Spare parts and lenses Yashica 635 and Mat

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

Hello everyone,
this is my first post here, so I'll use it also to introduce myself: my name is Luca, I live in Turin, northern Italy, I shoot film (mostly medium format) and digital.

I have two Yashicas tlr not in working order and I was thinking to sell them for parts and repair, especially the lenses which are Yashinon and Yashikor.
I took a look on the internet but still I have no idea about the price I should ask for them.

The lenses are in good shape, the mechanics are not (shutters apparently are stuck on one speed and the Mat's crank doesn't work).
I really would appreciate your suggestions to put them on sale. Thank you!

M-88 · Mar 24, 2020

Hello Luca! Welcome to the club. I hope things will soon be looking up on your side!

As for your question, it's hard to guess. I've seen some listings for ONLY view lens for 50$, other listings for BOTH lenses + a shutter for 100$. AND then there are many cameras listed "for parts/repairs" or "as is", also between 50 and 120$. The important thing is to assess the condition of the lens - if it has no balsam separation, no oil, no fungus, no scratches, then they are worth every cent. If not, well, there's not much use for the damaged ones, I have one too. Completely useless only because it has scratches from cleaning which damaged lens coating and now it flares.

So, if everything is in good shape, you can ask a higher price. Naturally Yashinon is a "tessar" type lens with 4 elements which is considered more desired option, while Yashikor is a three element lens and it's cheaper.

I hope it helps. Maybe someone else will post something more informative/useful.

P.S. IF the cameras are not in too bad shape (physically), maybe it's better to sell them as a whole, without disassembling?

Dan Fromm · Mar 24, 2020

Luca, to reinforce what M-88 wrote, it would probably be best to sell the cameras whole.

When I was selling on eBay and had a complete interchangeable lens camera to sell, I always offered lens and camera in separate auctions. I'm an economist, found it easy to prove informally that I should never get less and could sometimes get more selling the pieces separately than selling them as a unit. But your 'mats aren't interchangeable lens cameras and the demand for 'mat parts seems to be low so selling each as a unit probably won't give up much potential income and will be easier than selling bits.

About pricing. There used to be, for all I know may still be, a fellow who sold on ebay as dagor77. He started all of his auctions at USD 0.77 and accepted what his items brought. They didn't always bring as much as he hope for. He and I used to talk about business, he complained a lot about disappointments. I always put my items up with the opening bid set at the least I'd accept. Not all of my items sold first try, but I was never badly disappointed. If I were you, that's what I'd do. How to decide the least you'd accept? I set it at cost plus the cost of packing and going to the post office plus a bit more. When the item was common, I usually set the opening bit at 80% of what comparable items had sold for.

Good luck, have fun, stay healthy.

moto-uno · Mar 24, 2020

Because it's pretty well common knowledge now ( corvid-19) , selling things from northern Italy might be a challenge . If you're not
in a rush , a delay might well improve your chances of a sale . As mentioned above , stay healthy ! Peter

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

Thank you, M-88, Dan Fromm and moto-uno for your replies, I find what you wrote very useful and kind, I am going to reply to each of you.
(Do I have to put an “ @ “ before your names to be sure that my replies will reach each of you? How does it work?)

Dan Fromm · Mar 24, 2020

To send a personal message to a member, click on the member's name and select "Start a conversation"

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

M-88 said:
Hello Luca! Welcome to the club. I hope things will soon be looking up on your side!

As for your question, it's hard to guess. I've seen some listings for ONLY view lens for 50$, other listings for BOTH lenses + a shutter for 100$. AND then there are many cameras listed "for parts/repairs" or "as is", also between 50 and 120$. The important thing is to assess the condition of the lens - if it has no balsam separation, no oil, no fungus, no scratches, then they are worth every cent. If not, well, there's not much use for the damaged ones, I have one too. Completely useless only because it has scratches from cleaning which damaged lens coating and now it flares.

So, if everything is in good shape, you can ask a higher price. Naturally Yashinon is a "tessar" type lens with 4 elements which is considered more desired option, while Yashikor is a three element lens and it's cheaper.

I hope it helps. Maybe someone else will post something more informative/useful.

P.S. IF the cameras are not in too bad shape (physically), maybe it's better to sell them as a whole, without disassembling?

M-88, thanks.

I think that the Yashica Mat is really in bad shape, I bought it some years ago just because the lenses were the Lumaxar, which I installed in a very good Yashica 635 I bought in Belgrade, I am not sure if it was the wisest thing to do, because, probably, the original Yashinon I took off from the 635 (which are in perfect conditions) were able to deliver good images all the same. But, well, it’s done and I am happy about how it works.

Therefore the Yashica Mat was already dissembled (the rest of the camera isn’t in good conditions), waiting for a good Yashica to host the Lumaxar lenses.

Thanks for your helpful reply and for the concern, (OT: unfortunately the spreading of the virus seems to be getting worse and worse, we are not at the peak yet.)

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

Dan Fromm said:
Luca, to reinforce what M-88 wrote, it would probably be best to sell the cameras whole.

When I was selling on eBay and had a complete interchangeable lens camera to sell, I always offered lens and camera in separate auctions. I'm an economist, found it easy to prove informally that I should never get less and could sometimes get more selling the pieces separately than selling them as a unit. But your 'mats aren't interchangeable lens cameras and the demand for 'mat parts seems to be low so selling each as a unit probably won't give up much potential income and will be easier than selling bits.

About pricing. There used to be, for all I know may still be, a fellow who sold on ebay as dagor77. He started all of his auctions at USD 0.77 and accepted what his items brought. They didn't always bring as much as he hope for. He and I used to talk about business, he complained a lot about disappointments. I always put my items up with the opening bid set at the least I'd accept. Not all of my items sold first try, but I was never badly disappointed. If I were you, that's what I'd do. How to decide the least you'd accept? I set it at cost plus the cost of packing and going to the post office plus a bit more. When the item was common, I usually set the opening bit at 80% of what comparable items had sold for.

Good luck, have fun, stay healthy.

Dan, thanks, I agree, actually my original intention was to keep all the cameras for parts to use myself, on my “new” 635, just in case, but now I need to get rid to all what I can sell.

I’ll follow your suggestion, setting a reasonable price compared to similar items, as soon as I’ll find them.

Thanks, we all need to be careful, and endure this time with great calm and patience.

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

moto-uno said:
Because it's pretty well common knowledge now ( corvid-19) , selling things from northern Italy might be a challenge . If you're not
in a rush , a delay might well improve your chances of a sale . As mentioned above , stay healthy ! Peter

Thanks Peter, yeah, absolutely true, in fact I have no hurry to sell them, but being forced at home I started to make a list of the things I could sell to be able to cope the devastating economical consequences of the confinement at home and the stoppage of work.

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

Dan Fromm said:
To send a personal message to a member, click on the member's name and select "Start a conversation"

OK, got it

abruzzi · Mar 24, 2020

I would point out that a good working camera of the sorts that you have probably sell for $100-$200. A non working version will be less (obviously) and if it’s only for parts (i.e. not reasonably restorable to working condition) significantly less.

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

abruzzi said:
I would point out that a good working camera of the sorts that you have probably sell for $100-$200. A non working version will be less (obviously) and if it’s only for parts (i.e. not reasonably restorable to working condition) significantly less.

Thank you abruzzi.
Actually the 635 I have bought recently (in mint condition), costed me 100€.
I was uncertain about the Yashinon and the Yashikor lenses alone. I am not really happy to sell the Yashikor lens because sometimes I like the swirly OOF it render when wide open, but given the situation, I think I'll have plenty of time to think about it.

Dan Daniel · Mar 24, 2020

LucDL said:
(Do I have to put an “ @ “ before your names to be sure that my replies will reach each of you? How does it work?)

You can do multiple 'reply w/quote' in one message. So like here, I have started a message in reply to you but now I will go up and select another message from you, select 'reply w/quote' and >>>>>>

LucDL said:
Thanks Peter, yeah, absolutely true, in fact I have no hurry to sell them, but being forced at home I started to make a list of the things I could sell to be able to cope the devastating economical consequences of the confinement at home and the stoppage of work.

So now I can reply to this..... This is one way to reply to a series of individual comments from other people.

Another interesting thing to do is select the Advanced Reply button and at the bottom you get a 'watch this thread option' and to get emails sent when a response is made. A way to keep up on a thread. Nothing like Usenet or Twitter or Facebook or such going on in forums like this with notifications, updates, multiple threading, etc. All in all a slower and clunkier process... appropriate in ways for film shooters, eh?

The Yashikor lens set is worth maybe $50-100? And there is definite market for them. I have two YashicaMats with bad rear lens groups, for example. The Yashikor is worth less, of course. But there may be someone out there who wants the crank winding of a 'Mat with the triplet look of a Yashikor?

This site has a classified forum for buying and selling. Personally I prefer to use it if possible because there is much less chance of people pulling games, etc. I've never had a bad experience.

Best of luck going forward with the virus. Down the page on this site is a graph of my location, the kind of graph of exponential growth you never want to see in a situation like this- https://vtdigger.org/2020/03/24/vermont-reports-20-new-coronavirus-cases-and-two-more-deaths/

LucDL · Mar 24, 2020

Thanks for explaining, Dan
I still have to browse all the feature of the forum.
The good side of the present situation is that I have plenty of time to get used to new things

Spare parts and lenses Yashica 635 and Mat

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