Good analysis, Kurt!
There are certain things I like a lot but am not willing to pay much for, as I tend to be frugal. That's the attribute of desirability that Kurt describes. Pantographing and such are works of craftsmanship that have no bearing on how the product functions. Functionality, in bikes, is measured by usefulness, performance, reliability, and durability. These four attributes are most important to me. Aesthetics are also important, but it comes fifth, for the most part.
I have a bike with almost all 70's and early 80's Campagnolo Nuovo Record components. There, I paid a premium for aesthetics, but it's also durable and reliable stuff. Components really don't affect performance much. Performance is mostly guided by the tires, the weigh of the rims, and the frame. The rest of the bike pretty much just needs to roll without breaking. Friction in the bearings, for example, hardly weighs into how efficient the bike is at transferring power.
So I'm just as likely to buy an offbeat brand that performs as well as something famous. My almost-all-Campy bike is a rare McLean, made by a guy who only made custom bikes. It's rare because he only made a few, and he died at the age of 29! So it's also rare and collectible, but I bought it in 1984 when it was neither. I wouldn't pay a premium for either of those attributes. I'm lucky, though, and glad I still have it. I'm not sure it's valuable, though.
Last week, I bought a bike to flip, an early 90's Nishiki Olympic, made in Taiwan. It's not top of the line, but it performs pretty much as well as a top of the line bike of that era. If I bought it for myself, I could conceivably buy it as my best bike, because it rides so well. Since I'm mostly functional-minded, this type of bike is really all I need. I don't collect or ride or trade for the sake of high value. But to each his own. If you like the bling, then, by all means, collect, buy, and trade the bling.
Similar to the Nishiki, I recently sold a Schwinn Prelude. It, too, wasn't top of the line, and it didn't even look pretty. But damn, did that bike ride well! I call it a sleeper. It wouldn't turn heads, but it made a lot of happiness between the legs, so to speak.