesman in the used department approached me and asked me if I would be interested in selling it to them and offered me $1400 for the combo (which is less than it is worth now, but pretty high given B&H's obvious desire to make a decent profit). The B&H salesman said that lots of folks are asking for them, but they have pretty much none to sell. KEH only has at most 4 to sell right now. The supply of them for sale on Ebay also has dried up quite a bit.

I bought my Mamiya 6 and 50/4.0 from KEH in LN condition a while back. I figure the recent pricing at KEH is 50% higher than what I paid for my body not so long ago. This is a very big and sudden jump.

Cal

 

[Roger Hicks]

Let me ask you this: if you "need" an FM2N for your shooting, what difference will US 80 make ? Compared to > US 1000 for an X100, > US 2000 for a Summilux asph, etc. My point being, if you really use the camera, it makes no difference. If you just want it as a toy (which is OK in my eyes), pay the market value, it's not really the seller that's "insane", it's buyers like you (and me) who drive the price up.

Roland.

Dear Roland,

A superb point, very clearly made, but not always immediately obvious. Brilliant: thanks.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ka1axy]

Within the past three months, I have purchased from KEH:
- a BGN black FE2 (as-is, unchecked, needs foam): $40
- a BGN chrome FM2n (as-is, unchecked, needs foam): $40
- an EXC Nikkor AF 75-300/f4.5-5.6: $150

I can't say I feel their prices were outrageous on these items. The cameras look and work fine and two $10 foam kits from Jon Goodman put them right. The lens also works fine and is of typical Nikon build quality.

KEH recently had a sale on as-is gear. I suspect their prices reflect supply, demand and inventory levels. If it's too expensive, look elsewhere, but make a list of stuff you want and keep checking back. I have found their prices go up and down, sometimes apparently at random.

 

[Nikkor AIS]

I just noticed that KEH has a 35 1.4 non-ASPH for close to $5,000 😱.

If people think these prices are going to go down, methinks that they are sadly mistaken.

Unlike paper money, things like cameras have real value 😀.

 

[dovi]

Is there a camera season?

Is there a camera season?

Its getting Sunny and warm. I expect prices to be high right about now.
Ill check back on these prices later in the year after the vacation season...

 

[jsrockit]

Unlike paper money things like camera's , have real value 😀

Wait, so some day soon I'll have to pay with cameras instead of cash?

 

[MikeL]

I just noticed that KEH has a 35 1.4 non ASPH for close to $5,000 😱,

That's the first M2 version in chrome, and my guess is it will sell at that price. Especially if the collector is influenced by the buy it now prices on ebay, as KEH has been influenced.

 

[Calzone]

Wait, so some day soon I'll have to pay with cameras instead of cash?

The point is "cash is trash." I just hope that one day it won't take a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a hamburger.

154 pennies weigh a pound, but recently a pound of copper cost $4.50 (Futures Contract) so actually each penny is worth more (almost three times) as a commodity. The actual a value of the nickel in a U.S. is also more than the monitary value. Last year a nickel was worth 7 cents as a commodity.

When currencies break down history has shown us that trade reverts to barter. When things get really bad it kinda comes down to gold and diamonds.

All I know is that it is highly unlikely that I could replace the treasures that I now own.

Cal

 

[rxmd]

The point is "cash is trash." I just hope that one day it won't take a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a hamburger.

154 pennies weigh a pound, but recently a pound of copper cost $4.50 (Futures Contract) so actually each penny is worth more (almost three times) as a commodity.

Except that a penny is actually 97% zinc (assuming you're talking about US pennies).

Even if it was 100% copper, this calculation ignores the transaction costs of collecting tens of thousands of pennies, cleaning them, melting them down, purifying the copper etc.

It happens every now and then somewhere around the globe that it actually becomes worthwhile to melt down coins for their metal value. Usually it happens only with lower denominations, and governments tend to react pretty quickly (by changing the composition, by withdrawing lower denominations from circulation completely, etc.) A penny already costs more than a penny to make, so lower denominations are a losing proposition to begin with and are just produced for people's convenience.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Modern pennies are not solid copper.

In reality, of course, 240 silver pence weigh a pound.

Cheers,

R.

 

[jsrockit]

The point is "cash is trash."

I'm pessimistic, but I'm not that pessimistic. As long as cash still buys me what I want... it's not trash. If we (US) get into a depression... it seems to affect the world. Therefore cameras wouldn't be worth as much as one would think either. Gold, diamonds, etc... different story.