Unlikely Collectibles maybe collectible?

[Joe Grodis]

Remember those Russian Gold plated Leica copies with various Nazi markings? Well I had to have one so I managed to find a EX+ one and coughed up a few dollars for the collection addition. Sure I know it's a retooled FED or Zorki but it's kind'a cool. My Son was trying his best to get it off of me but I didn't budge. So, I figured I'd buy him one. Funny thing is they seem to have vanished from the market. A couple of my Camera collecting geek friends said that even though they're fakes / copies and such they are getting rare and worthy of serious collection consideration... Think these "Fakes" will appreciate? I think maybe next decade? Anyways... just a thought.

P.S. I saw the price of Polaroid 195's getting rather crazy high!

-Joe

[Paul Goutiere]

P.S. I saw the price of Polaroid 195's getting rather crazy high!

-Joe

Yeah, I see that.....Why??

[JBrunner]

Yeah, I see that.....Why??

The Chinese guys are using them to photograph their gold dot Dagors.

I saw a Polaroid 250 for sale locally for $100 dollars. I found a different one for $10. I think there are many who see an old camera and go "oooohhhh.... a camera collector would pay $$ for that", and a few dilettante collectors with more money than brains who pay it. You know the ones with the McMansions with a bunch of built in shelves to fill? The ones who buy lots of old books because the spines look cool, but they don't know the titles?

Normalcy soon returns.

[Anscojohn]

yeah, happened with firearms, too. When percussion colts got too expensive, people started collecting the knock offs---Manhatten pocket "colts" used to be scoffed at/ Now..... And I give Chinese copies of vintage Parker 21s, 51s, 61s as jokesw to my fountain pen collecting friends. Me. I use them for writing....... When are the Chinese going to begin knocking off Polaroid 110a's and b's?????

[Joe Grodis]

OK.. About the Polaroid 195... Apparently some DIY people are converting these to cheap hand holdable 4 X 5 large format cameras!!! Hmmmm... it's all so clear to me now!

-Joe

P.S. I did see one of these last week at a local flea market.

[mabman]

A couple of my Camera collecting geek friends said that even though they're fakes / copies and such they are getting rare and worthy of serious collection consideration... Think these "Fakes" will appreciate? I think maybe next decade? Anyways... just a thought.


-Joe

I doubt it - I think part of the reason for their long-term presence has been that for a long-ish time they tended to be sold as supposedly genuine Leicas and unsuspecting/unknowledgable buyers were buying them as such, and now (I suspect) eBay is forcing them to be sold as "Leica copies" (as all the sellers are doing it that way now). That, and they've already sold so many over the years the market just may be flooded.

What I don't understand is why they don't make more Leica I/Standard copies - the real I/Standards still go for serious money, and the few copies I've seen still go for a few hundred $$. The rangefinders/top decks of the Fed 2/Zorki 1 unscrew, which should make this fairly straightforward (although they would have to copy the viewfinder).

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

OK.. About the Polaroid 195... Apparently some DIY people are converting these to cheap hand holdable 4 X 5 large format cameras!!! Hmmmm... it's all so clear to me now!

-Joe

P.S. I did see one of these last week at a local flea market.

Naw, that's the old polaroid roll film models...the Land 195 is a pack film camera, just one of the few models they made with manual exposure. So why they'd be fetching so much all of a sudden I haven't the foggiest, what with all the film speculation...
Fake Leicas fetch a pretty reasonable price even on KEH, $200+...bit rich for me, but not hard to see them becoming a collectible curiosity.

[Joe Grodis]

Naw, that's the old polaroid roll film models...the Land 195 is a pack film camera, just one of the few models they made with manual exposure. So why they'd be fetching so much all of a sudden I haven't the foggiest, what with all the film speculation...
Fake Leicas fetch a pretty reasonable price even on KEH, $200+...bit rich for me, but not hard to see them becoming a collectible curiosity.

Take a look at the RaZZle: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~razzle/index.html