Does anyone find bargain lenses in charity shops?

[AndyG123]

I've seen a post on here about returning to a charity shop so I know someone's found something. But how common is it to find a lens in charity shop of decent spec?

 

[Stu Meech]

I've often seen old manual focus primes, especially M42 or Canon FD mounts. Rarer to see anything newer than that, but I seem to recall seeing both Canon and Nikon 18-55 kit lenses on one occasion.

 

[gramps]

Less likely now I think as many charity shops have got wise to checking the value of things like this before offering for sale.

 

[Fuji Dave]

The one charity shop my wife works in had some cameras come in, and because they were very old and worked well they sold them to a collector

 

[an1uk]

I did see some lenses in Oxfam in Otley, but they were keenly priced so they'd obviously looked at prices on eBay.

I suspect the charity shops that don't bother checking prices have a relationship with someone who is into cameras, giving them first dibs, and the charity is happy getting £200 for a Leica M2 with a 50mm f1.2 Noctilux that they thought was a rubbish old film camera. That's why you only see Hanimex point and shoots

 

[Paul-H]

I suspect this is true with most charity shops these days, which is why when it comes to collectable items you only see rubbish for sale, if they get anything of value it disappears through their network of collectors long before it gets offered for sale in their shops.