Lets hear about your most amazing Leica bargain!

[john cleland]

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Here's one for you. Lets hear who has found the most amazing Leica bargain? To the non Leica owner, the cameras and lenses can look like an old fashion camera worth only a few pounds/dollars.

 

So who has been to a car boot sale and found a mint condition Summilux going for £1 or found an M7 on Ebay with the spelling 'Lieca for sale' and got it for $5 with no reserve?

 

Lets hear about your most amazing deals and the crazy places your obtained your beautiful Leica equipment from?

 

Cheers John

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[frozenace]

I bought a new Summicron 35 asph non-6-bit for 1020 gbp last year.

 

Also got a Summilux 50 asph 6-bit silver for 1950 pounds (2001 price) 4077xx serial (oh, I got it delivered on 23rd Dec, after 1 week of searching).

[elgenper]

Well, mine dates back to the ´70:es.... I was then upgrading my wet darkroom, and needed a larger easel for my enlarger; I only had a cheap Japanese 18x24 cm job.

 

An ad in my local newspaper was for a "large enlarging easel" for 50 SEK (then about USD 10). Without much hope, I called the number and asked if it was a Jap one. The answer was "no, I don´t think so; it say´s ´Leitz Wetzlar, Germany´, whatever that means...".

 

I was at the address in 10 mins; it was an original Leitz 30 x 40 one in good condition! I used it for 25 years, and still have it, although I dismantled my wet darkroom more than 7 years ago.

 

Don´t think I ever got as much Leica quality for such a sum....

[andybarton]

I bought a new Summicron 35 asph non-6-bit for 1020 gbp last year.

 

I paid less than that for a Mint 6-bit coded one retail...

 

I think that you might have to try harder than that

[farnz]

I have been very fortunate with the following deals:

 

1) An R9 and 28-90 Vario-Elmarit-R aspherical both like new and boxed for £1,200.

2) Part-exchanged a 35 Summilux-M for a 2nd version 19/2.8 Elmarit-R and 80-200/4 Vario-Elmar-R

 

Pete.

[charlesphoto99]

Well pre-M8 all my lens purchases now seemike bargains.

 

2002: Mint 24mm elmarit with finder $1225.

 

2004: mint 35 Lux asph $1350.

 

And I'll stop right there. You get the idea. Actually just missed a good Craigslist bargain by an hour. 50 version 4 cron for $600. And it had been up for about a week.

[wparsonsgisnet]

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1970 --

 

Leica M4, silver, with 50mm 'cron DR, silver, about $400, used.

 

This body and lens are still in service. I recently bot an inexpensive DR and had the close-focusing cam cut off by DAG.

 

2010 --

 

M9.

 

And on we go ....................

[richam]

Don't know if this fits in the "amazing" category, but I picked up a iiif in excellent condition with collapsible f2 Summarit lens for US$ 500. The lens was a bit stiff and had some fogging on the front element, but I got it repaired locally for €30. Now everything works smoothly, accurately, and has that nice Leica mechanical feel to it.

[mby]

Noctilux f/1 in mint condition for €1430 at end of 2000...

[Guest Joachim_I]

1) An R9 and 28-90 Vario-Elmarit-R aspherical both like new and boxed for £1,200.

Wow, that's very impressive.

 

I would nominate a mint chrome Tri-Elmar 28-35-50 I bought in 2005 for 1210 Euro. Has served me very well since then. Another bargain might be a very early and beautiful Leitz camera brochure (Liste Nr. 2238) from 1926 which I bought for 95 Euro two years ago. A comparable copy will be auctioned at the end of this month in Vienna with a starting bid of 250 Euro and an estimated 400-500 Euro final bid.

[gyoung]

One of the last pre asheric Summilux 50/1.4s, for £450 about 5 years ago, from a dealer. Less than I was expecting to pay for a current type Summicron

[Steve Ash]

Well, I bought my gear all new and although I got some discount it wasn't a real hot deal. Nevertheless, I think my gear is worth every penny.

 

Regards

Steve

[topoxforddoc]

Used R8 and DMR from a shop with warranty for GBP1650. When it arrived, the R8 didn't work and so the shop even paid for £850 worth of warranty repairs at Solms!

 

Regards

[luigi bertolotti]

Two collectibles... found by chance at shops who clearly weren't aware at all of what is Leica collecting :

- Hektor 7,3 cm, s/n 129.xxx perfect with hood, caps, leather bag... ("a very old black lens sitting in the shop's shelf")... 200 Euros

- Elmarit 28 (mint in its numbered box, complete) : 400 Euros, good, not a giveaway apparently... but the seller did not care it was the first version - 9 elements - Wetzlar made (very rare, and by far the worst of the Elmarits 28, to be sincere).

[DrM]

It was in a photo shop "cleaning up the old mess": "just have a look in the box on the counter, may there is something you like". It took me 1 second to grab a M4 black paint and I was nailed to the ground. The camera was not in mint condition but beautifully showing its age with fine glowing brass and black paint. I text-messaged a friend to check the s/n, and it was a original M4 black paint! After 5 minutes the salesman asked me "did it find anything?" I mumbled: "yes, may be this one. how much?". The salesman replied: "Let's see.. here is the list..(taking 1 every long minute to find the camera)... for 150 euro it's yours.". I did not expect that!., and mumbled.." ok, I like it". Outside the store I called my friend and told him: "Ever touched a M4 Black paint? :D"

 

M

[symmetron]

A guy in a camera store gave me a 21 mm viewfinder (the plastic one). Apparently, it had been rebuilt but works fine. At the time I was considering buying the DL-4 viewfinder which casts about $275 (street). The 21mm VF works fine for as much as I use it.

[wattsy]

I sold a mint F1 Noctilux for £1000 in mid-2005:eek: That wasn't quite as ludicrous as it sounds - the going rate at that time was only £1000-£1250 - but it doesn't rank as one of my best decisions.

[wattsy]

I paid less than that for a Mint 6-bit coded one retail...

 

I think that you might have to try harder than that

 

Yes, £1020 doesn't sound like a flea market bargain but the RRP of the 35/F2 is now a hefty £2065. I've bought three during the last eight years and I paid shop retail prices of something like £795, £895 and £1095 (the last one being a black paint version). How times have changed.

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[scsambrook]

Two bargains:

First one was quite a few years ago, a 35mm M3-version Summicron sitting in a camera shop window near to where I worked. It was obviously wrongly priced at £35, which was around £100 cheaper than the going rate - somebody had missed the "1" before the "3" when they wrote the ticket. Because I used to get stuff from them regularly, I thought I'd do the Decent Thing and nip inside and tell them.

Conversation:

Me "Hello, have you got the price wrong on the Summicron?"

Shop assistant "Certainly not, we never overprice our secondhand stock, that's the only price we'll take".

Me "OK, I'll take it."

 

The other was a Canon 135/3.5 rangefinder, a late black one, on eBay, for 99 pence (just over one Euro, or USD 1.50). Not only was it in excellent condition, it had a Leitz screw bayonet adapter on it when it arrived.

[yanidel]

A 35mm summicron IV set for €450 on Ebay on Christmas Eve. Nobody bid, busy eating turkey. Thanks to Ebay on my Iphone ...