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DJohns110 wrote: > > I plan to attend my first camera show in New Orleans this weekend (3/14) with > the intention of picking up some decent used equipment. Do any of you have > any experience as far as pricing of items at shows relative to the pricing of > similar items from used dealers such as Del's and KEH? While I haven't been to the big Buena Park show in a while (LA area), I used to go to them 4-5 times a year, and here's what I found... -50 percent of what's there is photographic junk of every kind. Some camera stores collect all the junk in the basement and throw it on a table at the camera show. If you get lucky, you can sometimes find flashbulbs. There are also great deals on things like projector bulbs, so plan on stocking up on a few spares, because they are usually much cheaper at the camera shows. But there are also things like muslin backgrounds, light stands, etc., that are of little use to the rail photographer -Half of the "good stuff" is Leica, early Nikon rangefinder, Hassy, Speed Graphic and other "collector" cameras of little or no interest to me. -The other stuff...maybe 25 percent of what's there, is 35mm SLR gear, mostly Nikon and Canon, some Leica, Pentax, Minolta, Olympus. And a third of that stuff will be common, well-worn cameras and lenses. The "fast glass" and pro-quality bodies are there, but generally not in the quantities you might expect. Prices tend to be 10-15 percent less than Del's or KEH (the latter is the most expensive used gear around). Get there early or this stuff will be gone. -Better take plenty of cash if you want to be a buyer. Few take checks, nobody takes plastic. Feel free to haggle about price. -Occasionally, you make some real "finds." But BUYER BEWARE! Know something about the gear you are looking for and know how to examine it for proper operation, metering, etc. Here's one thing I learned after buying/selling a lot of used gear, then purchasing a bunch of brand new stuff about five years ago: SAVE THE BOXES THE CAMERAS AND LENSES COME IN. For some reason, used cameras and lenses in original boxes bring 5-10 percent more on the used market and in the case of collector cameras, some of the Leica fanatics start drooling and wetting their pants when they see cherry Leica Rangefinders with original boxes. If you buy new gear and ever have to send it in for factory service, the original box with styro packing material is a sure-fire, safe way to send it. That's easy to figure out. But selling used stuff in the original boxes is an easy way to get a few more bucks when you want to get rid of gear, and I would have never known that unless I'd been to one of these camera shows. --David R. Busse Diamond Bar, Calif. -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved
