Consensus: price range for mint Leica M4, M5, M6

[MAGNAchrom]

My father is looking to sell his Leica collection going back many many years. He has several M bodies (as well as several R bodies) and is wondering if there is a general price range for mint M4, M5, and M6 bodies and accessories. (he has dozens of Leica lenses too, including that wonderful f1.4 Sumilux)

Any help would be appreciated as he needs to sell his things to keep financially solvent.

Michael

 

[David H. Bebbington]

"Mint" of course has a different meaning for Leica buyers. Whereas with most brands, "mint" in the sense of "totally indistinguishable from new" would probably go for 25% more than "Exc [Excellent] ++" (which would be "very slight signs of use"), Leica fanatics will pay double (but ONLY if the "mint" objects genuinely have NO signs of use and are preferably in their original packaging with all tags, documentation, etc.).

I am not a collector, usually if I buy second-hand gear I would go for between mint and Exc++, with Leica I would not dream of buying mint because it is so much more expensive. Ballpark figures for the UK would be £500 - 600 for Exc++ (very clean user) M4 and M5, twice as much for genuinely mint, maybe even three times as much for totally mint in box with all packaging. M6 I would say £600 to £700 for Exc++, maybe 50% for mint, as the M6 is a newer camera and there are more around in mint condition.

I might have a doubt as to whether you can get full price for collector-grade Leicas on e-bay, where buyers cannot view the actual goods before purchase. If you do list any goods on e-bay as mint, I would be sure to include lots of clear pictures showing them from all sides.

Regards,

David

PS: The prices I have mentioned are dealer prices including VAT (sales tax) of 17.5% and guarantee.

 

[copake_ham]

Analog M body prices are beginning to drop like stones! Particulary M6. M7 and MP (forget about the "orphan" M5).

All this has to do with impending release of digi M8. Check out RFF website - it is "hot" with digiM anticipation.

Leica lenses will apparently hold value because the digiM8 uses an optical-based value setting such that pre-digi lenses can be retrofitted with simply "stick-on" coding.

Not fully sure on this - but if you go to RFF you will likely get the full story.

 

[David H. Bebbington]

I would be surprised if there was much change in prices for mint collector-grade equipment, since collectors don't take pictures and prices are governed by rarity and condition. Prices of user cameras I would expect to fall under the pressure of competition from digital cameras on the one hand and Voigtländer on the other. In fact I would expect beater examples of Leica M cameras to be very hard to sell, since these cannot be restored to collector grade at economic cost and even to turn them into good users would cost more than a new Voigtländer!

My previous posting assumed that Michael's father's cameras are really mint - if this is the case, he could even be better off selling to a genuine specialist dealer who is in touch with truly fanatical high-spending collectors!

Regards,

David

 

[MAGNAchrom]

Thank you everyone. This is most helpful.

Michael