EP Stamp on a Spotmatic?

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OliMonster
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:47 pm

EP Stamp on a Spotmatic?

Postby OliMonster » Fri Jul 13, 2018 7:40 pm

Hi folks!

First post here, nice to meet you all! My name is Oli, I'm a 26 year old Brit and I've been lurking on this site for a few years now, largely to keep track of an ever-expanding collection! I've been coaxed out of the shadows though, by a body I spotted recently, and was wondering if anybody here could contribute?

Found myself an addition to the collection a few days ago, and I can't work out an awful lot of info on it, was wondering if you might be able to shed some light? I saw an early-ish Spotmatic while scouring the local pawn and charity shops, for a whole £1, and I thought it'd be rude to pass the opportunity up. It's not exactly in mint condition, there's a bright mark here, a scratch there, the core of the X-sync port is missing, and it didn't have a lens. The shutter sounded okay, there aren't any dents, and Spotmatics are pretty bulletproof, so I snapped it up. When I got it home though, I noticed it has an <EP> mark on the wind lever.

I can't really find much about these markings out. It stands for Export Product or Export Permission, depending on what you read, it was sold to American servicemen on bases overseas, and it's the last iteration of a tax stamp going back to the '50s, denoting cameras going to that very specific market. That's as much as I can find, and it's some great provenance for this body, but I was wondering what it might do for its value. I'm not intending to sell it, I'm not a trader, just a curious collector!

The lens isn't original, I bought it as body only. As I say, it's seen a bit of service, but it appears to work well enough, and given how little I use flashes, the missing sync port core isn't really something I'm going to lose a lot of sleep over. Everything points to it being used, not abused, which is fine, because I don't need to baby it while I take it out and about. I'm not expecting to have to keep it in a safe, I can't imagine any Spotmatic ever being worth that much, but it's nice to dream! ;) Any info gratefully appreciated!

Thanks!
- Oli

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box86rowh
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:24 pm

Re: EP Stamp on a Spotmatic?

Postby box86rowh » Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:07 am

Here is one right here.....

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... -541389242


You need a subscription but the price was $35....looks like it doesn't add to much value unfortunately.

diser
Site Admin
Posts: 1287
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:32 pm
Location: Denver, Colorado

Re: EP Stamp on a Spotmatic?

Postby diser » Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:06 am

You have see a wiki page about EP, right?
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Post_Exchange

box86rowh is right, this stamp doesn't add anything to the value.


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