M8 causing used lens market revival

[usccharles]

i thought this would be a good thing but apparently my dealer seems to think otherwise. he has no used lenses to sell anymore!

i guess before the M8, people were buying lenses for their film Ms, trying them out for a few months and putting them back into the market and trying other lenses, keeping a ample supply of leica glass available in the used market at any given time.

now with the M8 out, M8 owners are gobbling up all the lenses and not spitting any back out. all the basic focal lengths (28, 35, 50,etc) are all sold out. i thought this would be a good thing, but for them, they need people to recycle their lenses for the dealers to continuously make profit. i never thought of that angle.

how is the situation elsewhere? i'm in korea

 

[Ben Z]

I don't know how things are in Korea but in the USA, eBay has put a huge dent in the supply of used eqiuipment available at camera stores. There are also many fewer camera stores than in past years. Also, the huge rise in Leica's new prices over the past couple years has probably priced a lot of people out of the market and they're hanging on to their old lenses.

 

[Vickko]

I bought an RD1 and then started looking for 35mm and 28mm lenses, and found that their prices had risen. Before owning the RD1, the widest lens I had was my 40mm for a CL.

So yes, I think the wider lenses have gone up in price.

And as for volume of equipment available in stores, my observations are that it has gone down.

Vick