There have been several good responses to your questions.
My 2-cents worth, which will probably echo some of the previous comments.
Don't purchase from ebay, or any of the other auctions, if the price gets
higher than KEH or Charlotte Camera. Don't purchase from auction sites
unless there is a photo. Look at the seller's other auctions. Is she/he
selling a lot of other photo equipment? Does he/she say they purchased the
equipment at an estate sale or yard sale or whatever? I got burned on a
couple of dirty lenses, that turned out to be fungus. One was by an honest
person (I think) who got the lens at an estate sale and knew nothing about
cameras, but the other was one who I think (I have no proof) was slightly
shady. Negative feedback by you on an auction site feels good, but it
doesn't get your money back. In my case, both were willing to refund my
purchase cost but not my shipping costs, so it was less expensive to write
them off as a lesson learned. They were very good bargains! : ( I have
purchased a few truly good bargains from ebay.
Visit your local camera shops. They may have universal thread mount lenses
in the storage area. I've had to dig through boxes of lenses that were
considered not salable because no one wants 20-30 year old lenses and today
everyone is using bayonet mounts. I've offered ridiculous amounts for such
finds, and have occasionally gotten a good buy. When I get a few free
hours I'm going to suggest to one dealer that I catalog his old universal
lenses and see if there is anything of real value - it might take a few
weeks (not hours) just to dig through the N___, C___, M____, Kodak, Y____,
and other junk to find the right stuff ; ).
I've done the same with some of the local pawn shops, especially near the
Army base. Many of the pawns in my area will charge a high price for a
camera with lens. But they don't always know what to do with a lens by
itself, and that's where I've found a couple of bargains. But recently a
couple of local ebay dealers have beat me to the lenses. These are the
people who are buying anything photographic that shows up at pawn and
selling it on ebay for ridiculous profits.
I still kick myself for letting someone else get to a camera case that I
passed by in a charitable thrift shop. The camera case was inside a locked
display case which the manager would have had to unlock and I assumed it
was empty. It was sitting next to some Polaroid equipment. When I walked
back a few minutes later, there was a man buying the case with the enclosed
Pentax ES and several lenses for $50.
I'm only buying Pentax for myself, but many of the bargains I've found have
been other brands for family and friends.
I've had good luck with KEH and B&H on used equipment. Universal mount
Takumar lenses are sometimes listed under both the Pentax and the "Classic
Camera" sections of the B&H ads.
This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, visit www.pdml.net
and follow the directions.
