M3, new in box - this is nuts!

[ClaremontPhoto]

I have seen similar condition items - like a BSA Gold Star that was offered about 15-20 years ago for around 50k IIRC, it was new, in the CRATE - they verified it wasn't a scam by sticking a inspection camera in between slats of the crate. That is a collector piece that would never even be seen, let alone used!

I went to buy kitchen taps and saw some 'antique' models. the guy in the store said they were new and had been in production for a hundred years. this was 'new old stock' in extreme.

Similarly isn't the Royal Enfield of the 50's still in production in India? http://www.royalenfield.com/app/IN/

And the 50's Morris Oxford too at http://www.hmambassador.com/

Leica makes the MP, but may be thinking of manufacturing the M3 again perhaps.

 

[Stu W]

I remember quite a few years ago the Canadian Govt. was auctioning off two complete P-51 Mustangs. Both were wings off and crated for shipping. True they never saw combat but who wouldn't want a new mint P-51? Stu

 

[Stu W]

I went to buy kitchen taps and saw some 'antique' models. the guy in the store said they were new and had been in production for a hundred years. this was 'new old stock' in extreme.

Similarly isn't the Royal Enfield of the 50's still in production in India? http://www.royalenfield.com/app/IN/

And the 50's Morris Oxford too at http://www.hmambassador.com/

Leica makes the MP, but may be thinking of manufacturing the M3 again perhaps.

Now you have me missing my Triumph Bonneville! My wife would kill me though. Stu

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Now you have me missing my Triumph Bonneville! My wife would kill me though. Stu

So is it the wife or the bike?

I know plenty of guys who chose the bike. And their wives were very attractive.

 

[Stu W]

So is it the wife or the bike?

I know plenty of guys who chose the bike. And their wives were very attractive.

I'm thinking. Give me a while. 😕

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I'd go for this one:

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

"It's not a camera any more, it's a financial instrument. It has crossed over."

Seems like not a particularly good investment to me. I wonder if it will beat the stock market over time?

I don't think this will be hit by the "mortgage crisis".

Gold, Nikon or Leica gear...all safe investments (until we start colonizing the Moon)

 

[sepiareverb]

Didn't mean to say it had to be used, only that I would use it, and hoped that whoever got it would do the same. I know I would enjoy using something like this time capsule. Like Colyn I'm no collector, I get things to use them. There are probably plent of brand new M3's in some display case in Solms, and in the end it isn't brand new unsold any more, sombody just bought it. 😉

 

[Stu W]

Pride of possession. I used to collect firearms. Firearms collectors are so fussy that the minor flaws mentioned on that M3 would seriously devalue a firearm.
Stu

 

[raid]

Enjoy your wife and plan to get the exotic buy some other time.

 

[gdi]

Didn't mean to say it had to be used, only that I would use it, and hoped that whoever got it would do the same. I know I would enjoy using something like this time capsule. Like Colyn I'm no collector, I get things to use them. There are probably plent of brand new M3's in some display case in Solms, and in the end it isn't brand new unsold any more, sombody just bought it. 😉

And since you're not a collector, I'm sure you wouldn't pay 7-8 times what a good user is worth for this one, right?

That's why the collector prices on the choice items are so high - to, in effect, keep them away from users like us! Then they get to make sure they are preserved for posterity!

I saw a beautiful original everything 1946 Indian Chief - used but every nut and bolt was correct. It had been purchased at a ridiculously low price by a neighbor - who promptly had it "restored" because it wasn't shiny enough! Had it been offered on the market the owner would have made 3 times the money and the bike would have been preserved.

I had to settle for the "user"!

 

[LeicaTom]

"It's not a camera any more, it's a financial instrument. It has crossed over."

Seems like not a particularly good investment to me. I wonder if it will beat the stock market over time?

Some vintage cars have......

I know someone who bought a 1957 Porsche 356A Carrera coupe back in 1970 for $1,800 (a lot of money then) the car was a perserved orignal one, that`s worth now about $350,000

My other friend in Orlando has an original 1965 Shelby American GT350 that he bought for $2,000 back in 1973 and even in it`s unrestored state it`s worth about $90,000 to $100,000

Leica IIIC K`s used to be $25 dollar trade for cigarettes items, now a decent one will set you back about $2,000 to $3,000

Leica itself has been a good inverstment, though I don`t really look at them that way, people coulc have made a killing if they had saved up as many boxed M3`s or M4`s they could have found in the early 1980`s

I know where a mint Leica M4 Black Paint is......and if I were ever to acquire it I`d put some marks on it, it would become a shooter, I`d like to experience what it`s like to see some brassing come on through 🙂

Tom

 

[bob338]

And since you're not a collector, I'm sure you wouldn't pay 7-8 times what a good user is worth for this one, right?

That's why the collector prices on the choice items are so high - to, in effect, keep them away from users like us! Then they get to make sure they are preserved for posterity!

so if you were an archaeologist and dug up a gold egyptian bowl from thousands of years ago, would you wash it out and pour some cheerios into it and make it a user again? it is a bowl right? and it's intended purpose is being ignored sitting in some dumb museum.

mint cameras like this are historically significant. it's nice to know that there is a brand new M3 sitting on somebodys shelf.

oh yeah, i forgot to ask, what's wrong with preserving something for posterity?

 

[bob338]

Yep. Your posterity can cash it out on eBay when you're dead. 😉

all the better. i can enjoy having it until i croak, then my kid can cash it in for a car or a bunch of 'user' M3s!

 

[gdi]

so if you were an archaeologist and dug up a gold egyptian bowl from thousands of years ago, would you wash it out and pour some cheerios into it and make it a user again? it is a bowl right? and it's intended purpose is being ignored sitting in some dumb museum.

mint cameras like this are historically significant. it's nice to know that there is a brand new M3 sitting on somebodys shelf.

oh yeah, i forgot to ask, what's wrong with preserving something for posterity?

Nothing wrong with, everything right with it - as I said in my post!

 

[sepiareverb]

So then all 'limited editions' should be preserved for 'posterity'? All rare and one-of-a-kind things should be packed away and saved for some future generation? Sorry, not in my book. It's a camera. You ain't gonna sway me. I'd use it to know what a new M3 was like. I'd drive the DeLorean, shoot the gun, put guacamole in the bowl. I have an antique desk in my kitchen that gets used every day. Use a shovel my grandfather got through the FSA to shovel dirt.
I didn't bid on this M3, and no I wouldn't pay a premium to get it just to use it. But I did get an MP3, and yes it is already scratched, has had some twenty rolls of film run through it and is no longer the collectors item it was before I opened the box, or bought it even. It wasn't all that much more than an MP, and had I gotten the frames changed out of a stock MP the MP would have cost more. It's a camera. I use my cameras. That should make all those dear MP3's still unsold or packed away that much more valuable for that future generation that doesn't know what film is or care to have a photograph even placed onto paper.

 

[gdi]

So then all 'limited editions' should be preserved for 'posterity'? All rare and one-of-a-kind things should be packed away and saved for some future generation? Sorry, not in my book. It's a camera. You ain't gonna sway me. I'd use it to know what a new M3 was like. I'd drive the DeLorean, shoot the gun, put guacamole in the bowl. I have an antique desk in my kitchen that gets used every day. Use a shovel my grandfather got through the FSA to shovel dirt.
I didn't bid on this M3, and no I wouldn't pay a premium to get it just to use it. But I did get an MP3, and yes it is already scratched, has had some twenty rolls of film run through it and is no longer the collectors item it was before I opened the box, or bought it even. It wasn't all that much more than an MP, and had I gotten the frames changed out of a stock MP the MP would have cost more. It's a camera. I use my cameras. That should make all those dear MP3's still unsold or packed away that much more valuable for that future generation that doesn't know what film is or care to have a photograph even placed onto paper.

I don't think anyone needs to sway you, you are free to do what you want.

But, you can't compare this M3 with a "limited edition" MP3, of course. The very fact that people considered a new camera collectible because the company markets it as such all but guarantees a limited amount of esteem in future collector markets. A NIB MP3 will most certainly be more available in 50 years than a like M3. The M3 is a survivor - I doubt anyone was buying M3s in 1959 to set aside as a future rare collectible!

And its a good thing that most of us won't pay orders of magnitude more for a NIB antique camera and use it!

Oh, yeah - a Delorean?? 😀

 

[bob338]

So then all 'limited editions' should be preserved for 'posterity'? All rare and one-of-a-kind things should be packed away and saved for some future generation? Sorry, not in my book. It's a camera. You ain't gonna sway me. I'd use it to know what a new M3 was like. I'd drive the DeLorean, shoot the gun, put guacamole in the bowl. I have an antique desk in my kitchen that gets used every day. Use a shovel my grandfather got through the FSA to shovel dirt.
I didn't bid on this M3, and no I wouldn't pay a premium to get it just to use it. But I did get an MP3, and yes it is already scratched, has had some twenty rolls of film run through it and is no longer the collectors item it was before I opened the box, or bought it even. It wasn't all that much more than an MP, and had I gotten the frames changed out of a stock MP the MP would have cost more. It's a camera. I use my cameras. That should make all those dear MP3's still unsold or packed away that much more valuable for that future generation that doesn't know what film is or care to have a photograph even placed onto paper.

my point was not that cameras of value should be packed away.
what is special about this camera is that it has been accidentally lost in a time capsule of sorts for more than 50 years and is not a good candidate for walking around and shooting with. it is as perfect an M3 as you'll ever find, and it would be a shame to get that first ding in it when you can use a shooter M3 for that. they made 225,000 of these things, how many of them are in dead mint condition?
someone mentioned seeing a bsa gold star in the crate a few years ago. would you be foolish enough to uncrate it and take it out on the freeway? i would not. it's not worth the risk...

 

[raid]

My M3 was a like new M3 that the seller had bought new as his back-up alongside another M3. He got both in Germany in the early 60's. The M3 that I got from him was one that he had hardly ever used, but he would exercise the shutter without film once a year. I bet, it is as nice as the $4000 one here. I have the original sale receipt and the case it came in.