Well, lots of great thoughts in this thread so far and that's what I was really looking forward to reading. A few take-aways from this are certainly that you can't exactly compare one bike against another. I mean, a simple stem/bar adjustment can make a bike ride entirely different than before. One person mention that changing the configuration of just one part can drastically change the ride, so that's a great point. As for Japanese vs. Italian vs. anything else, I guess I totally agree that it's supply and demand, as well as the legacy of these vintage parts. Come to think of it, I regularly see Superbe stuff sell for as much as Campy on eBay/CL. I guess saying that Campy is more expensive sometimes isn't fair. I paid more for my Superbe bike than I did my Campy bike, now that I think about it.

Anyway, at the end of the day I guess there are just too many variables to come up with a reasonable explanation and I knew that before asking this question. I did, however, seek the opinions of others and I look forward to more thoughts. Maybe with more insight, I can finally define a "grail bike" for myself and with any luck, maybe it will only cost me $50 I can hope, right?

Cheers,

-Collin-