Giving them away, really? Last I looked they were hard to find, kind of expensive when you did find them, and lenses were rare too. Supposed to be a very capable camera. (And, as you say, big. I've never seen one but someone posted a picture of himself with his here once. It was a behemoth.
Yeah, I've seen a fair few go lately, direct from Japan. I buy a lot of LF lenses from Astrosmith and he's always got a lot of GX gear, see
here. $2 - $20 for a scratched-but-working 120 film back, $110 for a body, $60 - $120 for decent working lenses (less if you don't mind a bit of haze, and having bought a 'hazy' lens from him before I can barely see it in the glass, let alone on the print). Not sure if it needs a custom battery, if it does that'd be the only reason not to buy it.
And that's just from one seller, as someone else pointed out in another thread there are a lot of Japanese sellers just discovering ebay now, prices for a lot of things are going to come down.
Almost makes me wish I'd gone for GX instead of Pentacon/Kiev 6x6 and Mamiya 645, at those prices I may yet end up with another system.
Behemoth it definitely is, there are pics on those auctions and one at
LuLa, but noone's holding it so it's hard to get a sense of scale. Just keep remembering that the hole in the back and the focussing screen cover at least 8x8cm and it'll dwarf an RB, they're probably the size of a speed-graphic at least.
With ortho film the highlights on his forehead wouldn't have blown.
Unless he's a green/blue-skinned alien?
