College Student Stumbles Upon $1,400+ Camera In Thrift Store, Cops It For A Cool $5 Bill

Jared Borislow9 years ago

A bargain-hunting college student — who has remained anonymous aside from the publication of his Reddit username, /u/GreenteaBanana — hit a score 5,000 times better than the usual college student scores of finding a lone onion ring in your 2:30 a.m. french fries or waking up to see that you got a girl’s number last night then realizing you have zero clue what she might look like, whether or not it is even actually a girl’s number (or a real number), or why the only message in the text chain is one you received at 4:25 a.m. — “Hand stuff Daddy cranks that pizz 🍆 😫”

For the cool price of $5 smackarones, /u/GreenteaBanana snagged this Leica M2 film camera. Street price? $1,400-$1,700.

From Reddit /u/GreenteaBanana:

By far the best and most valuable thing I’ve found in years of thrifting. In case anyone is wondering the camera is in excellent condition and the body is worth about $850 while the lens adds another $600-800 in value. I’ve always checked through old cameras and wondered if one day I would ever find a Leica and here it is! I will be traveling to Korea and Japan in the summer and will definitely be using it there and after I will decide whether I should keep it or sell it. Its something like this that people would buy and use it for the rest of their lives so that is something I’m considering since I do enjoy photography.

/u/GreenteaBanana recounted to PetaPixel the events that led to him winding up in the thrift store that day, and it realistically doesn’t get any more college. They involve an accounting class group project, indulging one of those annoying campus activist groups that embarrassingly pays you $1 to listen to their stupid schpiel, and, of course, ramen. You can read the full story on PetaPixel here.

These stories are always interesting because we say things like, “What a steal!” and, “Wow, great find!” when what we should actually be saying is, “That poor, poor struggling American small businessperson who trusted their employees to put reasonable price tags on everything.” That’s the real story here, and it’s devastating. Tragic, really.

Nice snag still, though..

[via Reddit /u/GreenteaBanana, PetaPixel]

Image via Reddit /u/GreenteaBanana