Let me clarify -- I did not see that I see a lot of touring bikes for sale. The *road* bikes that I said that I see on forums is the Serotta Competition Forums. I've seen an occasional touring bike there, but 99.999% of the bikes posted for sale at Serrotta are "road bikes," or 'cross bikes. The two touring bikes that I referred to in my post above were seen on eBay. I also see touring bikes fairly frequently on Seattle Craigslist.

This is the Serotta forum:

http://forums.serotta.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6


There's a 2005 Serotta Ti *road* bike for sale for $3750. Complete bike, with Dura Ace. I think a new Serrotta Legend Ti frameset w/carbon stays and carbon fork is over $5,000. A Serotta Classique Ti frame is about $3,000.

http://forums.serotta.com/showthread.php?t=78494

Also, on the first page of the classifieds today, a used Seven Mountain Bike. $1600 without wheels, frame and fork only, $1,100.

I'm not sure what this tells us about high-end bike values, other than the fact that a 12-year-old bike (the Merlin that is the subject of this thread) is unlikely to sell for $6,000.

The great thing about eBay is that *if* the seller of the Merlin above put it up for sale with no reserve he'd know in week what it's worth in today's market. It's an excellent tool for price discovery, though if you bought a high end bike expecting it to hold its value it's also a pretty harsh reality check.