I didn't BELIEVE it. The funny thing is that he was trying to sell me the 105s instead of Tiagra when he said it. He was saying something like, "Tiagra is OK and you can go with it, and the current Tiagra is about what last year's 105 was." He continued and gave me valid reasons for upgrading to 105s instead. I took it with a grain of salt rather than something literally true but it made me think Tiagras were at least decent and I did eventually go with Tiagras.