What's Your Best Bargain Find?

Last was yesterday, when I got three yellow series V Wratten filters, another same series from Tiffen plus the adapter, a couple (red and green) Wratten series VIII filters, a Lifa green square (6x6 cm) filter, another no name yellow (6x9 cm), a Hasselblad accesory for f. screen (I guess that´s what it is), an angle finder and a wide angle Old Delft finder body (no lens), and two Zeiss Contaflex shades for USD 20.
The previous one (and I must admit I´m still recovering my breath from the excitation it caused) was when I bought a Kodak Medalist II for USD 25.
Old stuff is definitely underrated both pricewise and photographically due to the migration to digital. What was unaffordable yesterday is today almost a gift.
Cheers
Ernesto
 
My latest bargin: Olympus PEN EE-S, complete with box and manual in really good shape. Some minor dent on the filterthread, but for about $5, I think I did good.
Seems to work perfect 🙂
 
Ten years ago a friend phoned to say he had found a Nikon at a garage sale, and were they any good? After a couple of questions I established it was a rangefinder and a couple of questions later, an SP. He said it was very dirty but I offered him AU$450. He took the offer and said that he only expected to get $250 for it! Still my favorite user camera and the 2/50 Nikkor is brilliant.
 
Just stumbled on this thread. Read it through and it's depressing me a little bit.

The best bargain I ever had I vanished in front of my eyes. I was at a flea market and found a box with some compacts, rummaged around and found a Revue 400 SE 25 in wonderful shape. Tested the shutter, aperture, film advance - no problems. Peered inside and the only bad thing was the gummy light seals. I really had to restrain myself to camly ask for the price.

The seller wanted 15EUR for it. At first I wanted to pay for it right away, but I got stupid, pressed my luck and tried bargaining him down to 10EUR.
And that got him really mad! He started shouting at me how sick and tired he is of everybody driving the prices down for perfectly good cameras. He'd rather not sell anything for that money. "This isn't ebay!" he said, grabbed the camera from me and started packing up his stuff to leave, muttering the whole time.
 
I was pretty pleased getting a mint 1961 Yashica J with original case for $40 on the auction site not long ago. I bought a 1941 Leitz Summitar from Sherry Krauter with original caps an a yellow filter (and a recent CLA) for $175. And I ended up paying just $694 for a lovely M4 (one of the first couple thousand) in a surprise auction win from Samy's. I actually paid $759 but they refunded me $65 for a rangefinder adjustment when I noted the infinity focus was off a hair.
 
Congrats Roberto. That one is almost painful to hear about. I'm glad I only have a IIIc - that takes the edge off. 🙂 Though... if I did pick that up for that price, I could justify buying a M instantly just to use the lens.

That said, I did get a nice little package today. I picked up about 215 rolls of 120 color film (Centuria Super 100, Fujichrome 64T and Portra) for $75. Not the same sort of win but its something.
 
Some that come to mind are:
$15 Hexar AF at a flea market.
$2100 Leica M6 classic with 35/2, 50/2, 90/2.8 and flash - all in near mint condition. Not exactly a giveaway, but a very fine price, though. It's still a bargain in my eyes.
$20 Industar 69 - not 'worth' that much more in fiat money, but certainly in user value.
$5 Olympus Mju 2, minty in box.

Going to another flea market now. Hope I have more to tell when I return.
 
I recently began looking for a Leica Focomat 1C, and was discouraged at the average going/asking price of $1500. I then stumbled onto an ebay sale which I won a complete mint 1C for $152. I didn't complain about the $125 shipping fee either, which netted me a great Enlarger for $277. Of course, now comes the hard part- learning to use it !
 
Last week -- $55 for a Canon 25/3.5 LTM in really sweet condition except for a bit of oil on the diaphragm, which I'll get cleaned at Essex. The lens arrived loose in a padded envelope without even any caps 🙄 but it survived unharmed.

::Ari
 
I've had some pretty decent deals in the past few months:

Olympus OM-1 with 50mm 1.8, 135mm 2.8, Kiron 28-105mm and 24 2.8 for $50.

Olympus XA w/flash at Value Village for $20.

I recently picked up a near mint Leica M4 for $660 on "that" auction site. Seems nobody else was paying attention to the auction 🙂 It's in tip top shape other than a couple scratch marks on the bottom plate. I'm quite happy with the purchase!
 
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