> In eBay listings, and even on dealer websites, the 135/3.5M is > very often misleadingly listed as a "135/3.5K". [snip] Only > slightly less common is a 50/2 lens with a BIN price of, say, $40 > being listed on eBay as a 50/1.2.
I think that the K versus M confusion (which can occur with several lens models) is the most common type of blunder, compared to, say, M versus A mistakes, or 50/2 versus 50/1.2 mistakes, or even the screwmount versus K-mount errors. It's worth checking for. These mistakes do not just occur in eBay (and other) auctions - it is not uncommon to find used photo dealers making such mistakes, and it's worth checking in advance with dealers, too. [At one time, even a member of this list, from a sunny location in the UK (but I won't mention any names - <g>), had K and M lenses lumped in together as M lenses on his web site.] Actually, sometimes an auction listing (but not usually a dealer listing) can mention a "Pentax mount" lens, which may be a "correct" description, but is still confusion-causing terminology. This confusion usually does not happen with jen-you-wine Pentax lenses, of course, since a photo of even the front of a lens will usually identify the model (Takumar versus Pentax) of the lens in question, but it can often happen with 3rd-party lenses. Not unlike the above errors, there are occasionally eBay listings for T-mount lenses that are often described as "screwmount" - of course, a T-mount lens ~does~ have threads, but the listings can sometimes be unclear. Or, a T-mount lens (and sometimes an Adaptall-mount lens) can be listed as just having a "Nikon mount" or a "Canon mount", etc. (which narrows the buying field a bit). Once in a while, the confusion on the seller's end can end up providing the buyer with a bargain. That is to say, either the true value of a lens can go unrecognized, or the seller's confusion can so narrow down the field of buyers that a lens can end up being auctioned off at a bargain price. E.g., I suspect that someone somewhere must have sometime picked up a 50/1.2 for the price of an mis-advertized 50/2 lens. I do know that I once stumbled onto a T-mount Perkin-Elmer 600/8 Solid Cat (identical except in coatings, to the VS1 600/8 solid cat) quite cheaply, and it was advertised as a "screwmount lens" or a "Nikon lens" (or something such as that - in any case, while I don't remember the exact confusion, I ~do~ remember gleefully pouncing on a mislabeled bargain). (As Snidely Whiplash would have put it, "Yuh-uh-uhhh"...) Fred
