Buying an analog camera on eBay

Why should you listen to me?

I founded Ausgeknipst 7 years ago now. Back then I was on my own, and instead of manufacturing accessories and spare parts for analog cameras, I bought analog cameras, lenses and accessories on eBay, tested them, repaired them in my room in a shared flat and resold them (mostly) at a profit.

Buying and selling analog cameras is how I financed my second degree back then. In this guide I want to pass on to you the knowledge I have gathered over the last 7 years. Even if you are not planning to open a camera shop and are simply looking for a bargain, this guide should help you.

P.S. These days, we at Ausgeknipst mainly sell accessories for analog cameras that we make ourselves. That means I can share my “secret knowledge” with you here with a clear conscience ;)

The same seven years as a video, in case you would rather watch than read.

If you don't know your way around, buy from a reputable dealer with a 30-day return policy

All analog cameras on the market are now more than 30 years old, and in about half of all cases they are more or less defective. As a result, many private individuals who own these cameras have little or no knowledge of what exactly they are selling, for example when they are selling their grandpa's estate. But even commercial dealers often reach their limits when it comes to reliably testing all functions.

There are several reasons for this: on the one hand, there is a lack of the necessary test equipment and specific know-how; on the other hand, a complete inspection as specified in the service manual is simply no longer profitable. Disassembling, servicing and cleaning an analog SLR camera usually takes a whole day. Hardly any customer can or will be willing to bear the cost of a skilled analog camera precision mechanic (of whom there are hardly any left anyway). This effort is therefore worthwhile at most for high-end professional cameras from Hasselblad, Leica, Alpa & Co.

An exception to this rule are individual specialist workshops that focus on a particular camera model. In Germany, for example, there is, or was for a long time, the so-called “OM Doctor” Frank Timmann, a specialist in repairing Olympus OM system cameras. And I myself once had my Kiev 88 medium format camera overhauled by Arax Foto in Ukraine, and it was affordable. These specialist workshops can work faster and more efficiently because they know these particular cameras inside out. As far as I know, the only one managing this on a broad scale today is the Finnish dealer Kamerastore.com. To my knowledge, it is the only professional analog camera dealer that has hired its own mechanics for repairing and overhauling analog cameras and continues to train them.

If you are not very familiar with analog cameras, it is advisable to buy from a reputable dealer with a return policy. That way you can make sure you are not left footing the bill if the camera turns out to be defective, and in the best case you get a working camera.

And where do you find these dealers? We have compiled a list of the photo shops and specialist mail-order retailers in the German-speaking countries that still carry analog products at all: Analog photo shops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with a map, radius search and a filter for used cameras. Some of these shops test every camera before selling it and give a warranty on it. Compared to eBay, you pay a premium for this and in return get exactly the peace of mind this chapter is about.

Choosing the right camera

There are dozens of camera manufacturers and over 1000 different models in all kinds of types, such as easy-to-use Point n’ Shoot cameras, medium format cameras for professionals, large format cameras for photographers with artistic ambitions & much, much more. If you have no idea at all and just want to get a taste of analog photography, I always recommend a 35 mm SLR camera to start with. It is compact, versatile, affordable and in demand. That means if you realise after a few months that the hobby isn't for you, you can easily resell it for the same price (especially if you followed this guide and snapped up a good bargain).

The most popular 35 mm SLR cameras, sorted by manufacturer, are:

Canon AE-1, A-1, F-1, FTb, T50, T70

Minolta SRT-101, X-700

Nikon EM, F2, F3, FE, FM, FM2

Olympus OM-1, OM-2

Pentax K1000, ME Super, MX, Spotmatic

With these camera models, you can't really go wrong. They are all relatively robust models that have stood the test of time, and they are also ones you can easily resell at any time.

Determining the price of the camera

In most cases, to get started you'll first need the camera body (the housing) and a single lens. I recommend an original lens from the manufacturer with a focal length of 35 mm or 50 mm (a so-called standard focal length). These lenses offer the best value for money, are fast (good for indoor shots in low light), are easy to resell and, just like the 35 mm SLR camera itself, are versatile.

In general, though, the cheapest way to buy is in a bundle. Online you'll often find bundles consisting of several bodies, various lenses and accessories such as a flash, motor winder, expired analog film and more. If you feel confident reselling part of your equipment, this is the cheapest way to get your dream gear. At the beginning of my “career” I did exactly that. If I wanted, for example, a Canon AE-1 with a 50 mm f/1.8 lens, I bought a bundle with the camera & 5 different lenses (including the 50 mm I actually wanted). I simply resold the remaining 4 lenses and financed the purchase of the camera that way.

The Advanced Search on eBay

To determine the price of the camera, bundle or set, it's best to use the “Advanced Search” on eBay and search for “Completed listings” and “Sold items”:

Ideally, only display listings from Germany (I advise against buying internationally, because it's always good to be able to return the camera if necessary).

Depending on whether you'd rather take a risk or play it safe, you can also search by seller type “Business” or “Private”:

Return periods for business and private sellers on eBay

Business sellers must grant you at least a 14-day right of return. That gives you enough time to unpack the camera and test it “dry”. Testing requires a bit of technical skill and, ideally, some previous experience with analog cameras. If you lack one or both, you're better off buying from a dealer that offers a 30-day return period.

You'll find the return policy on the right below the title of the listing.

With a return period of 1 month, you have enough time to test the camera with a film & develop the film. Any defects often only show up after development. If the camera has a defect, you can then simply send it back.

With a private seller, such a return is of course more difficult. Most sellers are open to discussion. If you've tested the camera after buying it and it doesn't work, or its condition and function differ from the item description, definitely contact the seller, whether private or business.

Most eBay users are keen to maintain their good feedback score and are therefore cooperative. Even though private sellers don't have to take back the goods they've sold (at least legally it's a grey area), in most cases you can negotiate a discount. In any case, if there's a problem, it helps to open a return through the eBay returns portal. If the seller refuses to cooperate, you can bring in eBay support after a certain period, and they mostly decide in your favor (i.e. you get your money back), especially if the seller doesn't respond.

Keep in mind: broken isn't always broken. Most cameras you find online will have one defect or another, big or small. That's simply because they're so old. You can often live with the faults. A mechanical camera with a faulty light meter, for example, can still be used perfectly well with an external light meter or a light meter app for your smartphone & you can easily replace defective light seals yourself with our light seal kit. Things get trickier if the camera's shutter is defective. In that case you can usually only return the camera or use it as a paperweight.

Determining the purchase price of the camera: search for completed listings

Below, I'll use a very specific search example to explain how I would proceed when buying a “Working Canon AE-1 with original Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens”.

Example search for price research, business: Canon AE-1 / business seller from Germany, Buy It Now

Once you've entered the search criteria (see above, e.g. business seller from Germany, Buy It Now), you'll see that, for example, a used and working Canon AE-1 with an original 50mm f/1.8 lens costs between 150 - 190 €:

Analysis of the example search for price research, commercial sellers:

1. Canon AE-1 + 50 mm f/1.8 lens: exactly what we are looking for & on top of that from a seller with top service & a huge number of (13.000) ratings. You can't go wrong here, but the camera also fetched the highest selling price with this seller.
2. Canon AE-1 + 50 mm f/1.8 lens: this seller has considerably less experience and therefore can't ask the same price. However, with an average of 98,8 % they have excellent ratings and, as a commercial seller, offer a return period.
3. Canon AE-1 with no-name zoom lens: I can already see in the small preview photo that the third camera in the list was sold together with a cheaper zoom lens (which we don't want)
4. Canon AE-1 without lens: the fourth camera was sold with its original packaging, but without any lens at all.

So now I know that for a (probably) working Canon AE-1 with a 50 mm lens I have to pay between 150 - 190 €. Since dealers can usually judge the prices of their goods fairly well, you can mostly only dream of real bargains here. Tip: commercial sellers often have the “Make offer” function activated. Deduct about 10 % from the actual purchase price and submit this as a “Make offer”. Most dealers will gladly accept your offer.

Example search for price research, private sellers: Canon AE-1 / private seller from Germany, Buy It Now

You want to land a real bargain? Then you have to take a risk and buy from private sellers without a guarantee, and you can get much better prices. In the “Advanced Search” I now switch to completed listings from private sellers and get, e.g., the following four results:

Analysis of the example search for price research, private sellers:

1. Canon AE-1 with 4 lenses + flash: one of the lenses is the 50 mm f/1.8 we are looking for, the other three and the flash are a nice bonus that we could possibly resell. The price for this set is the same as the second commercial offer above (for the same price we get more here, but without the right of return)
2. Canon AE-1 with original 35-105 mm f/3.5 lens: as an expert, I know that the black Canon AE-1 fetches slightly higher prices because it is rarer, and here it was also sold with a somewhat more expensive lens. Overall, though, still not what we want.
3. Canon AE-1 with 35-70 mm 1:3.5-4.5 lens: The price is fair, but the lens doesn't match our search.
4. Canon AE-1 with 50 mm f/1.8 lens: Exactly what we are looking for, from a private seller with 100 % positive ratings. This would have been the one to grab. We'll remember the price of 100 € for the set we want.

Finding the right camera to Buy It Now

Next, we search for current Buy It Now listings from private sellers. I still search only for “Canon AE-1” & not for “Canon AE-1 50 mm”, because many private sellers have no idea how to name the lens correctly. If the keyword you are looking for (e.g. 50 mm f/1.8) is not in the title but is included in the listing (as you can tell from the product photos), you usually pay less than otherwise. The reason is quite simple: if sellers describe the equipment well, they know their stuff and are also more likely to know what price they can ask. This time I sort by “Lowest price” first and get the following results:

Analysis of the example search, private sellers:

1. Canon AE-1: body only, without lens: not for us
2. not a camera at all, just a special back: not for us
3. Canon AE-1 with zoom lens: not for us
4. Canon AE-1 with lens: I click on the photos and see in the fourth photo that the camera is being sold as a set together with the lens we are looking for:

Check the listing description, photos and reviews

In other words, I could buy the set I'm looking for for 80 € from a private seller, who however has relatively few (12) ratings. On top of that, the figure 87,5% next to the seller name tells me that the seller has negative ratings. That's a reason to be cautious. Not every negative rating is justified, but when in doubt you should always read the negative ratings if you want to buy from a seller with negative ratings (especially if this is a private seller with no right of return). Clicking on the rating score shows me the following:

The second rating in particular puts me off here, because the seller apparently already sold the same listing once before and then didn't want to ship it. So we keep looking.

So I scroll further down and find the following listing for 85€:

On the right of the photo I can see the 50 mm f/1.8 lens I'm looking for. There's also a zoom lens included. The price is right. The only downside is that the seller has just 3 ratings. When in doubt, I check the ratings and the item description again:

The seller name “wilhol_0” suggests that the user didn't choose the name themselves. eBay often assigns usernames based on first and last name. So the seller could be called Wilfried Hofmann or something similar. Probably an older gentleman who wants to sell his old camera gear and doesn't spend much time online. The item description only says “Also includes a Cullmann flash unit (30T-DS) and a shoulder bag”. In my experience, scammers don't write like that. The three positive ratings sound good too. You could safely go for it here, and the price is fair.

If I want to push the price down even further, I may have to be patient and keep an eye out for auction listings.

Winning the right camera at auction (at the best price)

The motto here is: be patient, create a saved search and use an auction sniper.

Not always, but most of the time, with a little patience you can get better bargains by bidding on auctions than by using the “Buy It Now” option.

If I search for auction listings next, I get the following list:

Analysis of sample search, auctions from private sellers:

1. Canon AE-1 with 50 mm lens by Makinon: not the original lens I wanted, but not bad for the price.
2. Canon AE-1 with 35-70 mm lens by Canon: not the 50 mm lens I wanted, but a good original Canon zoom lens instead.
3. Canon AE-1 Program with two lenses: this is even the more expensive Canon AE-1 Program, but unfortunately paired with relatively cheap Soligor lenses.
4. Canon AE-1 Program: here too there's an AE-1 Program with a relatively good Sigma zoom lens, good because it's fast.

Among the affordable auction listings today (19.12.24) there wasn't a single Canon AE-1 with a 50 mm f/1.8 lens. That means: if you want a bargain, you have to be flexible. You won't find a suitable auction at any given moment. If you want your camera as soon as possible, you'll have to make compromises on the specific combination of camera + lens + accessories, or you simply create a saved search and are patient.

On top of that, of course, you never know what final price an auction will end at. Other bidders often get caught up in a bidding frenzy in the last few minutes of an auction and end up paying more than they could have paid at the Buy It Now price. Ideally, that's something we want to avoid, of course.

Additional software for ambitious collectors and resellers

If you have some time and want to land a good bargain, I recommend using a so-called auction sniper tool, such as the one from myibidder.com. There you can log in with your eBay account and set a maximum bid for the auction you've chosen. This bid is then placed in the last 8 seconds of the auction. It's important that you enter your honest (meaning: be honest with yourself) maximum bid right away. No more and no less. This way you avoid, on the one hand, driving the price higher and higher in a bidding war with another bidder and, on the other hand, being annoyed afterwards because someone else got the camera for a price you would have been able and willing to pay too.

The use of such tools is somewhat controversial, but eBay tolerates it. If you want to play it safe, you have no choice but to set an alarm and bid shortly before the auction ends.

If you want to take your eBay game to an even more professional level, I recommend using another tool: Auctionsieve.

With Auctionsieve you can save searches (called Sieves here) just like on eBay, but with the big advantage that you can:

1. Save Catch Words: these are search terms that get pushed to the top of the search (in our case, this could be the name of the lens you are looking for, e.g. “50 mm f/1.8” or similar)
2. Save Trash Words: these are search terms that are hidden from your results right away (e.g. you can directly hide cheap lenses from “Sigma”, “Tamron” and the like.
3. Hide what you have already seen: The most important feature of Auctionsieve is the option “Hide Items shown before”. It lets you hide everything you have already seen. That may not sound like much at first, but you will need it when you search weekly or daily for all kinds of cameras and then only have to comb through 100 instead of 10.000 search results.

What should you look out for from a technical point of view?

Analog cameras are technically highly complex, and even after 7 years of experience with hundreds or thousands of different cameras, I still often have trouble determining the exact technical condition of a camera. Of course, this becomes even harder or impossible if all you have are shaky, blurry and dark pictures of the camera (as you often will when you are hunting for bargains on eBay).

Of course, we want to maximize our chances of buying a good, working camera, so we try to extract all the information we can from the item description:

1. The seller's trustworthiness: I already described further above roughly how I assess a seller's trustworthiness. Look at the number of ratings, and above all at the negative and neutral ones, and read through the description (if it is empty, that is often just laziness and not necessarily a bad omen). Ideally, someone has put a lot of effort in and checked as much as possible themselves. Pro tip: never buy anything that comes from a basement. Basements are often damp, and moisture destroys any camera.
2. Look at the pictures very closely:

1. Look out for haze or fungus in the glass of the lenses and the viewfinder
2. Look at photos of the open back and check whether the light seals are intact (usually they are not, but you can replace them yourself fairly easily; we sell a light seal kit for this)
3. Look out for missing or broken covers and battery doors
4. Check whether the camera looks clean and is free of major scratches and dents (this usually indicates that it has been handled or stored with care)

3. If you can inspect the camera in person, you can of course judge its condition much better. You can then, for example, insert a battery and check whether the light meter still works, operate the film advance, look through the back and check whether the shutter opens and closes. Turn the aperture ring and check whether the aperture closes reliably or is oily, etc.

Most of the time, you will not have the chance to check the camera in person. And even if you do, such a technical inspection is hard for a layperson to carry out. So all you can rely on is a good look at the seller, the description, the photos, a little bit of luck and, as a last resort, of course, returning the faulty camera.

if you want to play it safe, buy from a trustworthy source

In the end, it is up to you whether you gamble and buy a camera cheaply from a private seller, only for it to arrive broken. Or whether you play it safe and buy from a reputable seller with good ratings and a 30-day return policy.

If you decide to take the safe route: Our overview of analog photo shops lists retailers and specialist mail-order dealers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, sortable by distance. It also helps you find out where near you can still hold a camera in your own hands before buying it. That beats any listing description.

I hope this buying guide has helped you and that it helps you find your dream camera. If so, you can support us by buying the matching accessories (such as a battery or any covers) in our shop. If you have any further questions, feel free to leave us a comment or message us on Instagram @ausgeknipst.de

Best regards!

Yours, Vladi @ausgeknipst

Which camera should it be in the first place?

Half the work is done once you know which model you're actually looking for. These buying guides do the preselection for you:

• Rollei 35 variants compared, which of the many versions is worth it
• Pentax ME vs. ME Super vs. MX, compact SLRs without the price premium trap
• Nikon FM, FM2, FE, FE2 and FM3a, Nikon's compact classics
• Canon F-1 vs. F-1n vs. New F-1, the three are not the same
• Buying a Rolleiflex, 2.8 or 3.5, Planar or Xenotar
• Beaulieu Super 8 and Canon Scoopic, if you want moving pictures

And once the camera has arrived and starts acting up: whether a service is even worth it is answered in Does every “broken” film camera need a CLA?, and in the overview of repair workshops you'll find someone who can do it.