The best deal you ever got

William Petruzzo · Oct 6, 2008

Provoked by a craigslist purchase tonight, I thought this might be kind of fun. Everyone loves to tell people when they snagged a killer deal on something. It seems that many of us love to search out used gear, or at least find the best bang for our buck. So, What's the awesomest deal you ever got on gear? Used, new, hookup, whatever.

I think for me, my purchase tonight is a pretty good contender. I found a Pelican 1560 case, almost brand new for $30. I'm happy.

So what's yours?

Garbz · Oct 7, 2008

A girl fancied me. Hey boyfriend broke up with her. She was helping liquidate their (mostly his) photography business. I scored the Nikkor AF-S D 28-70mm f/2.8 for $1000. It was brand new and retails for $3000 here

Dao · Oct 7, 2008

I think it is a good deal. I got my used Tamron 14mm F2.8 for ... less than USD$400 ... I forgot the exact price but believe it was around $350-$360 range. Brand new cost about $9xx to $10xx. Although it is not as good as the Canon 14mm, but I am very happy with it.

I still remember when I got the lens, I did not expect the front lens element is that big and the weight of the lens is also much heavier than I thought.

ksmattfish · Oct 7, 2008

I got a beautiful Rolleiflex 3.5E Planar with numerous accessories for $150 at a garage sale. When I got home and checked Ebay my haul was probably worth $750+. I picked up a Graphmatic 6 sheet 4x5 holder for $9 at a garage sale. I think they go for about $100.

TUX424 · Oct 7, 2008

Not really a deal but i got a Nikon D70s for $450 with the lens which was $200 then what i was gonna spend on a D80 that sounds like a deal to me
I bought a $300 ipod for $60 on time
thats about it

JerryPH · Oct 7, 2008

I picked up an original case and CD of PS CS2 (extended) for $5 at a garage sale, paid a modest upgrade fee and got PS CS3 Extended for $199. Full price for CS3 was (I believe), $999.

The CD was damaged, but that made no difference when it came time to "upgrade"... lol

I wonder if I can upgrade to CS4 for another $199? :lmao:

William Petruzzo · Oct 7, 2008

JerryPH said:
I picked up an original case and CD of PS CS2 (extended) for $5 at a garage sale, paid a modest upgrade fee and got PS CS3 Extended for $199. Full price for CS3 was (I believe), $999.

The CD was damaged, but that made no difference when it came time to "upgrade"... lol

I wonder if I can upgrade to CS4 for another $199? :lmao:

Ugh! That sickens me that you would find such an outrageously incredible deal! Man that is so great!

I've been consumed with jealousy.

Bifurcator · Oct 7, 2008

I got my 8-core Mac Pro with 4gig and 2TB raid w/24" dual monitors for very close to $2.5k by using my educator status, upgrading the Xeons and buying the drives myself from a non-apple independent dealer. That's like 35% of the price Apple wants for the same normally.

I get lots of stuff for free too but I guess those don't count for this?

Like several hundred thousand $ worth of Nikon and Olympus microscopes. I guess that's the biggest. Some broadcast video gear too. etc.

Alex_B · Oct 7, 2008

My best deal was when I sold a wide angle prime on eBay after 5 years of heavy use (scratches on the lens barrel and all) for 95% of the retail price.

I always have my best deals when I sell things

Alex_B · Oct 7, 2008

Oh, and if we leave photography ... as a child I sold used toys sometimes for more money than my parents payed for them originally

Big Mike · Oct 7, 2008

I bought a flash meter on E-bay from a local seller. I went to pick it up, only to find out that the seller was one of the original power sellers and had been selling on E-bay for many years. She was finally tired of it and was liquidating all her inventory with a garage sale and some final e-bay sales. I got there a day or two before the garage sale, but she let me look though all the stuff. It was a pretty amazing assortment of collectible items, not just the regular crap that you see at garage sales.

I almost bought a Pentax 35mm system...camera, 4 or 5 lenses, flash, bag etc for $40.

Besides the flash meter ($40) I also bought a couple baggies full of filters & caps for $1 each. One of the bags had a 67mm circular polarizer...score!

JerryPH · Oct 7, 2008

bpetruzzo said:
Ugh! That sickens me that you would find such an outrageously incredible deal! Man that is so great!

I've been consumed with jealousy.

lol... it was good break that time for both CS2 and the upgrade to CS3.

The new upgrade price from CS3 Extended to CS4 Extended is $350US. Until I hear that it offers at least $350 worth of value and features over and above what CS3 has, I doubt I will be moving up anytime soon. If I was a professional getting paid for my work, it would be a reasonable.deal... unfortunately, that is not the case for me.

Portrayed1 · Oct 7, 2008

This may sound stupid, but what od you mean by "upgrade fee"?

JerryPH said:
I picked up an original case and CD of PS CS2 (extended) for $5 at a garage sale, paid a modest upgrade fee and got PS CS3 Extended for $199. Full price for CS3 was (I believe), $999.

The CD was damaged, but that made no difference when it came time to "upgrade"... lol

I wonder if I can upgrade to CS4 for another $199? :lmao:

table1349 · Oct 7, 2008

JerryPH said:
I picked up an original case and CD of PS CS2 (extended) for $5 at a garage sale, paid a modest upgrade fee and got PS CS3 Extended for $199. Full price for CS3 was (I believe), $999.

The CD was damaged, but that made no difference when it came time to "upgrade"... lol

I wonder if I can upgrade to CS4 for another $199? :lmao:

Yes