HASSELBLAD 503 Gold Supreme... is it collectible?

Hi! i have a friend who is selling a 1998 Hassleblad 503 CW

Gold Supreme with the matching gold 80mm 2.8 NEW in box.

Never been a roll on it. I was wondering how much could cost

one of these pieces today. He says that back on 1998, he pay for

it $5800.00. Any comment will be very appreciate! Best regards,

Ricardo Villagran.

Even with the price of Medium Format dropping, I would suspect I could manage to fork over 300 bucks for it.

 

Let me know.

 

 

tim in san jose

I never personally thought it was much of a collectible, but it is kinda cool. I suppose if you hold on to it for a long time, it will be akin to my father's collection of old movie cameras-some fabulously well built and a marvel of craftsmanship. 'Course nobody uses them anymore. My feelings are that a Hasselblad should be used to make images, and this collector stuff left to the Leica crowd....

There is not the same collectors market with Hasselblads like the Leica

crowd, and as cool as the gold one are, I think there is a very small market for

the premium $$ involved here.

 

I would not invest a lot in it thinking you'd get a big return, there are better

investments.

 

As for a value, you can always get the wholesale value at KEH photo.

Man O Man what a lot of nay sayers you all are. There has been a series of commerative Hasselblads going back decades adn these are valuable to collectors. The people on this forum may be primairly shooters but there are collectors who do buy htese commeratives and put them away and trade them. I see them in Toronot and Montreal. Having said that I will emphasis that the point of collecting is selfish, meaning that this camera has to have a special meaning to you. If a person is collecting just to make money there are hundreds of ways to make better money.

You could try putting it on Ebay with a high reserve price and see if it sells for higher than that. If it doesn't meet the reserve price, you haven't sold your camera.

 

Alternatively, research and find camera stores that deal with the collectibles market. For example, in New York City there is Tamarkin Camera, which deals a lot with the Japanese market. Somehow, the Japanese collect expensive Leica cameras that they keep in plastic shrink wrap and put in safes. Anyway, you get the picture. Find a reputable dealer and you will get the best price for the set. There is still a market for such items, you just have to find it, that's all. Don't give up. If you go to just any store you might get silly responses like the first one you got above, and then you might get discouraged.

 

Financially speaking, don't rush. The cost of money these days is very low, i.e., money in a risk-free financial instrument earns 1 to 2 percent a year (here in the US). So keep the Hasselblad until you sell it, the cost of tying up the money in the equipment is negligible. Unless of course your friend needs cash right away.

 

By the way, the market for used Hasselblads is quite stable. It is not sinking fast, as people might have you believe.

 

Best of luck!

I forgot to give you tamarkin's web address. It is www.tamarkin.com

<BR>Email them and they might be able to help you. Let me know if you have a problem and I'll give them a call on your behalf.