In my experience, the real gems arent usually under the brand name. People selling an estate often just list items as old film camera or 35mm rangefinder without even mentioning Leica in the title. Set up saved searches for generic terms and look for listings with bad, blurry photos. Those scare off serious collectors, and thats where you get the real deals. Its how I snagged my last M series under budget.

> I live in a tiny town in rural Idaho so that basically turns up zero results for me. I totally get the frustration with rural locations, honestly. Since local pickup is a bust, you gotta get a bit more technical with your search strategy. I'm super satisfied using a mix of automated alerts and specific market comparisons tho... Comparison of sources:

• Japanese sellers: Usually mint gear and very honest, but shipping to Idaho is pricey and takes forever.
• German sellers: Huge inventory for Leica obviously, but VAT and duties might kill your 400 dollar budget. Another thing that works well is comparing Buy It Now alerts versus manual bidding. Sniping tools just save you from overpaying at the last second, but using PriceDropCatch helps you find those mispriced listings the second they hit. Ngl, staying under 400 for a Leica is tough, but catching a mislabeled Barnack body right when it's posted is your best bet if you dont mind a few scratches.

In my experience, you gotta monitor specific serial number ranges or technical iterations. I usually keep PriceDropCatch open to snag underpriced Buy It Now listings before the snipers even see them.