Did I not mention that I use this camera, so thanks but I will pass... But when one values the equipment some use here at the price of two cups of coffee and a muffin to go from Starbucks, well it tells me something about that person here on APUG.
Many photographers, pro and amature, lab owners and technicians purchased their equipment at retail value back in the good old days ,{well even today} never considered the prices they paid impossible. It was equipment needed to do the type of work they had to do and would always find the scratch.
The new digital phase system is worth over 50k and finally it delivers image quality that the OP's camera is wondering about a price.
It is crazy/absurd too me that people will pay upwards of 6k for a SLR digital camera, but a high quality film camera is considered worthless.
Though I work in PS day in and day out , use equipment that is scary expensive, I have never taken a digital photo, other than a camera phone snap. So film
equipment is worthwhile to me and maybe I would be the sucker that would pay more than $500 for it as Stoned Nyc suggests. But a big difference in my world is that
I would actually use it and treasure it and not see if I could make a quick buck on it.
It seems lately , this forum and large format forum is flooded with Ebay mentality members who seem to be active only to buy and sell and offer little to the discussion of photography.
You have to consider the market and the object.
The supply of these is high and the demand is low.
It's also just a box, I know that sucks to hear but, I've never thought the camera portion of most LF cameras to be worth that much considering it's mostly air and I can produce the same images using a cardboard box (which I have also used) I would value the lenses much higher and willing to pay more for a lens, even in the thousands.
It's like the Hassleblad thing, it's mostly just a damn square box but because in order to use the lenses you need a body, Hassleblad can sell the body for a high price, because they've got you by the b@11$ but that doesn't mean it's that much in value based on labor and research/testing.
Especially metal bodies made in factory vs handmade wooden items which are hand crafted.
Yes yes, tooling and production line costs, but let's get real, the labor if a wooden hand lacquered camera is of much higher value than a metal mold.
Anyway, again, it's supply and demand, the value drops when the need for the item is lessened.
A Motorola cell phone from the 90's can have a new battery added and it will turn on just fine, but there are few cell towers running actual cells anymore that support that communication system, so the value of the item is very low because it may only function in some 3rd world countries who have not gotten newer technologies.
That's reality, it doesn't make it fair, but the person who bought that cell phone new shouldn't complain when he can only sell it for a cup of Starbucks coffee as a prop for a period movie...