Rare Leica Prototype Draws $3,008 at Goodwill Auction

By Olivia Hart

Seven bids pushed the price of a Leica / Hughes Leitz 17mm f/2 prototype lens at Goodwill of the Great Plains in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to $3,008 at the time of reporting. Goodwill lists what appears to be a second copy of a rare lens offered for $47,200 in 2021, in “as is” condition; bidding closes at 9:50 p.m. ET, or 6:50 p.m. PT, on October 30.

Leitz Photographica and Wetzlar Camera Auctions do not offer the object; instead, it sits in a Goodwill listing. Trevor Sehrer, founder of Lenstag, says it appears to be a previously unknown second copy of an exceptionally rare prototype that most recently sold for nearly $50,000.

Its model number, C530-0004, differs from C530-0007 on the lens Leica Store Lisse offered in 2021; otherwise, the two appear identical. That model-number distinction supports Sehrer’s identification, while leaving the Goodwill lens without the specialist framing its apparent sibling received.

What does the 2021 precedent establish?

In 2021, PetaPixel reported a lens then believed to be one of a kind: the 26-pound Leica / Hughes Leitz 17mm f/2, offered by Leica Store Lisse for $47,200. The same lens appeared in an eBay listing four years earlier at $24,000; Leica Rumors reported the listing in January 2018. Those figures trace a $23,200 rise between the eBay offer and the store price.

At $3,008, the Goodwill bid stood $44,192 below the 2021 price, or 6.4% of it. That gap suggests a bargain remains possible, despite seven bids already landing.

The useful tension is institutional. In the specialist market, a rare camera object moves through auctions, expert descriptions and collector scrutiny; this one has entered thrift-store resale without that apparatus evident in its listing. The suspicion is that Goodwill may not fully appreciate what it has. The evidence supports a narrower claim: its own description treats the lens as ordinary stock.

Goodwill does provide one material safeguard. “We do our best to describe items completely and accurately, but we are not experts,” the charity says, adding that prospective bidders should inspect the included photographs carefully because they effectively serve as the product’s description.

Is the condition a serious concern?

Goodwill sells the lens “as is.” The photographs show a lens that appears to be in good condition, although its condition remains uncertain. The case for collecting it rests on its prototype status, recorded model number and apparent relationship to the 2021 lens, rather than on a specialist condition report.

That makes the object a piece of photographic history rather than merely secondhand equipment. If Sehrer’s reading holds, C530-0004 marks a second example of a rare prototype, with the 26-pound C530-0007 lens providing the close visual comparison.

But the Goodwill presentation puts that significance at a disadvantage. No specialist valuation appears in the listing, and bidders are directed to photographs instead. The mismatch does not prove that Goodwill’s staff overlooked the lens, though the plain presentation and lack of expert language have left the object looking less like a collectible prototype than a thrift-store curiosity.

It arrives amid a run of startling low-price Leica discoveries reported in recent years:

• Last year, Ontario photographer Brandon Simpson found a $2,000 Leica at a thrift store for $10.
• In 2021, a teenager found an entire Leica M kit for $15 at a church sale.
• A few years before that, a college student found a Leica M5 at a thrift store for $5.

The prices are almost too tidy. Simpson paid 0.5% of the stated $2,000 price; the teenager paid $15 for a complete M kit; the college student paid $5 for an M5.

Goodwill’s prototype already sits in another economic league: $3,008 after seven bids is 300 times Simpson’s $10 outlay, 200 times the teenager’s $15 and more than 600 times the $5 M5 find.

What happens when bidding closes?

The test is whether C530-0004 attracts specialist-level attention despite the setting. A completed sale near the $47,200 precedent would turn a thrift-store rarity into a major photographic-history result; a much lower result would show how much framing can matter.

The 9:50 p.m. ET close will show whether an apparent second Leica / Hughes Leitz prototype can escape the modest orbit of ordinary resale and approach the $47,200 benchmark set by its apparent sibling.