Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Price of an M3?
From: Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch>
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 19:40:05 +0100
References: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0102150112450.17386-100000@bokeh.pdi.com>

Juan,

If I were you I would not waste my time and money on a camera as beat up as
the one you describe--unless you feel that you want to buy from your friend
in the interest of the friendship or he is willing to sell it to you for a
REALLY low price. There are plenty of nice M3s on the market, for example I
bought mine for 1450 DM (less than $700) and it is perfect in every respect
and cosmetically pretty nice too. Admittedly, the serial no. is below
1'000'000 and the one your are looking at is in the desireable over 1'000'000
range, but as Martin wrote, given its state it has little collector value
anyway.

Nathan

"Juan J. Buhler" wrote:

> Hello list,
>
>         I'm new here, just suscribed. Don't own a Leica yet, but I'm
> looking into it.
>
>         I have a friend with a stuck M3. He wants to sell it, and I'm
> considering making him an offer. I would like to know what a fair
> price for the following is:
>
> M3, sn 1111xxx.
> - The shutter and rewind crank are stuck. I presume this will be a
> routine repair.
> - The top plate has many rub marks, but nothing ugly. Same for the
> bottom plate, plus a social security number, engraved clumsily.
> - The black whateveritis stuff is in good condition in the body,
> except for tiny cracks on one side, next to the bottom plate. It is
> totally gone from the back door though, like someone peeled it off
> completely.
> - The "L" in the mount is gone (I see a screw)
> - There's a slight dent to the left (from the front) of the
> rangefinder patch window.
> - Finder is bright enough, rangefinder seems fine, except for some
> kind of speck crossing 1/2 of the rectangular patch.
> - The interior looks clean, the first? curtain seems OK (cannot see
> the other completely). The spool is there.
>
> Summicron 5cm 1:2, collapsible, M mount. The coating on the front
> element seems damaged, like someone used to clean it with a page from
> a Canon user manual :-)  This hasn't shown on the pictures I took with
> this lens and another, borrowed M3. I know flare control would be a
> problem with it, but I have my Pentax SMC lenses when I want to shoot
> into the sun...
>
> Summaron 3.5cm 1:3.5, screw mount. Glass clean, normal usage marks on
> the metal. The metal hood is there. No M adaptor. Pictures I took with
> this lens on a Zorki are fine.
>
> Hektor 135mm 4.5, screw mount. Glass clean, normal use marks, no
> adaptor. Won't mount of the Zorki, (because of the camera,) so I
> couldn't test it. I know this lens can be gotten for ~$100 in user
> condition, though.
>
> There's a dark brown Leica case for the M3, which looks rather
> good. There's also a Leica meter, that doesn't work and had old,
> leaking batteries inside.
>
> All advise is welcome. I'd like to come up to a number that would be
> fair for me and my friend.
>
> Thanks for reading this,
>
> j
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Juan J. Buhler | FX Animator @ PDI | http://www.crosswinds.net/~jbuhler
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------

- --
Nathan Wajsman
Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland

e-mail: wajsman@webshuttle.ch

General photo site: http://belgiangator.tripod.com/
Belgium photo site: http://members.xoom.com/wajsman/
Motorcycle site: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/1704/

In reply to: Message from "Juan J. Buhler" <jbuhler@pdi.com> ([Leica] Price of an M3?)