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what determines the price of a Leica?


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Scarcity, cosmetic and operational condition, provenance, covering, unusual characteristics, and market demand all contribute to pricing, among a slew of other factors. If you delve into some of the previous posts on pricing issues, you will discover a myriad of contributing factors, some waxing and some waning.

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Ive just been noticing a lot of Leica M3's, same color and similar condition, that are selling for extremely staggered prices.

 

Are they? Or do the asking prices differ? Price is finally determined by the actual buyer.

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1. number of units produced

2. condition

3. what the market is bearing to pay for them (HIGHLY influenced by fashion at any given time and if an item has entered "collectable" status or not)

4. general state of the economy

5. who are you buying from

 

A good benchmark to find prices on a given product is to watch prices from different sources and (if you can) follow them over the years.

Best practice when shopping for a given item is first to FIRMLY make up your mind what exactly you want for which purpose.

 

There are always lower priced yet easily as practically useful items, producing identical image quality to buy in Leica land.

Does it really have to be a mint low production volume sample of a rare item or does a nice recently serviced (from a reputable person) item in cosmetic user condition fit the bill as easily.

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You got some good answers.

 

If we analyze ebay Leica sales, they are surprisingly few, and very many clearly over-priced items.

 

If you find an item that has Best Offer available, give it a try. I've been surprise by how reasonable a price I've paid, even for items advertised at high prices. It never works for things like a $32,000 Leica M2 that's been up for a year.

 

Tamarkin Camera, Chicago often has reasonable prices on used gear and they usually offer a warranty, but not for collectibles. KEH.com sometimes has good deals. (Just ignore their current black M2 for just under $20,000. That's just silly.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Serial number is only an issue if it can determine whether the camera is before or after a particular change in features, if one did occur during the run of that model

 

However in all cases this needs to be verified personally, as Leica model serial numbers are by batch and not necessarily sequential

 

Lastly a later serial number camera could be worth slightly more simply as the camera is newer, however this varies by model

 

In general serial number is not the major factor to bear on price given all other factors, e.g. an early mint model will generally go for more then a later non-mint model

 

rgds

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there is a sense among some that getting the later runs of a particular model of older leicas (m3,2,4,6,etc) is better as leica worked to improve the model as time went on. more recent m's the story is different -- leica looked to see how they could cut corners to boost and/or sustain margins. urban legend? perhaps. but for those who believe it the serial number would matter.

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I know condition is a big factor. Does serial number have a big impact on price? Ive just been noticing a lot of Leica M3's, same color and similar condition, that are selling for extremely staggered prices.

 

There are plenty of cheaper M3's as well, in just as good condition as those often seen on well known auction sites, often found in Leica dealers who can offer a warranty, and without the 'idiot factor' of an over inflated price. Leica M3's are not scarce, no Leica mainstream model is scarce, only the low production variants.

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