Selling vintage cameras on E-Bay is like selling anything else. Describe your item, price it to sell, find a buyer. Many vintage cameras (most cameras, say, up to 1955 or so) have varied collector value. Many collectible cameras were produced by the thousands or in some cases by the millions (Kodak Flash Brownie or Argus C-3 for example). Such cameras could hardly be described as "rare". But too often, sellers list their cameras as "rare". How can this term be applied to a camera that may appear on E-Bay ten or 12 times during a listing period?

Consider the Kodak Beau Brownie, for example. Although Kodak doesn't have production numbers, most issues (No. 2 and No. 2A) manufactured from 1930-1933 are farily common. Only the green and the rose models made only during a three-month period are considered uncommon but really, they are not "rare". Rare would be a Daguerreotype camera from, say 1839 such as a Giroux, which could sell for $100,000 or more. Or a Leica M6 Black Paint Millennium Edition which represents the first 2000 cameras made by Leitz in the year 2000.

Many Kodak cameras could be classified as "uncommon" or perhaps "rare" but very few are really "unique" and sellers should refrain from such misleading representations. For example the Kodak "Petite" series cameras are frequently offered on E-Bay as "rare" cameras. Few are "rare". The "Diamond Door" camera in excellent as-new condition may be considered "rare" based on its condition. It is indeed uncommon. The "Step Pattern" and the "Lightning Bolt" (or "Coquette") are often listed as "rare". They are not. A green or purple "Lightning Bolt" may be considered "rare" and a complete "Coquette" outfit with lipstick, compact and vanity case are indeed "rare". Kodak's George Washington Bicentennial Camera (c. 1932) is the rarest of Kodak box cameras and the Vest Pocket Hawk-Eye Kappa Nu is truly "rare" in that series.

When selling cameras use RARE sparingly. Consider using descriptives such as "unusual" or "uncommon". Hyperbole in sales goes against "truth in advertising" and should be avoided at all cost. The moral of this "Rare" Guide (this is the only one of its kind in existence) is: Sell it like it is not like you think it is.