That guy at the camera swap meet who wouldn't let me buy a broken Pentax

I was at the camera swap meet in Denver last Saturday, just looking for a cheap project to fix up. There was this older dude running a table full of old SLRs, and I spotted a beat up Pentax K1000 with a dented filter ring for $20. I thought, hey perfect, I can fix that up easy. But he straight up told me no, said it was a waste of my time and money. He pointed at a tiny crack in the prism housing I hadn't seen and said the mirror box was probably misaligned too. Then he spent 10 minutes showing me a different Minolta that needed just a simple light seal replacement for the same price. It really stuck with me because he could have just taken my cash and been done with it. Has anyone else had a seller talk them out of a bad buy like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowangonzalez10d ago

nah i gotta disagree with the general vibe here honestly. that dude was doing you a solid even if it felt weird in the moment. a cracked prism housing isnt just a "fix it up easy" thing thats basically a dead camera unless you have a parts donor. most swap meet guys wouldve taken your $20 and ghosted while you figured that out later. he probably saved you hours of frustration and a brick on your shelf. gotta respect the integrity even if it meant he lost a sale.

aaron19710d ago

Read somewhere that old camera heads are a dying breed who actually care about the gear... @rowangonzalez gets it.