Zorky 4k in a antique fair!

[Rhodes]

Today I saw a zorky 4k in the regular antique fair of my town. Now the FSU rangefinders are beginning to show at this event, in the past only SLRs of the known branches would show up.
I ask the price, 100€!!! I laugh since I bought here one form manfromh for 15 $ and even with the shipment costs, the camera was about 20 to 25 euros! 😀
But it's not the only case, a FED 3 is selling for 75€ in the same fair!
One of my first posts here was about how much would the FSU cameras, in a good shape or "mint" would value. Here, they tend to be overpriced...

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Price may predominantly be effected though by the lens on the camera.

 

[xayraa33]

maybe Kevin Li was running that fair 😀

 

[Rhodes]

Price may predominantly be effected though by the lens on the camera.

Industar-51 I think! If the camera had a jupiter-8, it would justified the price?

 

[fanshaw]

But it's not the only case, a FED 3 is selling for 75€ in the same fair!
One of my first posts here was about how much would the FSU cameras, in a good shape or "mint" would value. Here, they tend to be overpriced...

Priced yes, but was it selling?

 

[Rhodes]

It is always there, in the table of the seller, untill someone decides to give that money for it! I first saw the FED 3 four of five months ago. Their are two of this events. One at the first saturday of the month and another in the third saturday. Many of the sellers are the same! And one tends to see the same itens over and over, since it's not only cameras, almost everyting is overpriced because it's old and the sellers also thinks they know more then the customer...

 

[wolves3012]

I love the auctions on a certain website with things like "RARE FED 4 russian camera" and a B.I.N. price of £50. Clearly they don't do their homework when there are 15 others listed and they sell for £10-15 max. There's a Zorki 4 on there now with a B.I.N. of £99.99 - I predict that it will fail to sell, surprise, surprise!

 

[Joao]

Used cameras in Portugal are generally overpriced, even when needing repair. I never saw a Zenit E selling for less than 25 euros. There is a Zorky-4 with Industar-50 lens currently selling for 35 euros at the local auction site
http://www.miau.pt/leiloes/leilao.jsp?offer_id=7043921
(no ties to the seller).
Regards
Joao

 

[David Murphy]

Usually when a seller ignorant of the camera market gets their hands on something like this they grossly overprice it thinking they can make a windfall. Occasionally they grossly under price things though (again out of ignorance), and that's when one can occasionally find the once-in-a-lifetime bargains. There's a GoodWill Thrift store near me that's taken to selling stuff like beatup fixed lens rangefinders for $100 (and the like). The manager has $$ signs in his eyes, but little idea of the real worth of his cameras. Usually when you ask them how they arrive at a price its due to them consulting some supposed expert at a camera shop. They sometimes look at eBay listings, and use the highest price fixed price listings as their guide, regardless of whether the items have sold or not. These sort of selectively interpreted facts, together with greed takes hold, and it sort of crystallizes a high pricing mentality - I see it all the time. If you make a realistic offer they are often insulted or taken aback, since it shatters their fantasy - I usually just smile and walk away from these sorts of sellers.

 

[Rhodes]

Used cameras in Portugal are generally overpriced, even when needing repair. I never saw a Zenit E selling for less than 25 euros. There is a Zorky-4 with Industar-50 lens currently selling for 35 euros at the local auction site
http://www.miau.pt/leiloes/leilao.jsp?offer_id=7043921
(no ties to the seller).
Regards
Joao

Indeed, you know the portuguese used cameras business!😉 But their are always exceptions and a few year's ago, when this kind of fair began to appear, my father manage to get a pentax mg for 20€ (today price,then it was escudos!) and other occasion two zenits, one E and another one with ttl for 25 €.
An 4k is also selling for 40€ at miau.pt! But this prices for me, if the camera is in top condition, are not bad.

 

[Rhodes]

Usually when a seller ignorant of the camera market gets their hands on something like this they grossly overprice it thinking they can make a windfall. Occasionally they grossly under price things though (again out of ignorance), and that's when one can occasionally find the once-in-a-lifetime bargains. There's a GoodWill Thrift store near me that's taken to selling stuff like beatup fixed lens rangefinders for $100 (and the like). The manager has $$ signs in his eyes, but little idea of the real worth of his cameras. Usually when you ask them how they arrive at a price its due to them consulting some supposed expert at a camera shop. They sometimes look at eBay listings, and use the highest price fixed price listings as their guide, regardless of whether the items have sold or not. These sort of selectively interpreted facts, together with greed takes a hold and it sort of crystallizes a high pricing mentality - I see it all the time. If you make a realistic offer they are often insulted or taken aback, since it shatters their fantasy - I usually just smile and walk away from these sorts of sellers.

Yes, I know the type! And had the same kind of experienses. But it's to anything or everything in this "antique fair"!
Regarding to cameras, they tend to have some kind of information even by other sellers. The normal idea is, it's old so it has great valor, or the seller's knows something. One time I saw one camera seller (he only sells cameras, and some phography stuff. I saw my first leica in fair, I ask the price, 600€.😱 It was an leica IIc I think. He also told, when I was seeing the other cameras not to fire the shutter. Latter and since I didn't know this forum, only photo.net, I post there the experience and asked if the price was right. I recall that every one said that It was "nutprice" for that model and any seller that say that, the best thing is turn back and walk away! The seller also didn't belive that I bought my leica IIIc for 100€ (and then spend another 100 in shutter repair, but I didn't say that....😀) he begain saying that those 50 € leicas and etc are all fakes and that he knows those business in the net, etc! Basicly, he sells the cameras for the right value price plus the double or the triple to earn money.

 

[JohnTF]

Prices are indeed "variable", at the last auction the FSU table went very low, with two-fers, and I just heard from Igor he has some bargain Feds and Zorkis with lenses not listed anywhere yet, but priced to move. I may advise him to visit Portugal, if anyone wants a list, email me, or Igor at Igorcamera@roadrunner.com - prices seemed quite reasonable relative to condition.

All of the FSU equipment I own came from trips to Prague, but people seem to eventually figure which ones are which in terms of usability and rarity. It's tough to turn down good working stuff, but I think I prefer to buy now from someone who is a known quantity. I did bring home another 4K last trip. ;-)

Regards, John

 

[dll927]

Keep in mind that once somebody, correctly or incorrectly, labels something "antique", they start seeing dollar signs (or whatever currency) when it comes to selling.

My sister is an inveterate antique store denizen, and I've been with her on scads of visits to them. Most of what I see comes across to me as sheer bric-a-brac, and I doubt if much of it is worth more than a passing glance. But the store owners seem to have a different opinion regarding a lot of the stuff. Maybe some types of furniture, etc. would qualify, but I have my doubts about a lot of the stuff I've seen in so-called antique stores.