This never happens to me but it did today.
I was lurking around the camera store today, as I usually do when I am early for work, when an older gentleman walked in and asked if they could tell him what his camera was worth. Now Tom and Buzzy are pretty sharp when it comes to all things camera but I'm no slouch either. In fact Buzzy's father took this store over from his father in 62 so needless to say he knows his stuff. Well this man pulls out a Kodak Retina IIf and we start checking it out. The lens is a Retina-Xenar 45/f2,8 Schneider-Kreuznach the lens is clean and clear, the shutters are clean and work at all speeds and the only things we found wrong with it was a missing battery cover and the rangefinder is off slightly at infinity, even the selenium light meter was accurate. While Tom checked KEH, I figured it to be around $45.00 and that is what keh quoted. Long story longer, the gent thanked us and left as we contemplated how nice the camera was. About 15-20 min later he comes back in and asked if they would buy it. Buzzy only takes equipment on consignment and then only bugbane stuff. I told him all I could do was $30, he thought for a moment and then agreed to my offer. So now I am the proud owner of a beautiful and functional Kodak Retina IIf rangefinder.
I was lurking around the camera store today, as I usually do when I am early for work, when an older gentleman walked in and asked if they could tell him what his camera was worth. Now Tom and Buzzy are pretty sharp when it comes to all things camera but I'm no slouch either. In fact Buzzy's father took this store over from his father in 62 so needless to say he knows his stuff. Well this man pulls out a Kodak Retina IIf and we start checking it out. The lens is a Retina-Xenar 45/f2,8 Schneider-Kreuznach the lens is clean and clear, the shutters are clean and work at all speeds and the only things we found wrong with it was a missing battery cover and the rangefinder is off slightly at infinity, even the selenium light meter was accurate. While Tom checked KEH, I figured it to be around $45.00 and that is what keh quoted. Long story longer, the gent thanked us and left as we contemplated how nice the camera was. About 15-20 min later he comes back in and asked if they would buy it. Buzzy only takes equipment on consignment and then only bugbane stuff. I told him all I could do was $30, he thought for a moment and then agreed to my offer. So now I am the proud owner of a beautiful and functional Kodak Retina IIf rangefinder.
