True: The Leica Bargain Of All Bargains

[charles_havelock]

Every Leica user's fantasy came true for me this Saturday. My wife

and I were chasing tag sales throughout Middlesex County in

Connecticut when we stopped in the town of Deep River. A hand-drawn

sign outside a restaurant on East Main Street urged us to stop by a

garagae sale a few block away. We arrived at 1pm, just as the heat

and humidity were peaking. A grizzled old Yankee held court in a

garage crammed with junk. We poked around for fifteen minutes and

were about to give up when I stumbled on a milk crate filled with

camera gear. At the top was a 1960s Polaroid Swinger, a few Kodak

instamatics, and at the bottom, two dusty Leica M3s, with four

equally dusty lenses. I wiped off the dust, cocked the cameras

through all the shutter speeds -- and was rewarded with the soft

click of working mechanisms. Next, I examined the lenses (35,two

50s, one collapsable, and a 135. All had working aperatures and

clean - spotless -- glass.

Choking back a triumphant yell, acting as cool as Neuman in his

prime, I hauled the crate to the old Yankee and asked what he wanted

for the lot. He walked over, rummaged through the gear without

batting an eye at the Leicas, and said "Thirty dollars for the lot."

I hesitated a fraction of a second, again in actor mode, but before I

could speak he said, "Aw, hell, how about twenty five?" I fished out

my wallet, paid the gentleman, and stowed the crate in the trunk.

My wife wandered over to the car, empty handed, and we drove off.

 

I got home, cleaned off the gear, and tested the cameras and lenses.

As I suspected, all work perfectly. Yesterday I put six rolls

through the cameras and developed them last night. Perfect frames --

perfect beyond reason. This morning I called a Leica specialist,

read him the serial numbers, and got back an appraisal of $4000.

 

Here's to the good folks of Deep River, Connecticut.

[dlegaspi]

Charles, i hate you already...you lucky dog...

 

;-)

[sparkie]

Lucky you!, wish it was me in your shoes.

[bob haight]

Sellers beware....

[msitaraman]

Yankee carpetbagger!

 

<seething with envy...>

 

:-)

[kristian dowling]

And I thought getting my Leica 35/1.4 Aspherical 1st edition for

US$1400, and trading it for a new 35/1.4 Apsh, 90/2 Asph, 1.25X

magnifier, and E55 and E46 UV filters was good!

 

Damn, that's every Leica enthusiasts wish! Congratulations, with

envy

[jackflesher]

Congrats! Almost as good as the guy who earlier this year bought a small oil painting in a garage sale for $5 -- turned out it was an original Monet! But in truth, I'd have rather gotten your deal ;>)

 

Cheers,

[ralph_barker]

A great story, Charles, but how do you expect to take decent photographs with a $25 kit? (lol)

 

We're all envious, of course.

[alfie wang]

Cool beans, time to find a Leica M7 for 25 dollars. I would be floored.

 

Either that or win the LHSA lottery.

[gerald_widen]

Congradulations on your luck. Now if you were a nice guy you would pass some of your luck on to someone needy of a Leica at a good price. Just kidding. I had been recently looking for an affordable used M2 and had been stopping at the local garage sales. At almost every one I'd been told you are the 3rd or 4th person today asking for old cameras. I had a garage sale two weeks ago with a 10am start and by 9:45 there were already two people there asking for cameras. I got a little lucky recently and picked up a nice M2 in probably ex+ condition that was supposed to be working for $520 from a fairly well known camera seller on ebay I have become friendly with over the past year or so. He was willing to sell the camera at cost assuming he didn't have to put any work into it. On quick inspection he thought everything was fine.He does minor repairs and CLA's when needed to the cameras he sells. Upon my test roll there was some kind of shutter problem which I posted here last week. This guy felt so bad that upon receiving the camera back he did a complete CLA which fixed the problem, took a test roll and only charged me an extra $10 for shipping and film. The camera probably is worth around $600-700 but I have emailed back and fourth over the years sending him photos of my work and he wanted me to have a Leica at a reasonable cost. There are some nice people out there.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Bravo!

[igor_osatuke]

You must have done something right in your previous life. Congrats!

[b_n_f]

With your luck, you'd better double check inside the lens barrels - there might be a copy of the Declaration of Independence or even the Constitution stashed inside!!! ;-)

[karl_georg_wolf]

Hello Charles,

 

that´s exactly the reason why some of us out here love to visit photomarkets, and all kinds of sales. Congratulation to your find.

Hope you are lucky with it.

 

But I would have given him those last 5 Dollars ...

 

Best regards

[tim_k1]

Great. Thanks a lot. I had just stopped wasting all of my Saturday's running

around from garage sale to garage sale because in all of these years I've

never found anything. And now you and your story comes along...

[eliot]

That's a hear warming story. Too bad it had to come at the expense of a grizzled old Yankee. We're all happy you managed to save the five dollars on the deal.

[james_.1]

Yah, nice catch, but I would've given him the fiver, to grant him his full asking price. That way, I'd feel innocent. O:) But then again, we're only talking 5 extra bucks.

[patricks]

Am I the only guy feeling kind of bad for the poor man?

[emile_de_leon9]

Wow! I just live 20 min from Deep River....you lucky stiff!!!

[tony_brookes]

There's always a sucker - the guy was prepared to accept $15 !!

[tse_sung_wu7]

16,000% gain. Are you sure you're not using Arthur Anderson accounting

methods in your story?

 

It'll be interesting to see what you do with it-- think of your karma being in

escrow right now...

 

;-)

[stephen_w.]

you should have your name changed to haveluck.

 

the closest i've come is $40 for 6x24 trinovid (first trinovid) from 1963; a few years ago.

 

i still search garage/estate/pawn shops for the overlooked/underrated leica.

[cd thacker]

What a dream. The closest I've come to anything like this, is a few months back, when I walked into a garage sale here and found, sitting inside a wicker basket, a Nippon Kogaku 50mm f/1.4, Nikkor 28mm AIS f/2.0, Nikkor 80-200mm AIS f/4.0 zoom, all in pristine condition, along with an old, well-beaten Nikkormat body and Vivitar point-and-shoot; and two small flash units. <P>Incredibly, I had only days before been thinking about the lenses I needed, and this basket find pretty much covered the lot. I had at the time about $100 in my checking account. <P>"How much for the stuff in this basket?" I asked, expecting to hear a figure well beyond that. <P>"Well," the answer came back, "how does $75 sound?" <P>Thinking that it sounded <I>unbelievable</I> - but, given my penury, that it could be made to sound better, I said, "How about fifty?" <P>"Sold!" <P>I toted up the price of everything when I got back home, by referencing the adds in the back of <I>Shutterbug</I>. I stopped counting when I reached $1000 - and never looked back, or tried not to.<P>

 

The other instance - this one <I>almost</i> miraculous - happened in Sydney when I was visiting there. In looking for a body to add to my (Nikon) kit, I came upon an old rangefinder body in a pawnbroker's window. I don't remember now, but it said something like "Leitz" or "Leitz Contax" on the front (or possibly the top). Whether it worked or not I have no idea, but the price was right: about US $35.

In the end, not having at the time the first clue about rangefinders(despite greatly suspecting that this one might fetch a nice price), and being on the lookout for Nikon stuff, I passed it by. Within hours, of course, the thing was gone. Alas. <P>As I found out here, however, it's true that one never knows what tomorrow will bring - or what nook or cranny one's first (or umpteenth) Leica body will turn up in. Congrats on your great find.