Today was to be the day I would buy my Leica. I found the per­fect one: chrome fin­ish, Leitz logo, great con­di­tion, good price. I called today.

“Sorry, we sold that one yesterday.”

Every­one I’ve talked to so far says that get­ting one will be a mat­ter of luck. Evi­dently they are usu­ally bought within a day or two of being listed. For some­one accus­tomed to a con­sumer cul­ture, this is extremely frustrating.