>>4372100
I keep an eye on certain cameras brands on ebay and occasionally there will be a kit that has some really good value inadvertently bundled with it. Sometimes a really niche item will go for way less than expected also.

>>4372110
Yes, the good old gramps dusty camera bag bundle listing.
>"Brand name camera with lenses"
Love that stuff. If you know what you are looking at it is easy to minimize the risk. I've acquired a small collection of lenses for next to nothing using that strategy. Most recent acquisitions were a radioactive Pentax 50mm 1.4 with the original hood and a Canon FD 85mm F1.8 SSC.

>>4372100
Ya I got the 8 element 50mm 1.4 takumar bundled with a SLR because I recognized one of the markings unique to it on a grainy side pic of the camera for cheap.

Also got a 70-300 vr lens cheap for parts price bc the guy thought something was broken inside because of the magnets rattling when the lens is off. Kek

Got a Contax 167MT bundled with an 28mm f2.0 and an 85mm f1.2mm Zeiss lenses for $450

Admittedly I got these in the late '80s, but I still have the two lenses and sold the body years ago

>>4372100
I picked up your mom cheap on the used market.

>>4372176
Your father was free.

i was looking for a takumar 35mm lens and i found someone selling a yashica + the lens + 2 other lenses and a flash for the same price as the takumar. also a Zenith in great cosmetic condition with the helios 44-2 in a thrift store for €10. the shutter didn't work but the lens is in great condition. and my hasselblad 500c was produced in the late 1970s so it has some of the improvements of the 500cm (removable focusing screen and automatic magazine) but it was priced like the older models

found a yashica t5 for 5 bux at the thrifts, ran a roll through it and sold it for 200

Some deals as of late:
Olympus e-p2. It had the electronic viewfinder included. Sold that one alone making the camera free.
Lot of Minolta telephoto primes. Saw a Vivitar Series 1 135mm included in the lot which I have always wanted. Sold 2 of the lenses and the rest are now free.
Minolta x700 which had some accessories included, sold the Minolta alone for more than the cost of the lot and shipping, sold a motor drive, an adapter and a lens on its own separately. Doubled my money and I think I still have a shitty zoom lens from that deal.
Some digisharters I instantly resold for a handsome profit.

My wife found a Hasselblad 500CM, A24 back, 150mm lens, prism finder, and about 100 various 120 rolls at an estate sale for $500 back in June

>>4372100
Best thrift store find:
Mint Nikon FE with an equally mint 50mm f/1.2 AI for $180 leafbux

Best pawn shop find:
Nikon D3300 with a 35mm f/1.8 DX, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DX, 85mm f/1.4 AF-D, 77mm circular polarizer, a backpack and some extra goodies for $500 burgerbux

Best Facebook Marketplace find:
Mint Nikon 105mm f/2.5 AI for $125 leafbux

The more time you spend looking for deals, the more likely you'll find one. If you browse Ebay/Craigslist/etc for a few minutes each day or visit a pawn or thrift store every few weeks, you'll eventually luck out. Browsing listings often also gives you a better idea of the average prices of many items, so you can spot a deal easier even if it isn't something you were looking for. I am keen to give garage or estate sales a look sometime since I hear it's a good place for deals as well

>>4372100
Best recent deal was a 21mm, 28mm, 55mm Macro, and a fucking 15mm fisheye all for Hexanon, bundled together for a grand total of $200. The fisheye was missing the screws for the metal mount, but I had a moldy old lens I just took a few screws from. All work perfectly.

>>4377754
Nice one. I bought a similar bundle with Minolta lenses recently where I ended up with an almost free Rokkor fisheye, not nearly as good of a deal as you got, but still.. Also got a bundle of Minolta telephotos where I sold the ones I didn't want and now I am left with a free vivitar series 1 135mm f2.3 and a few other obscure 60s short telephotos nobody wants.

>>4377759
Thanks. To make the deal even better, it came with some adapters I don’t need (Sony mounts), a janky Sony lens I can sell for parts for at least some money, and I already had a 55mm Macro so I can sell whichever isn’t as clean.

Nice deal on the tele lenses too! Those are fun. But hope you’re enjoying the Rokkor. This is my first time with a fisheye (been looking for a good deal for years) and I’m really enjoying it.

>>4377760
Yeah, adapters are often overlooked. Got a Minolta X700 with a few lenses a while back and it had a Chinon 55mm f1.7 with a Minolta SR mount and for the longest time I could not figure out what the deal was until it dawned on me that I was looking at an adapter. Original Minolta M42 (pentax U) to SR adapter which I managed to sell for $40. Another one of those deals where I managed to double my money just on the parts. It had the Auto-winder thingie as well.

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guys, this is lens in good enough condition to shoot with? Looks like a bit of spores or dust under the outer lens, and a bit of mold bloom on the edges. I don’t see an obvious way to remove the outer lens to clean that but maybe it’s not enough to worry about.

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>>4378416
just shoot a test roll and see what happens

>>4378416
>>4378417
nvm I just realized that you're considering buying the lens and you don't already own it. I'd probably skip it. But then again I'm not very confident with lens repair. It also depends how much of a discount you're getting.

>>4378420
Yeah thanks, I was about to add that. It does come with an original Autoreflex, which I’ve kinda wanted to play around with half-frame (the camera can switch mid-roll between full and half frame, which could be fun to supplement my Autoreflex T3)
I’ve cleaned some other lenses, I have a spanning lens opener and rubber cones depending on what’s needed, and soaking and wiping gently with hydrogen peroxide and ammonia helps… but depending on the fungal spores, it can eat away at the glass.

I’m thinking about going for it but still on the fence. Right now it’s the same price as another same lens (without the body), and the body itself usually goes for half the price, so I’m looking at a “discount” but not a massive one.

>>4378416
Front element comes off by unscrewing the ring with text, i'm 99% sure. Preferrably with one of those big rubber/silicone cork looking things but a lens rear cap with double sided tape can be used in a pinch.

Up to you if its worth buying and fixing tho.

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>>4378427
I was thinking that might be it, but looking at it now, aren’t these two ridges I circled the grooves used for unscrewing the element?

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>>4378428
Yeah that'll probably get the front element out and the text ring prolly unscrews to get the whole front optical cassette out.

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Found a Ricoh Auto Half for 8 bucks today, needed some minor CLA and now it works perfectly.

>>4378427
>lens rear cap with double sided tape
don't do this, he probably thinks he's making a funny joke but some broke anon might fall for it

>>4380724
depending on the size of the front element I don't see why that wouldn't work. The nameplate often just doubles up as a retaining ring for the front element.

>>4380779
that's what he's counting on

>>4372100
>Got any great stories?
Great stories of good deals on camera gear (and not only) is almost exclusively USA thing where people for decades had surplus income to spend which results in occasions like this: >>4373748
In Europe it would immediately end up on fleabuy for 4000 eurobucks. In Poland where I'm from it would be 5000.
Only one close to good deal buy I've made was Bronica S2A with 2 backs and 50mm and 75mm lens for $800

>>4380944
Yeah this era of "getting a bargain" is gone. Everyone can become at least moderately informed about something with minimal ease, which means selling shit for cheap because you're unsure what you got just doesn't happen no mo'. Even if the person selling it is unaware of its actual value, there are a dozen people with nothing better to do than comb over local and online sites to buy up good deals and flip it like a faggot middleman.

On ebay here in Australia, I saw an RF 24-50mm kit lens (which is garbage and I didnt want) go for $50 Buy it Now, and it was grabbed within half an hour and relisted two days later at $200 where it currently sits.

I managed to win an ebay auction for $20+shipping of a Canon EOS 3000, and it came with the kit lens, a decent bag and a roll of kodak 400. Used the roll, figured out I can't be fucked dealing with film, had a bit of fun, and sold the body and lens apart for a total of $90; kept the bag.

>>4381323
You're right in that it's very easy for people who don't know anything to just plug in the model number to ebay and find out what it's worth now.

I have gotten deals, but nothing insane. I just recently picked up a camera and 3 lenses on ebay worth probably $750 for $480. Another deal I got today was a lens and body worth ~$600 for $310 (hopefully they will be in as good of condition as they look)

Deals can be had still, those were both in the last 6 months. But really the skill isn't so much knowing the value of stuff, but rather figuring out what's cool and buying the opposite of what's currently cool.

Got a Contax Zeiss 28mm f2.8 Distagon for 30 dollars, is it a good deal? hate 28mm and the focus ring is kinda fucked

>>4381330
>28mm
That focal length has been ruined by phones. Every time I see anything between 24mm and 28mm it just looks like a phone photo now.

>>4381334
>24mm
That still has the allure because phonefags either get the 28mm or the ultra wide angle, 24mm was standard for a very short time

>>4381334
35mm is the new 28mm for actual cameras.

>>4381323
>kept the bag
I have acquired a massive hoard of bags by hustling over time and I recently started selling some of them. Seems like hipsters want them. Good condition hardcase pleather gayness sell for me. So that is another way I found to make money from all of this. Shitty old flashes is another thing I have started moving. The nice thing about all that crap is that I have nothing in it because people never think of it having any value when selling the camera bundles they are included with.

>>4381338
Apple switched to 24mm so now 28mm is cool and retro, but it has to be a 28mm f1.8.

>>4381348
When I adapt my 28mm to my video cam, the 1.28x crop factor makes it about 36mm or so.

>>4372100
Buy chinky lenses. Viltrox, ttartisan, 7artisans, laowa, etc. they’re the same quality as “good” (like zeiss, nikon, leica, and nicer olympus lenses) vintage deals and usually cheaper too.

Ones without focus distance encoders wont get full IBIS support on every mirrorless but generally people cant tell a ttartisans from a wetzlar POS made in portugal without checking the lens markings. The photos will be identical.

>>4381502
Yup. In most cases there is nothing to be gained from buying vintage except the flex factor, but it is a large market regardless and photographers are autistic.

>>4381502
I would except they aren't any for K mount

>>4381524
m42 to K adapter

>>4381558
I got one from Urth and it's janky as fuck. It almost got stuck in my K1 and when I did some test shots they came out with the exposure all fucked up, despite having it set to aperture priority. I'm returning it tomorrow.

>>4381499
It's my understanding that because video uses a different image ratio and doesn't always use the full sensor size, that FoV isn't generally the same going between video and photo modes.

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>>4372100
Bought a mint condition Nikon Coolpix L31 in a charity shop for the princely sum of £0.20p (yes twenty pence UK). Some hipster then gave me £50.00 for it on Ebay. Gotta love 'em..

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>>4381595
I adapted full frame lenses to a M43 video cam, so in this case the cropping is from my choice of speedbooster.

the camera enthusiasts selling on craigslist (at least where I'm at) are all hard asses who want ebay/MPB prices, but you have to drive rather than get a home delivery, cash rather than a credit card with cash back, no returns or warranty, and a "I KNOW WHAT I GOT PRICE IS FIRM" negotiation policy. you can only get a deal on something consumer grade being sold by a person cleaning out their closet. i can find cheaper gear on ebay from Japanese sellers, and the Japanese are precious with their stuff so it barely shows any signs of use. if the Japs rate something 3/5, that would be a 5/5 in America

>>4382013
I don't think being a scalper is something to brag about

>>4382025
No scalping involved. I paid what was being asked for it, put it up for auction, and that's what the bidding finished at.

>>4382025
Redditors are not welcome here.
If you found that camera:
>I better leave it for the next one, maybe an underprivileged immigrant can make use of it.

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>>4382025
>Oppertunistic, one-time, local thift shop deal
>Flipped for a whopping $70 or w/e
SCALPERS! FUCKIN SCALPERS

>>4382019
>if the Japs rate something 3/5, that would be a 5/5 in America
depends
a lot of the stuff I see from Japan is all like
>MINT++++++++++++
>priced like new
>covered in chipped paint, dents, rust
>no fungus optically perfect, just a little fog
>obvious fungus in the lens

>>4382025
Hes providing a service of making goods more accessible through the internet tho.

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>>4382810
>eBay listing
>READ in title (pic rel)
>Fungus/mould/heavy scarring of product
>Still 80%+ the cost of perfectly functional lens/body
>"images constitute the description"
>"do not leave negative feedback"

>>4382062
But call him a Scalper and you will be astonished at how he recoils, how injured he is, how he suddenly shrinks back: “I've been found out.”

>>4382810
It is rather fascinating how they overvalue their shit and clearly use flawed descriptions, but still take crisp photo that show all the flaws they didn't convey in the listing.

>>4382885
All the more reason to lowball them.

Some recent deals:
Nikon L35AW $50, flipped it for $140.
Canon SX740 HS $200, flipped for $550.
Canon IXUS 500 HS $100, flipped for $200.
Also bought an EF 24-70 F4 for $70 with a slightly scratched front element, but it doesn't show up in the photos, otherwise in perfect condition. Keeping that one. Nice having a lens I don't feel like I have to be careful with.

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Got one of these just now.

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uuuu fuuckk which one do i keep uhhhh

>>4382997
>always BIN, never auction or BO
I always scan YAJ and Mercari to see if they're just trying to proxy sell for a 100% markup, undercut ebay sellers like this a couple times
but it doesn't help if it's an actual JP camera store selling their stuff on ebay

Honestly, mom and pop camera shops.

FB Marketplace, ebay and thrift shops are bombed with people trying to flip their dead relatives broken shit for TOP OPTI MINT ++++++++++ prices so they can pay their exorbitant Liberal blue population center rent prices and you can't inspect it before buying. Thrifting is dead because every soccer mom uses it to scalp shit to flip online, there are people who full-time drive to every Goodwill and thrift shop every day to buy shit to flip on eBay or FB Marketplace to stay above the poverty line.

Mom and pop places are the absolute best because they have to compete with the online retards, you can put it on your camera and test it, inspect it and make sure it works. Flippers, eBay chuds and scalpers can't make any money on their equipment.

The best one out there right now is Robert's Photo / Used Photo Pro in Indianapolis, IN which ironically has a very good eBay store with a good return policy. If you get the chance, stop in, their brick and mortar store has ridiculous deals on shit. They have a 5 dollar bin of lenses and 10 dollar bin of bodies, scored some Vivitar TX glass for my Topcon there, in actual mint condition. Glazer's and Kenmore also have good deals on stuff, found my D4 and 70-200/2.8 VR2 there.

I am sure it is possible to make great deals on ebay as well if one is somewhat of a risk taker. You will often see bundled gear where even resellers under-price their shit because they have nothing into it, but there is of course a lot of competition there compared to other places, not to mention scammers on both sides of the fence.
One auction site I buy from heavily market themselves in free-masonic literature so a lot of what they sell on their platform i suspect is from the children of deceased masons who obviously have a lot of money and don't give a damn as long as they get a couple of $100.
Geography has a lot to do with it, but I am sure you can find deals in the middle of nowhere and even in poor countries because camera gear is not rare and quite a lot of people consider much of it to be junk and perhaps rightfully so.

>>4385573
> flipped
nigger

Found a lot of deals in the last year.

Scored a Nikon FM with a 28mm f/2.8D and a 50mm f2 AI for $75 at a local thrift shop last month. The lenses had dented filter rings but was able to bend the 50mm back and the 28mm is plastic so filter still screw on it.

Got an "untested" Nikon Coolscan V for $200 on ebay and it works perfectly.

And I buy broken lenses on ebay a lot, usually ones with simple issue like stuck zoom or stuck AF. I'd say I've had an 80% success rate on fixing them. Was able to resell a few for 3x the price to pay for it all.
Got 28-70mm 2.8D, Tamron 70-200 2.8 VC, Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4, 24-85mm 3.5-4.5G VR, and 85mm 1.8D all for probably less than $200 combined after some resales.

Nikon glass is the gift that keeps on giving, especially with their unpopularity in the mirrorless world and muh gearfags.

>>4385864
>> flipped
It is the only sensible way to make money from photography.

Scored a GX9 kit for $350 which I am shamelessly gonna sell for twice that.

and a LX15 (LX10 for you amerifats) for $135

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It seems stores here cleared out all their ef-m stuff and I thought there would be a massive sale or something but nothing happened Where do I find good second hand deals for them? Thought of getting 55-200mm since I got 22, 32 and 56mm and kitlens.

>>4389913
Check if anybody is selling the bundle that has both lenses. Some may sell it for the going rate of the one with just the kit lens.

>>4373748
Got a Contax 167MT, 28mm f2, 85mm f1.2, and a Sunpak 622 for $400.

Her Dads camera but she wanted a point and shoot

>>4381334
The Zeiss 28mm f2.0 has amazing picture and colour qulaity

Got an Olympus OM2 Spot bundled with a 28mm F2 and the 50mm 3.5 Macro for $90. Did a switcheroo with a 50 1.8 and resold it for $150 and now I have added 2 lenses to the hoard.

Canon EOS M with EF-M 22mm f2.0 for 180 euros. A pretty good price since I've seen just the lens go for that money.

A Zenit SLR with a Helios44M for 25 euros on a thrift shop. The camera had a mangled film inside it so I haven't shot anything with it so far. The lens was in great condition.

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>>4372100
six dollars

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>>4394051
>The camera had a mangled film inside it
just take it out, its an SLR not a leica 3.

>>4394646
im so fucking envious holy shit

Best for me have been:
>Nikon S2 black dial ($100 from a camera shop customer)
>Olympus Mju II Limited + Rollei 35 (as trade for $100 off when I sold my M4-P)
>Nishika N8000 ($6 from thrift store)
No longer have any of them of course

>>4394646
bullshit it clearly says 9$

>>4394663
I would say buy it off me but it's too damn useful to sell, its got a super long MF throw so precise focusing on DSLR is pretty easy and it's the sharpest 300 tamron ever made, even sharper than much newer models.

>>4394646
Didn't even know that lens existed. Nice score. Seems to be rather affordable for what it is.

>>4394941
Yeah I mean the IQ is pretty good for vintage lens, but the price is because it lacks a red ring or autofocus. There's actually a tokina one that isn't quite as sharp but does have autofocus for similar prices too.

>>4372100
Depending on how you use them, damaged items might be worth a look.
I recently got a Minolta MD 50mm f/1.4 for 50 bucks because the filter thread was dented.

>>4382810
My experience is the exact opposite.
Bought a Minolta a7 and lens package deal from Japan, both exactly as advertised and near mint apart from a small scratch on the lens hood.
Just now an AF 50mm f/1.4 arrived from a professional seller in my own country who advertised it as near mint with obvious fungus not visible in the pictures or mentioned in the description. I'm fucking furious.