anyone know what these would be worth?
 

to make a long story a little shorter, I went with my brother the other day to some guys house to look at something, his garage was pretty cluttered with basically junk and there was a box of misc. junk sitting on the floorwith a pair of binoculars in there,just out of curiousity Idug themout to check them out thinking they were justsome cheap junk but was surprised to see "Carl Zeiss 8x30" on the front of them...
I askedthe guywhat the deal was with them(not pointing out what they were),he kind of laughed and said they were just some junk he must have aquired somewhere along the line and he didnt even know where they came from and didnt reallycare, andthat I could have them if I wanted...

they were pretty dirty but I got them cleaned up and they are in surprisingly good shape, the only thing thats kind of a bad spot is that it looks like they were dropped at some point in time as theres a little dent in the ring on one of the objective lenes, other than that they're in really good condition

I dont know much about zeiss other than they're pretty high quality, and pretty expensive to buy, but I cant think that I've ever seen "carl zeiss" on any, I assume they must be an older model

I have several pairs of binoculars so these dont really interest me as far as actually using them "in field", but I am kind of curious as to what the scoop is on them, and what they may beworth, anyone dealt with these that can shed some light?

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

Zeiss glass is usually second to none. I have a zeiss spotting scope and can see the small clay birds out to 1,000 yards! When you look through the binocular, does it give a clean/sharp, bright image?

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

Look on Ebay and see if you can find a similar pair. A lot of binos were made that say Carl Zeiss and some can be pretty old. They're still good and worth $$$. Even the old ones hold theirvalue. you made a find.

Uhhhh..........where does this guy live again? :)

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

Careful, read where the binos were made. A long, long, long, long, long time ago, when I was a kid there were some poro prisim black binos for sale real cheap that I bought that turned out to be some ok but not great glasses. I am not sure where they were made because that was not on the binos. The insignia was also not on the binos. I was ripped off. I bought knock-offs. Not saying they are knock-offs just check before you sell them to make sure they are represented properly.

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

well, I did a little digging around, nothing to indepth though

I didlook around ebay and found a few models that are close to what I have, most on there were "jena" models, which are plainly marked on the binoculars, mine appear to have the same design but arent nearly as long, kind of like their a compact model of the jena and have a different label and no strap hooks
I also found the "zeiss historical society" and dug up a little information, it appears that zeiss went through some drastic, and troubled,timesthroughout its history, the label on mine looks like this





which is completely different than the "jena" models it resembles




and it has this info along with it...

"In 1945, the upper echelon of the Carl Zeiss Jena scientists and their most senior management were taken from Jena by the US Army to the small town of Heidenheim in what would be West Germany. After a year of having no manufacturing resources and their managers sent to England for denazification, the company began to reform itself in the non-Russian zones of occupation from scratch. They applied their knowledge to totally new products since they had no established product line. These resultant products were years ahead of the industry. They reestablished the old products of microscopes, binoculars, planetariums among others and became profitable by 1954.

collectibles: Microscopes, Scientific Instruments, Cameras, Photographic Lenses, Astronomical Instruments, Optical and Medical Devices"

they also have "made in germany" and a 6 digit number on them but thats itasfar asID marks


theres a list of serial#'s on that site but its kind of hard to follow and understand and I never did find mine, most of the jena models I found on ebay seem to have an asking price of about $200 and all the ones I seen listed were in alot worse shape than mine, I'm think I'm going to contact that historical societyand see exactly what the deal is with them, thats probablythe easiest and bestway of finding out





Saftey Off- yes,the image is great, after I cleaned all the grime off anyway... they have been dropped at some point because theres a small dent in each of the retaining ring on the objective lenes, but it doesnt appear to have effected them in any way and theres no scrathces or any other defect at all



my guess is that they're probably worth what the other ebay models are going for, around $200-$300, not bad for something I basically dug out of the garbage... I'm keeping them anyway, they're older and not as fancy looking as my other ones but even for their age you can really tell the quality of the optics looking through them, and they're kind of growing on me... I said before I had no interest in using them "in field" but nowthat I've messedwith them someI can see myselfusing them quite often...:D

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

Sounds good KLS. Good optics are a great boon for hunting. I like to spot and stalk turkeys and with a good pair of binos I can see a beard from a couple of miles away. Have fun with them!

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

Look at it this way...If your out hunting with them and lets say they fall in water,get raind on ,hit a rock or what-ever your not out anything......

RE: anyone know what these would be worth?
 

KLS, your the man - if I ever need something looked up, I hope you read my post....