Are Pentax getting too popular?

Well I suppose the topic title says it all.

Has anyone else noticed the distinct drop in sales of Pentax and third party lenses on evilbay over the last year, I'm not talking about new stuff but about KA and even K mount.

My recent aquisition of an old Miranda K mount link.... lead me to another splurge of searching the internet for bargains, unfortunately there does'nt seem to be as many about. Pentax is becoming TOO popular too many newbies jumping on the bandwagen and yet we're welcoming them on here with open arms I mean new members are nice but cheap lenses are MUCH nicer

Can't have it both ways. It's either cheap and cheerful or very good and costly. Market forces at play.

Best regards

Yup, all I see on Ebay these days is overpriced lenses being sold from Germany. Used to be quite a few bargains but not any longer.

Of course, it could be that the prices have been pushed up by people trading as opposed to buying for their own use? Each trade adds to the price and someone has to pay the top price!

I'm not saying there is anything wrong in that but its the same in the antiques trade, object gets passed around the trade for ages before the punters pay top whack!

I do think people are listing B.I.N items at silly prices to see if anyone bites. I saw an M 40-80mm for £40 last night!

I've got one, I quite like it (barrel distortion aside, and that only shows in subjects with long straight lines). I wouldn't have paid more than the £20 it cost me though.

Over time this will push prices higher. People now think this is what they're worth and will push auction final bids up to similar levels because that's how much it now costs to get hold of the widget in question. It's like one seller and their ridiculous prices for things like lens caps (which they've removed from lenses they sell and replaced with cheap generic ones - if you want the complete lens with all the original trimmings you pay even more!) Now everyone thinks that those are the correct prices and sets theirs accordingly.

My last bargain was a minty black ME with original case, strap, manual, and a perfect 50mm f1.7 with original cap for £20 a couple of weeks ago.

Or what about this !!!

There's been bugger all since Christmas. Loads of stuff for sale before Christmas

Before christmas I was keeping an eye out for a Pentax A 28mm f2.8 and they were consistently selling for below £30. Now they are up around £70. I wish I had bought then... Hindsight and all that.

I've recently sold a lens for a decent price, on a popular auction site, that I couldn't give away on here.

Things do seem to be getting scarcer and pricier.

You know it was better in the old days when things were cheap and Pentax just were going slowly down the pan. Damn them, now we'll have to buy those expensive Pentax brand lenses. You young'uns just don't know how bad it was in the past and how good it was in the past.

If you think Pentax stuff is dear take a look at CZ Jena

Carl Zeiss Jena CZJ Pancolar 55mm f1.4 M42 Pentax Rare £440 BIN

The correct body for this lens (has cheapo 1.8 on it )

Pentacon Super Six with Pancolar 1.8/50 BIN £987

You need a lesson in economics.

Prices are set by buyers, not sellers.

When a seller prices an item correctly, people buy. When he over-prices it, people don't.

If sellers can get high prices for their stuff, it means buyers are prepared to pay. They are saying, "These prices are OK".

G

true enough when applied on an industrial scale....

but internet sellers are a different market imho.... the whole concept of "While everyone out there in the world may not be idiots, odds are there is one idiot out there, and maybe he'll pay this much.."

reminds me of guiding trout fishermen in the arctic one summer..
A guy asks me what the fish are hitting on... I show him four hooks.
He pulls out a big tackle box and shows me something completely different than what I suggested.
The sales man had told him that was the best stuff...

I pull out a beer, drink it, flatten the can and proceed to tie it to my line...
"will that work?" the guy asks me...

" If I drag this this beer can around long enough something will bite on it eventually. But I'm here all season fishing every day. I got time. You are here for three days, if you want a fish, what I suggested is what worked yesterday and the day before, you drag that hook you bought in the city around you might as well grab a beer can"

beer would've been cheaper than that lure anyways.

fishin for suckers...

Don,

There can't be just one or two people buying all the world's Pentax lenses.

There must be lots. And if lots of people are prepared to pay a high price, then that's the going rate.

Of course, we also need to look at the supply side. It may be that the constant stream of sellers that fuelled the market in days gone by has now dried up. Perhaps there was a perception that Pentax were doomed and people wanted to get rid of their stuff. Now there may be a perception that Pentax is on a roll, and it's worth hanging on.

But either way, it's buyers that set prices, not sellers. If once you were prepared to pay £20.00 for a 500mm 1:1.7, you might now be prepared to pay much more because:

1 A new one costs several hundred, and
2 They're damn good lenses, and
3 You can always sell it again, and with lens prices going up, you might well make a profit.

It's like codfish. Cod used to be cheap. Now that it's scarce, people have realised that it's one of the finest fish in the sea, and are prepared to pay salmon prices for it. A few years ago that would have been unthinkable. But it's the preception/realisation that it is good that has inspired people to pay much more for it. After all, there are plenty of other fish in the sea. (At the moment!)

G

you are right I think there are three or four, all on this forum...lol!

I get what you're saying, you're probably right...

Hit the nail on the head on this topic here. Hammer went through the floorboard.

I remembered holding back on buying a BNIB/SEALED FA 50mm 1.4 on eBay just before the K10D was announced. Just the other day I saw someone here posting a listing for a USED FA 50mm 1.4 for £250 I think. Yeah I know.

So I bought the last Samyang 85mm 1.4 that SRS was selling on eBay for £189+£5PP earlier today, since I noticed that each seller have increased their prices by at least £25 each, and it's selling for around £250+PP.