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Leica S serial numbers - Kosher?


DG Hawkes

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Luckily, I hope - after selling my Monochrome and with a lot of Sony kit to go I have made the winning bid on EBay UK for a Leica S2 and a 70mm Summarit lens at a much lower price than seems sane. Hopefully because the seller expected more before deciding not to set a higher reserve price.

 

Before I pay, the buyer (who hasn't responded to a request for me to check it as yet) wanting PayPal, and in order to avoid a near miss I had with what proved to be a scam deal on a Phase One earlier this year and a Leica S2 I won that the buyer wouldn't sell, finally saying he hadn't realised it was a Chinese fake(?!) is there a way to check using serial numbers?

 

The camera has the number  3800635 in the photos 


 

and the 70mm Summarit Aspheric Lens = 4090497.

 

Thanks for any help...

 

David

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There are no fake S2's that was just a bad excuse to not sell you for that price...

 

Of course you should always ask to send you a photo with your name and a date on a piece of paper together with the camera.

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I would however never buy this on eBay, but I guess I pay the premium for this. I do however buy legacy glass on eBay, like Contax 645 or Hasselblad lenses etc etc. But the risk is significantly lower than with and S2 body I would think.

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As an update it seems to have all gone pear shaped! I wrote 3 messages over a period of 5 hours asking for contact details, asking if /when I could go and check the items and saying I could (not would only) pay on collection with cash rather than PayPal, but noted his request.

 

I got back home to find this rude and bullying message (from EBay-er adampique. Well named, now my surname too, wonder if he visits this site?) 


 

"Hi David,

I specified in description ONLY PayPal accepted. Why you placed your bid if you are unable to pay? If i don't receive the payment befire tomorrow noon time, i will move forward with the next bidder. 

Regards."

 

As I said in reply I had been willing to pay by PayPal but not without checking first - I always offer any inspection on items I sell including after the bids in case the buyer wanted to check and wasn't happy, before they had to pay - never happened as everything has been at least as good as advertised.

 

I don't care if it is a genuine 24 carat gold plated special edition with knobs and a pink bow, or about any damage he tries to do to my 100% positive standing, but won't go through with this now. That bullying, rush you into paying/giving data in advance with threats, stress etc. smacks to me of the typical ploy used by scammers. If it looks too good to be true..!

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It sounds like a scam. Why would someone not want to avoid Paypal fees and meet to do the exchange unless they are afraid of you as a thief. There are plenty of places that you can meet safely such as a bank lobby. I did this when I bought my Noctilux. The lens was legit and I paid cash. Oh well, be careful.

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It got weirder - I said I was out. Then got this email:

 

"If you want I will give you his email and you can take it up with him directly ? Get things sorted easier ?"

 

I queried this and then got this one:

 

"I am only selling this for a man who buys and sells over eBay, he tells me what to list etc etc whatever questions I'm asked I email to him and he gives me a reply. His replies are very slow, don't get me wrong I completely agree with you I wouldn't part with that kind of money without seeing the item or speaking to the seller. I have only spoke to him over eBay, I am just told what to say to the customers. 
Apologies."

 

Needless to say, EBay wrath notwithstanding I'm done with this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I doubt if a number like 3800635 can actually tell someone the photos count.

Also, I doubt if Serial number would give out any clue at all about the number of pictures taken with it.

 

It can't tell you the photo count, but it can tell you information about the camera... He didn't want to know how many photos the camera had taken based on the serial number, he just wanted to check out the serial number in general.

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