Some Luck

[bonsignore_ezio]

Bragging about one's own good luck is not a very nice characterial trait, and

furthermore it comes rather close to "tempting the Gods". Yet I cannot resist

the temptation to share a story with people, who will appreciate it.

 

I should explain that to me, a good portion of the pleasure of collecting and

using classic cameras comes from fishing for bargains. I don't buy from

professional sellers, and even as regards ebay I only search for sellers who

make spelling mistakes, don't know and cannot describe what they have, etc.

But of course, my main "hunting grounds" are the flea markets.

 

It takes a lot of patience, and this being Germany the normal catch of the

day tends to be an Isolette there, a Retinette here or the like. But on (rare)

occasions, Fortune really do smile onto us mortals.

 

On the last Sunday in October, this guy (obviously a Police officer) had a

table full of berets, insignias, and other Police memorabilia. But barely

visible under the table, there was a large cardboard box containing about a

dozen screw-mount Praktikas and their lenses. As he explained, they had

inherited all that stuff from the former East German police, but had no use

for it and so they were literally throwing it away. The asking price for a

MBTL5 with 50mm, 29mm and 135mm lenses was ?40, but I'm not that much

interested in Praktikas and I was moving away when I noticed something in a

corner of the box...

[bonsignore_ezio]

An absolutely immaculate Zeiss Flektogon F=1:2.8 20mm, clearly never used. Asking price was ?10, but we quickly settled at ?8. Not that bad....

 

And then, a week later at another flea market, I noticed this thing laying on the ground, amongst a row of lady shoes and a pile of old magazines. I'd never seen anything like that before, but a thought immediately flashed through my mind - Could it be....? Could it REALLY be....?

[bonsignore_ezio]

Indeed! One of less that 5,000 Afga Automatic 66s built over a few months in 1956. An historically and technologically extremely important camera, and a collector's dream. In nearly mint conditions, and fully functional including the meter. Asking price was ?30, but the lady immediately accepted my counter-offer for ?20.

 

Really, not that bad... I'm looking forward to next Sunday's flea market with a certain expectation...

[bonsignore_ezio]

The interrogation marks should be the sign for "euro".

[sdsalyer]

What really cracks me up about these stories is when someone makes a great find at a steal of a price, then they haggle them down even lower. :)

[bonsignore_ezio]

Very true, but not here. It really was 8 euro for the Flektogon and 20 euro for the Automatic 66.

[john_shriver]

That Automatic 66 looks cross-eyed. Distinctive!

[l._david_tomei1]

Bragging... yes. Excuse my mild irritation. However, recently I was at the big flea market in Rome and saw a fellow with a small table on which he had arranged several dusty and very dirty, completely uninteresting cameras. I asked the price of a badly worn old folder thinking I could use the parts and he told me that it was 2 Euro, whereas the others varied from 2 to 5 Euro. Then I also noticed another very dirty camera in a box on the ground and my heart leaped. I picked it up, opened it and a Bessa rangefinder camera emerged with a Color Heliar lens with a big greasy fingerprint in the middle of the foggy glass. Putting on my best act, I put in down to look at the others only to nonchalantly return to it finally asking what the price would be (thinking of course that I had found a 5 Euro Color Heliar Bessa). Without missing a beat the gentleman responded "For you, ahhh... 300 Euro"(!!). My wife commented as we walked away "Next time, let me ask the question in Italian."

 

Ciao

 

David

[bonsignore_ezio]

Of course, the best and biggest catch is always the one that escapes you. A few years ago at an air show in Chile, I stumbled on a 10-18 year-old boy in the crowd who was carrying what he described as his dead granpa's "useless thing" - an immaculate Canon 7z with 0.95 lens, complete with the special red leather carrying case. After a short discussion the boy declared himself more than happy to accept a $20 bill for the camera - when two near-by ladies completely misunderstood the motives for this middle-age foreigner accosting a boy and offering him money. It took a lot of fast talking in my broken Spanish to keep their fingernails off my face, and by the time the matter was more or less clarified the boy and his camera were gone, never to be found again amogst some 10,000+ people. Darn.

[kevin_roach]

GOOD! A flea market vender is fair game but ripping off a little boy, of his grandfather's

camera. That's just too low down. I'm glad them old ladies put a stop to your deal, and I hope

the kid keeps it and learns to appreciate what he has.

[riccardo_mottola]

that is luck... I go to flea markets too, but I rarely find cameras there and if, they ask like 50 euros for a broken zorki..... I have little luck there lately.

[tony_lockerbie]

I envy your luck, never seems to happen to me! The flea markets here only seem to turn up box brownies.

 

Tony

[bonsignore_ezio]

Kevin, of course I see and appreciate your point, but the way the discussion went I'm afraid what did happen was, the boy throw the "thing" into a garbage can immediately afterwards. I did originally speak to him to compliment him for his camera, and it was only after he complained bitterly that it was useless junk (no motor, no zoom etc.) and expressed such nefarious intentions that I made my move.

[kevin_roach]

Well in this case it could probably considered a "rescue." :)

 

It's a shame the kid didn't appreciate both the quality and the family significance of this

camera. Nice grabs on the other items tho.

[paulh]

That has got to be the best value Agfa 66 ever!