Christopher, I've owned Nikon and Canon bodies for 35 years, always bought them used, and kept them all in great shape. Why? Because even though I always wanted a Leica, I could never afford one. So I started to save my pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters in a big jar for the last couple of decades. The big 20 gallon (I think, - water cooler jug) finally got full after all this time. It practically took a forklift to move. I went to Coinstar at my grocery store to cash all of these coins in on a new used Leica... and came up with enough cash for an old beat up lens. Not even enough for a body!! Sad camper I was. My wife (from Japan) took pity on me and called one of her buddies over there to ask around for a collector willing to offload a "junk" Leica. She found one and bought it for me for Christmas. It seemed perfect to me but it was apparently junk because the collector accidentally dropped it from 2 inches off the ground - and very slightly dinged the top plate at the corner. To this looney collector, the value dropped so much that my wife was able to pick it up for at least $1k off its price before being dropped.
So, start looking for used Leica bodies with cosmetic damage. You'll get a healthy discount. Heck, for the price of a dinged Leica, you could buy 10 Nikon FMs. But what fun is that?
