Pawn Shop Glass

[Jon Foster]

I was thinking about visiting the local pawn shops to see what kind of old glass they have. I'm primarily interested in older manual focus lenses. Has anyone had any luck doing this?

Jon.

Oops, wrong forum. :oops:

[The Moose]

Not me but a lot of people seem to have lots of luck doing it. I've thought about it but I don't really know what shops we have here around my area that would have lenses.

[Todd Lambert]

Haven't had much luck... very few pawn shops even do camera equipment anymore - most I've talked to here, just refuse to even take it.

What they do have, is ancient and mostly crap. I keep looking, but I've yet to find anything even worth purchasing. Might be different in different areas, but here it sucks.

[webejamn]

a few months ago a local pawn shop had a 1ds mk2, they wanted 4500 dollars for it, it didnt have a charger or any of the paperwork or the box with it. i told the guy you know thats stolen right, people who buy those dont loose the batery charger, he was insistent that it wasnt and that it wasnt a big deal and it was a good price.

[thatkatmat]

When I used to shoot Sony I found a treasure trove of old Minolta glass for cheap at a few pawn shops around town....In fact I started out with a $1000 investment purchasing the Sony a100 and 2 kit lenses. After buying and selling tons of Minolta glass to Sony shooters I had $7000 worth of kit without using a dime of "my" money....That's when I switched to Canon.....And that's when I started using "my" money to upgrade glass and bodies.
You can find pawn shops out there with glass, you just need adapters for most of it to fit an EOS body.

[gjl711]

Haven't had much luck... very few pawn shops even do camera equipment anymore - most I've talked to here, just refuse to even take it.

What they do have, is ancient and mostly crap. I keep looking, but I've yet to find anything even worth purchasing. Might be different in different areas, but here it sucks.Thats pretty much been my experience as well. I did pick up a 1/2 way decent 135mm for my old A1 for $15 years ago, but I haven't seen anything lately.

[kitacanon]

My first find, and still the best find, was a D30 and nifty50 at a charity thrift for $90...3 years ago...the best, because it got me where I am today...
At pawns...
Canon 50/2.5 CM on a Canon 10s film bod for $70
A 50/1.4 AIS Nikkor on a broken FG with a Pentax SMC 50/1.8 for $50 (sold the body for $20, the Pentax for $15...kept the Nikkor)

Pristine and apparently rare, I picked this up at a pawn shop here in Florida for a collector in Calif....I paid $40, he paid $50...and looking at the results he got, I'd be jealous if I didn't already have my Nikkor 105/2.5...
It's Tamron's first series of adaptall lenses...and this one may be a copy of the 105/2.5 nikkor...
http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/4617/brl2.jpg

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4528/59609533.jpg

http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/7876/66871138.jpg

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2433/mtcu.jpg

Okay, I'm jealous anyway....See his pix here....
http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=14927

[NeoTokyo]

I always keep my eyes open where I go and if I find something I check its price with my phone to see what it is really worth.

Pawn shows, Thrift stores, Garage sales - I check em all. :)

but finding good things is harder than just searching Craigslist :P

[Marbeck]

A lot of the shops are really getting turned on about cameras now. We have a shop in the next town over and they want an arm and a leg for stuff. Sometimes it's just as well to get new as you get a warranty. Still there are probably some good deals out there if you look hard enough.

[Stickman]

a few months ago a local pawn shop had a 1ds mk2, they wanted 4500 dollars for it, it didnt have a charger or any of the paperwork or the box with it. i told the guy you know thats stolen right, people who buy those dont loose the batery charger, he was insistent that it wasnt and that it wasnt a big deal and it was a good price.




I'm not a big fan of buying stolen property either.

[DDCSD]

I spent a couple of days trolling the shops in the area earlier this year. Most didn't have much and what they had was pretty old film bodies in pretty good shape along with crappy third-party zooms.

I decided that I'd be better to get a job at Mcdonalds and buy stuff with that money than to drive around all day every weekend looking for deals. :)

[JMHPhotography]

Deals I've found at a local Pawn:

Canon:
24-70 f/2.8L for $900


Non-Canon but cool none the less(I got ALL of the items below in one package deal for $600.00):
Mamiya AFD kit with 120/200 back and 80mm f/2.8 AF lens
Tenba BIG pro shoulder bag
Stroboframe bracket
Sekonic L-358 meter
Vivitar 283 flash (low voltage version)

I sold the Mamiya kit for $950.00 on Ebay and still own the rest of the stuff. :)

[Jon Foster]

I spent a couple of days trolling the shops in the area earlier this year. Most didn't have much and what they had was pretty old film bodies in pretty good shape along with crappy third-party zooms.

I decided that I'd be better to get a job at Mcdonalds and buy stuff with that money than to drive around all day every weekend looking for deals. :)

I'll get around to stopping by a couple of the shops in the area but I won't go out driving around trying to hit them all. I doubt I'll even make more than one trip. But I thought I'd ask to see what others have turned up. Who knows, maybe I'll find something useful...

Jon.

[Jon Foster]

Wow. We stopped by a couple of the local pawn shops. Whoa! I won't be buying anything from them any time soon. :confused:

Jon.

[gjl711]

Wow. We stopped by a couple of the local pawn shops. Whoa! I won't be buying anything from them any time soon. :confused:

Jon.
What happened?

[Jon Foster]

Nothing really bad happened except the equipment they had looked like it should have been recycled with a few beer cans. Nothing looked like it was in decent working condition. The prices were out of this world too. And they had tons of stuff. Didn't pawn shops sell things for really cheap? Wow! And this was the same at both shops.

One lens that kind of looked like it was on display (as to draw people in) had the biggest dent on the filter threads possible. I mean, how the glass wasn't shattered was beyond belief. Somebody chucked that thing against a concrete wall. I kid you not, this lens had a flat side. We left pretty quick.

My pawn shop curiosity is now gone forever!

Jon.

[Todd Lambert]

Yeah, that's been my experiences pretty much as well... I was really hoping that I might be able to find some magical deal or a solid source for finding cheap second-hand stuff. That is NOT the case at all. It's all mostly junk and the prices are a joke.

[Jon Foster]

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this but I was too afraid to touch anything. I really tried to look at some of the things they had but there was no way I was touching anything without latex gloves!

My wife is probably still laughing at me...

Jon.

[webejamn]

ive found if you look on here and FM and ebay you can find better deals, you just have to watch for them.

[gjl711]

Nothing really bad happened except the equipment they had looked like it should have been recycled with a few beer cans. Nothing looked like it was in decent working condition. The prices were out of this world too. That pretty weel sums up any shop I've ever walked into though I must admit, it has not been many.

[DDCSD]

Nothing really bad happened except the equipment they had looked like it should have been recycled with a few beer cans. Nothing looked like it was in decent working condition. The prices were out of this world too. And they had tons of stuff. Didn't pawn shops sell things for really cheap? Wow! And this was the same at both shops.

One lens that kind of looked like it was on display (as to draw people in) had the biggest dent on the filter threads possible. I mean, how the glass wasn't shattered was beyond belief. Somebody chucked that thing against a concrete wall. I kid you not, this lens had a flat side. We left pretty quick.

My pawn shop curiosity is now gone forever!

Jon.


Yikes! Sounds like you've got some pretty scuzzy shops around there! The ones around here must be a little more "upper class", but the listed prices are usually pretty outrageous. If you would happen to find something that you really like, you can often talk them down to half or less of their listed prices (in most places at least).