I put together some quick statistics of my used Vintage SLR, Rangefinder, and Scale focus cameras purchased on eBay and came up with these stats.
Out of the 16 cameras I purchased on eBay, 5 were non-working and beyond repair while 1 was able to be repaired. So that's roughly a 62% success rate. By and large the 6 SLR camera's had the least amount of issues whilst the older rangefinder and zone focusing models had the bulk of the issues which was not surprising.
Total loss came to $127.49 or about $25.49 per camera. But I am keeping them as they do make nice conversation pieces on my mantle.
What has your success rate been?
(Not all camera's shown)