WW2 Stepper "Grey" paint Leica IIIC at Ebay now.......

L

LeicaTom

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Just posting this for all of my "Stepper" IIIC loving friends here at RFF.....go buy yourself a late Christmas present LOL!!!!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120352855837

I personally talked to the owner here in Florida, it is from an estate.

Delivered June 7th 1942 to Leitz Berlin with a Summitar (the lens on it now is a somewhat rare Summar "Black Nose" from the early 1930`s) camera is a Non Military issue Grey Paint IIIC (normal) Non Kugellager (ball bearing) camera and is RARER than a K camera (from production numbers) this being one of the first batches of Grey paint Leica IIIC`s ever made.

The Camera does cycle, but will need a FULL CLA and repairs, I`m already out of the bidding, while the body`s worth only $500 to me (for a user) but you collectors out there might be interested, that`s why I`m posting this and giving everyone a heads up to it`s originality etc.

Looks like it was really used during the war, (though alot of the problems looks to be bad storage as well) this would be a really killer "user" if someone has $1,500+ laying around that they can spend on fixing this up again and bringing it back to shooting condition, for me it`s too worn to be a china cabinet queen, but because of it`s rarity the collectors are going to drive the price way over $1,000 (with CLA) and it`s no longer practial for me. ~ the vulcanite has also been replaced at some time with Black period Leitz material (maybe at a former CLA?) ~ nothing that a carefull restoration couldn`t fix with a matching RLM Grey spray (WW2 Leitz Grey vulcanite was just Black with Grey paint over it, NOT Grey vulcanite as many are mistakingly told) ~ with some TLC and carefull restoring, this camera would clean up well and be a real conversation piece around someone`s neck. (I really hope this does`nt go to a "sitter" collector, but more than likely it will 🙁 it`s so hard to find "user" grade Grey paint cameras.

But, still it goes to show that some Grey cameras are STILL turning up here in Florida out of ex-Military WW2 estate sales......I`m going to really start hitting the estate sales here in 2009, I still want a "beater" Grey paint Stepper to work with everyday 🙂

Happy Bidding!

Tom
 
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I've commited an act of heresy and bought an Epson R-D1 instead with my X-mas bonus, Tom. 😉

I hope it goes to someone who will happily restore it to working condition.
 
Mr_Flibble said:
I've commited an act of heresy and bought an Epson R-D1 instead with my X-mas bonus, Tom. 😉

I hope it goes to someone who will happily restore it to working condition.
Click to expand...

Shame on you! But, the RD-1 should be fun, does it have an S upgrade?

I think this one could be a really neat "user" but it`s nearing the collectable prices already, I would`nt like to spend more than $500 on it really, while I`d much rather wait for another Grey K to show up in this condition....

Tom
 
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Some collector nailed this, while it made like almost $1,400, I offered the owner $700 for it and that was already $200 more than I thought it was worth.

I`m still looking for a "beater/user" Grey paint, they are out there and sitting around someplace for under $200 (the seller thinks he paid like $25 for it over a year ago) and as I`ve said before I`d much rather perfer a K shuttered one as a user, there`s one here in Florida somewhere?

Keep Searching!

Tom
 
Well, there used to be one in Florida, but after about ten years of using it I decided to take an offer, sell it, and put the money into an M3 companion for my M4. That was about thirty-five years ago.
 
Al Kaplan said:
Well, there used to be one in Florida, but after about ten years of using it I decided to take an offer, sell it, and put the money into an M3 companion for my M4. That was about thirty-five years ago.
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Yes Al, I think your IIIC K is famous now, I know that story 🙂

If I was shooting way back then I`m sure I would have wanted to buy it in all of it`s brassed glory! (Grey cameras with lots of patina are really beautiful!)

Tom
 
Another IIIC Grey at Evilbay....this time a conversion to IIIFBD

Another IIIC Grey at Evilbay....this time a conversion to IIIFBD

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110333202563&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=001

I have seen this camera on the bay now for over a week, I cut out of the bidding at $500 (and that was a high bid for it`s condition) pretty rough, if you lighten the photos up, it has lot`s of black touch up paint on the back and corner sides 🙁 - but still the price is going way North of $1,000 (people just are buying anything I guess just to have one)

The sellers delivery info`s are all wrong ~

This camera was shipped to Berlin on 15.10.42 (in a batch of 40 cameras) as a LOOGI (Leica IIIC w/f3.5/50mm Elmar)

*The Black Nose Summar is like 1932/33 and is much rarer than the camera itself*

This camera has had a early 1950`s Factory conversion to IIIFBD and what is rather strange is that I do believe now that Leitz RESTORED some of these cameras when they came back for conversions, much as the pre-war Black II`s and III`s got new tops, I think some of the beat up Grey cameras received new paintjobs, this one was most surely repainted at one time, the engraving filler is laying in the engraving and is white, not pushed out and eggshell color as the original was, and the body shell has the IIIF metal plug on the side of the camera (very odd) but yet still has the "wartime" black vulcanite that`s spray painted grey.

Still I think the price is going rather too high for it`s condition, but if this is any indicator of whats going on, soon nothing Grey will be attainable under $2,000 anymore.......

Tom
 
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Wow!

Hard to belive it sold for OVER $2,000!!!! and the camera from last week was in BETTER SHAPE and only brought like $1,300, someone was really horny for a Grey IIIC/IIIF conversion, (or they wanted that black nose Summar) - with the bad paint/repainted parts this camera was tops a $600 camera in my opinion, I hope the new owners not all dissipointed seeing the back of the camera being all repainted black
(you could`nt tell unless you lightened the photos up to see the damage/repainted paint)

I hope at least the new owner has it CLA`d and shoots with it, more than likely this will never happen 🙁

Interestingly so I`ve seen now like 5 or 6 of these Grey IIIC/IIIFBD conversions in the past two years sell and they are all funny enough in the same serial number sequences around #3884xx series. (I guess many of these late 1942 cameras survived the war to do even further time working in Europe after the war - and were in the early 1950`s modified to IIIFBD, *many European photographer`s saved money by modifying "wartime" gear and it seems that these Grey cameras were more popular conversions then I had at first expected.)

I have to really hit the estate sales here in Florida hard to find me a beat up Grey conversion camera in someone`s drawer (both these cameras cost their ex owners less than $100 each) so they both made really great profits on selling them!

Keep Searching 🙂

Tom
 
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Tom,

I can't imagine what it would be like finding one these at an estate sale for less than a $100. I'd have a hard time keeping a poker face on while I paid them for it. Then I would run away in shock over what had just happened.

We're in one of the best states to come across these vet estate sales. In fact the VA just opened a new national cemetary here in Jax to take care of all the internment needs in this local.

If the vet's wife were still alive I don't think I'd be able to take advantage of her ignorance of the value of these cameras. As much as I'd like to own one I'd have to let her know it's worth & negotiate a sale price from there. Otherwise I could not enjoy it with a clear conscience.
 
mynikonf2 said:
Tom,

I can't imagine what it would be like finding one these at an estate sale for less than a $100. I'd have a hard time keeping a poker face on while I paid them for it. Then I would run away in shock over what had just happened.

We're in one of the best states to come across these vet estate sales. In fact the VA just opened a new national cemetary here in Jax to take care of all the internment needs in this local.

If the vet's wife were still alive I don't think I'd be able to take advantage of her ignorance of the value of these cameras. As much as I'd like to own one I'd have to let her know it's worth & negotiate a sale price from there. Otherwise I could not enjoy it with a clear conscience.
Click to expand...

Mike,

I have bought other items (Porsche 356 and vintage VW) items at ground floor prices and have enjoyed them for years, and when I sold them I still didn`t ask anything near their true value, I feel the same way about these WW2/Grey cameras, they are just sitting in a desk drawer for 40+ years doing nothing, at least when I get it, it`s going to TAKE PHOTOS again, and if it`s $25, $100 or $500 I won`t feel badly about it, while it`s going to be doing what it was built to do in the first place take pictures!

There`s also been a number of IIIC K Grey`s I know that were bought and or found for less than $500 in the past year, so they are still out there to be found.

But, despite the collection of pre 1946 cameras I now have, I don`t collect as a collector does, but I use all my cameras and when I`m tired of one, I sell it to buy another one to take it`s place, I have almost everything I`ve ever wanted Leica now, just a real "beater" Grey camera is on my list and with what`s turned up at ebay the past 5 weeks, I`m sure there`s another one out there, in Tampa or Sarasota, or Daytona that`s just sitting gathering dust in some ex-military estate, waiting to be picked up by someone who really would give it the attention it deserves.

Had I`d won this last one, I would have taken ALL the black paint off it and brought back the heavily brassed patina to the camera, thrown on a "wartime" Elmar as it was issued and put it in my beat up Grey "flat nose" case and gone shooting PinUp girls ..........sadly I`m sure at over $2,000 it`s going to sit in someone`s china cabinet for another 50 years 🙁

Tom
 
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Lookee - here's another!

Lookee - here's another!

Another grey "civil" comes out of the woodwork on evilbay - item no 370143824389.

Shame it's Boris, and the BIN price is sooo high for a body that has obviously seen better days. Nice serial # though.......

BTW - I will not be bidding, just had a $1200 repair bill on my wife's car today 😱
 
john neal said:
Another grey "civil" comes out of the woodwork on evilbay - item no 370143824389.

Shame it's Boris, and the BIN price is sooo high for a body that has obviously seen better days. Nice serial # though.......

BTW - I will not be bidding, just had a $1200 repair bill on my wife's car today 😱
Click to expand...

PA Has owned these (there's 2) 1942 IIIC Grey "normal" cameras for more than 6 or 7 years now.......

One does'nt have a lens and the other, I can't remember if it`s a proper era one, both cameras are worth LESS THAN $2,000, but PA prices are outragous anyway and are priced "not to sell" more than anything else, OR THEY MIGHT NOT EVEN OWN THESE, THE CAMERA'S BEEN ADVERTISED SO MANY TIMES, THAT IT COULD BE A SCAM? (I`ve head that legal actions have been taken about PA in the past ripping off customers etc. etc. I would NEVER consider buying anything from them)

Nothing new at all I know of, the biggest deal of the year I posted over at the "K" thread (that 43' IIIC K Grey with the MOOLY C K) sold dirt cheap at $5,800!
😉

Tom
 
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..OHH I have found another one prviately in the Daytona area, a 42' #387xxx Grey (rare early paint camera) that's got so much "patina" that there`s hardly any Grey paint left......it`s a IIIC Brass camera 🙂

I`m waiting on photos, the owner is'nt selling as of yet it's a WW2 "bringback"from his Father in 1945! And the cameras TAKING photos weekly still, so I'm not the ONLY Leica Photographer in Florida using a Grey paint camera still......

Enjoy!

Tom
 
Yet another at a silly price!

Yet another at a silly price!

One more "civil" grey has turned up on ohboy - item no 160310898429 - this one in the US too.

Does anyone know the seller?

Interesting IIIc red curtail Luftwaffe on offer from Italy too - item no 120365848585

What a shame I'm totally busted 🙁
 
I got a creditcard bill coming up that's close to 1500 Euro, so I won't be mingling in this dance either... you can guess what it's for (and some other goodies)

LeicaTom said:
Shame on you! But, the RD-1 should be fun, does it have an S upgrade?
Click to expand...

It's an R-D1 with the latest firmware and a Voightlander 35mm f/1.7 Ultron. I'm snapping away with it quite happily. 😀
 
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All of what`s just been posted here is way overpriced and well "K" shutter Leica`s not the rarer "normal" Grey cameras, I know that at least two of these have been for sale for over a year....so that tells you something.
(I`d keep my hands off that Russian camera, it looks WAY BOGUS to me!!!!)

Depending on condition, these are making good buys under $2,000

Tom
 
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