From: kbb0@harvey.gte.com (Kevin Burke)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: For Sale:  Yashica Mat 124 G TLR camera for sale
Keywords: medium format
Date: 18 Aug 92 16:16:12 GMT
Distribution: usa

In article <16ouspINNre@seven-up.East.Sun.COM>, marshall@marshall.Eng.Sun.COM (Ralph Marshall - Sun BOS SunLabs) writes:
> 
> Without having seen this camera, my impression is that this is pretty
> much the standard asking price.  However, when I was at the recent
> camera show in Watertown, MA (held in the Armenian Cultural Center) I
> saw pretty much the same item with an asking price of $225, and a
> number of older TLRs with fewer features (particularly no light meter)
> for more than $125.  I was fairly unimpressed by the camera show
> (having driven up from Providence, RI in part to see it based on
> reports of previous years) I found the complaints from one seller
> to the effect that "the people who come to these shows never buy
> anything" to be somewhat silly given that the prices on everything
> seemed to be so high.
> 
> Has anybody else had this same impression, or was this just an
> isolated incident with this particular camera? I'm relatively
> unfamiliar with used equipment prices, so I'm may be mistaken in
> saying that the other prices were high as well.  Other than the fact
> that there was a fairly large selection of equipment, there seems to
> be no real reason to attend this show - it certainly didn't seem to
> offer good deals.
> 
> Ralph Marshall
> ralph.marshall@east.sun.com

I too went to the recent show in Watertown. There are a couple of
different sponsers for the shows around Boston and I believe this one
was different than that which has been using the Cultural Center in the
past several years.  Earlier this spring the group that did last fall's
show moved to a new location in Waltham. It was the *biggest* show I've
ever been to, anywhere. I believe this group is putting on another large
show in the fall. It is listed in Shutterbug. If you want to see more
stuff, consider the fall show.

My impressions were similar regarding price versus quality. It seemed
that prices for things I was interested in were consistently above
Shutterbug. A friend of mine who used to be employed in retail camera
sales told me that alot can depend on geography; in other words, raise
used prices in more affluent areas. While I do not know how true this is in
general, I did get the idea that the dealers have established an
unwritten method for dealing with customers, *between themselves*. I had a
Leica M4-2/MR-4/Winder/Case I was looking to sell or trade at the Watertown
show. One dealer who happened to be fairly new to the scene told me he
couldn't make me an offer because he had already made an offer on
someone else's equipment. Apparently, as the guy with the equipment made
the rounds he played the dealer's offering prices off each other. Since
the less experienced dealer had offered a little higher than the
"accepted" offering price, several other dealers took him aside "an'
'splained" a few things to him. At that point I felt I had little chance
of a fair negotiation and left. It's too bad, there were some nice
things there.

Regards, Kevin
Newsgroups: rec.photo