Expert: David Silver - 3/7/2005

Question
Dear David ,
          my Mother would like me to try and sell
my late Father's Zeiss Ikon Contax III camera , on ebay ; He bought it , probably 2nd hand , in the 1970's , looked after it well , and to my best knowledge it's in good (though not new)
condition.
          My Mother phoned a large used camera shop in Edinburgh , whe were not interested , however someone in a local shop told her that she should get £300 for it , which sounds doubtful to me ~ The question is simply , how much should I ask for it ,when listing it on ebay ?
         Thank you , yours sincerely , Martin.

Answer
Hello Martin,

The Contax III is a high quality 35mm rangefinder camera, with built-in exposure meter, made by Zeiss Ikon of Germany from 1936 to 1942.  A truly excellent example, complete with 50mm normal lens and fully functional light meter, would sell for about US$300 in the collectible camera market today.  The problem for any member of the general public is finding the appropriate collector.  Without regular experience within that specialized market, it is not reasonable to assume you could receive full value.  For example, you already learned that one major store did not have any interest in buying it themselves.  The other store offered an optimistic idea of value, but probably did not want to be bothered selling it either.  Therefore I suggest a logical and reasonable target price would be about 2/3 of full value, or about US$200.  Anything over this price would be an excellent return.  In this situation, the best way for you to reach the collectors is through eBay because your camera is fairly common and you need to expose it to the greatest number of potential buyers.  I recommend you place a listing in eBay's category #30099 (this is for vintage rangefinder cameras), write a very brief description of the camera, and provide a single crisp JPEG digital image showing the camera's overall appearance.  Use a starting price of only $1, but set a reserve price of $200.  If the bid does not reach at least $200, you are under no obligation to sell, but I am confident you will do much better than that.  The title of the auction should be very precise: "Classic Zeiss Ikon Contax III 35mm Camera!"  By all means, mention in the description that your reserve is $200 because this may motivate some of the bidders to attack that number directly.  Please feel free to contact me again if I can be of more assistance.

Best wishes,

David Silver