Anyone heard anything about a dealer in Canada that was being liquidated recently and in the stockroom or warehouse or whatever they found several pallets of New-in-Box M2/3/4/4-2/4-P bodies?

Sounds like an urban legend - except that a camera store counterman I know has 2 M4-2s and an M4-P (chrome) on the way at $800 each (his personal purchase, NOT for the store).

The M2/3s were going for $2500 or so.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 29, 2002

Answers

What was the going price when they were manufactured?

-- Eric Kragtwijk (e.kragtwijk@hccnet.nl), May 29, 2002.

Dunno, Eric - these models were sold new over a 30-year period of occasionally high inflation, so the dollar price changed substantially.

I've seen ads c. 1979 for a new M4-2 at about $789 - and I think the M3s when new in the '50's were about $349; certainly under $500.

If you really need to know, find a library that actually keeps bound back copies of Pop. Photo or the late, great Modern Photography - Denver Public does and so does Morris Lib. at So. Ill. Univ.

The old mags still have the ads in the back.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 29, 2002.

According to an advertisement of 1958, a Leica M2 with 50mm Elmar f/2.8......$276 :-)

-- H. Gurung (hgurung@mac.com), May 29, 2002.

Andy, please send me the name/# to your contact.

cheers,

pat modlabs@yahoo.com

-- pat (modlabs@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

>>> What was the going price when they were manufactured?

List price on an M4 body in 1973 was $450.

-- Kent Phelan (kent@phelan.org), May 29, 2002.

Sounds like an urban legend
Early last summer, there appeared to be several sellers in Continental Europe/UK/Canada on E**** with mint in box M4-P's within a short time. Havent seen that number of mint M4-Ps in E**** since (Might also have happened with M1/2/3/4/5/6 bodies too but I wasnt tracking them). Perhaps this phenomenon will happen again this year.

-- Fred Sun (redsky3@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

$276 was an awful lot of money in 1958. Add at least a zero to convert to 2002 currency. An all mechanical camera that sat in a dark box for 25 or more years could actually be in pretty lousy condition. Fungus, haze, gummy lubricants , etc. Would be kick to see a new in the box M3 though, wouldn't it?

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), May 29, 2002.

I paid $288 for my M3 in 1966. It still looks like new and I have all the original packaging including the Import Certificate. Best investment I ever made.

-- Bud (budcook@attglobal.net), May 29, 2002.

Several folks have asked for the name/address of the store - I don't know but will research it and post it if I can find out...

no other info at this time.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 30, 2002.

I know I paid $249 for my M2, back in the early 60's.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), May 30, 2002.

And right now the Canadian Dollar is about 65 cents to the American, so get right up there and buy, buy, buy!

www.snopes2.com/leicamyth.html.....

-- Dave Doyle (ddoyle021@yahoo.com), May 31, 2002.

I am not aware of any recent liquidation of dealership

Last year, one major Leica dealer Alt Camera Exchange at Queen Street East went belly up and was bought by Henry's.

Alt did have substantial Leica stuffs, but Henry's auctioned these off piece by piece on ebay. There was not bargain there

Two years ago, long time Canadian Leica distributor Kindermann was replaced by another company. Kinderman did send out "Giant Inventory Clearance Sale" notice to long time customers. There were M, R camera and lenses, at some discount by not bargain. For example R8 silver was offered at C$2400, M6 TTL Call

I tried to pick up a great bargain, a gold Minox LX at C$2650 but was already sold, instead I picked up a new Minox CLX for C$1600 (about US$1000), slightly less then then market price of US$1300, but not by much

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), May 31, 2002.