Trying to buy a VF on ebay - my God

[zauhar]

So last week I broke my lovely little SBOOI 5cm VF when I dropped my coat with IIIf inside (it landed on the VF). According to YouXin there is no hope of reattaching the leg that cracked off.

I bid for three of these on ebay -

1) One was in truly pristine condition - I stopped bidding when it went over $150. The final price was $266 - unbelievable. My IIIf did not cost much more than that!

2) The second was a crummy looking example with a crack in the glass, covered by a piece of tape in the photo. I put a small bid on it anyway. Suddenly it was 'sold', even though the auction showed several days remaining, and it went for a few dollars over my small initial bid!

3) The last one I bid on, a true 'user' (glass looks OK but outside is rusted and crappy looking) is suddenly climbing steadily, my bid of $130 won't fly.

I don't do much on eBay, I can see why most of you deride it. I had looked in the classifieds here, did not see a VF like this.

I guess I don't have a question here, I am just puzzled that one item went for such an insane price, while the other disappeared for a pittance, and didn't even stay up as long as it should have. Is eBay always this weird?

Randy

P.S. To tide me over, I did find a funny Kontur VF on ebay that you don't actually look through, rather you keep both eyes open and see the frame in your field of vision. Since I like to shoot this way, I will give that a try. I picked it up for $50, seems like no one was especially interested in this one.

 

[thegman]

I don't deride eBay, I like it, and have much better luck selling there than in other places.

The fact is that people are willing to pay more than you were, it's just the nature of a huge marketplace like eBay. The more potential buyers there are, the more chance there is of finding someone who wants an item more than you do.

Sometimes you'll get lucky, and there is no-one else looking at the item, and you might get it cheap, it's just luck, same as buying anywhere else, it's just that eBay is huge and there are far more competing buyers than we get elsewhere.

 

[Richard G]

I did not notice these sudden endings to auctions, but I did pay ridiculous prices for my SHOOC, SBOOI and SBLOO. I can't remember now (best way to absorb the hit) but up around $300 for two of them I'm sure. I only use the SHOOC really.

 

[Fraser]

Ebay can be funny had a lot of bargains just bought an as new 35mm f2 ltm for £220, but the times I've watched things go for insane prices!
I once almost bought a Nikon 70-210 AF lens for £150 but decided just before taking the plunge to check dealers prices ended up buying one from a shop for £70 in perfect condition. I think with ebay you just have to be patient and not get over excited🙂

 

[sevo]

One SBOOI sold for 77€ a few days ago. And I never paid more than 15€ for any of my Kontur finders. It seems like auxiliary finders are, for once, a class of objects more expensive in the US than in Europe - I am more used to it being the other way around.

 

[zauhar]

Sevo, I was looking at European shops as well, also saw prices much higher than that. Maybe there is sudden inflation in these?

Randy

 

[zuiko85]

I think that if one of those plastic camera makers, like the folks who make the Vivitar Slim and Wide were to make a line of inexpensive plastic viewfinders, they could clean up. Aspheric surfaces on the lenses could reduce distortion and they would sell like hotcakes if priced at say, $20 each. I envision a;
21mm
28mm
35mm
50mm
75mm (perhaps?)
90mm
Those 5 (or 6) would cover 99.9% of the market.

No, they are not $600 Leica finders, but a set of all 5 for a C-note ain't too bad.

 

[Robert Lai]

Have you tried the Cosina Voigtlander version? It seems to be a direct imitation of the Leica one. In general, the CV finders have superb glass (muliticoated), and the metal ones have fantastic build quality.

 

[oftheherd]

Ebay can be funny had a lot of bargains just bought an as new 35mm f2 ltm for £220, but the times I've watched things go for insane prices!
I once almost bought a Nikon 70-210 AF lens for £150 but decided just before taking the plunge to check dealers prices ended up buying one from a shop for £70 in perfect condition. I think with ebay you just have to be patient and not get over excited🙂

Bolded: That is exactly it. It is how I try to buy. I followed ebay for a 250mm Mamiya Press lens for probably 5 years before I found one at a price I was willing to pay. I used to check for Mamiya Press quite often, but now have all I need for my Super Press so I seldom do.

But check this out: http://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-CER...313?pt=US_Vintage_Cameras&hash=item4d0baeedd1

Which is an insane price even if sold as non-working parts. It should sell for more as a 6x9 only, and it has an after-market RF! I should have bid myself I guess, but I am folding bed camera poor as it is.

The point being, there sure are bargains to be had. Unfortunately, one must often wait for the correct alignment of the planets and phase of the moon.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I think that if one of those plastic camera makers, like the folks who make the Vivitar Slim and Wide were to make a line of inexpensive plastic viewfinders, they could clean up. Aspheric surfaces on the lenses could reduce distortion and they would sell like hotcakes if priced at say, $20 each. I envision a;
21mm
28mm
35mm
50mm
75mm (perhaps?)
90mm
Those 5 (or 6) would cover 99.9% of the market.

No, they are not $600 Leica finders, but a set of all 5 for a C-note ain't to bad.

Ain't too likely, either. Cheap plastic products are predicated on making and selling very large numbers. I rather suspect that even if everyone who was interested bought one of each, the market would still be too small to justify the tooling costs.

Cheers,

R.

 

[oftheherd]

Forgot to mention the Russian VF are not so expensive, but aren't Leica. Also, you might want to consider http://www.ebay.com/itm/18mm-Viewfi...rs_Eyecups&hash=item27cae54ee0#ht_2205wt_1906 and a chop job to put your finder backk on your camera.

 

[newspaperguy]

Too bad Stephen is sold out of the 50 mm CV finder.

I find mine to be superior to the Leitz finders I've owned.

 

[helvetica]

3) The last one I bid on, a true 'user' (glass looks OK but outside is rusted and crappy looking) is suddenly climbing steadily, my bid of $130 won't fly.

The "magic" to the way ebay works these days is the last minute "sniper" bids. In many ways, it's not even worth it - possibly even counter-productive to put a bid on an item with any more than one minute on the clock. I have sold many items that literally doubled in price in the last 10 seconds.

That being said, I've also "accidentally" won a few items by putting a very low bid (in my mind) on an item just for the fun of it, and then having it actually win. I got a Nikon F3 for $10 that way!

 

[VTHokiEE]

The "magic" to the way ebay works these days is the last minute "sniper" bids. In many ways, it's not even worth it - possibly even counter-productive to put a bid on an item with any more than one minute on the clock. I have sold many items that literally doubled in price in the last 10 seconds.

That being said, I've also "accidentally" won a few items by putting a very low bid (in my mind) on an item just for the fun of it, and then having it actually win. I got a Nikon F3 for $10 that way!

In my mind sniper bids only prevent someone from changing their mind on what their max bid is after they get outbid. If you have a firm max bid, I don't really see the advantage of waiting for a sniper bid. The only reason I wait until late in the auction to bid is the hope of finding it earlier for a price I'd like to pay and not also being committed to the auction...

 

[farlymac]

eBay, being an auction house, means you never can be sure which way things will turn out. But unlike some sites, they do a lot of promotion of items that have bids on them, advertising them to anyone who might have something similar in their watch list. If an item has no bids, it may languish, unless it is on a lot of watch lists. Then it too will get promoted heavily.

I quite trying to be optimistic about putting in a bid early, and seeing no action on the item for days, then watching it get blasted in the last minute. I figure out what I'm willing to fork over, watch to see if it goes over that amount, and then place my bid at the end. That is, unless I won't be at the computer when the time comes, or think I might forget about the auction. Whether I win or not, at least I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about if my bid was going to hold.

And things get trendy too, so that tends to bring out the big spenders who will pay anything for something they saw someone else using, and they just have to have one, even if they don't know a thing about it's use. Makes it hard on us folks who are trying to complete a kit, or replace a worn out item.

PF

ps: The Kontur finder is great to use on cameras like the Vito B, with it's tiny viewfinder. There are I believe four versions of the finder.

 

[sanmich]

I had a Kontur.
It's a great concept, but I found it didn't work on my barnacks because it didn't allow for the speed knob to be lifted up.

 

[S.H.]

Well, just be patient, that is all. I had mine some months ago on the bay for 60 euros, a very clean one with some bright marks on the chrome on top.

 

[Vickko]

Yeah, you have to be patient. SBOOI's go for a variety of prices. I've gotten them, and sold them for $70. I've never paid more than $150.

 

[L Collins]

eBay prices are weird. You can see the same item go for $750 with 20 bids, and two days later buy the same item for $400 after only 2 bids.

It used to be that, generally speaking, items listed at minimal price with no reserve often ultimately got bid up higher than the same items offered with Buy It Now. but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

If I Want to buy something, I use bidnip.com. Just put in my max bid and it snipes it at the last second. f it's over my max bid, no problem,mthere will be another soon. eventually I'll get it at my price.

If I want to sell something, I sell it with a reasonable price and a Buy It Now.

I have noticed that I get much more for items on EBay than here in the classifieds. As an example, I listed my M8 with a bunch of extras here for $1750 and only received a few emails telling me it wasn't worth more than $1500, then listed it on EBay for $1995 buy It Now and it sold immediately.

 

[gooseta]

I buy all my used gear on Ebay and occasionally at ffordes.