Personally, I am still surprised how reasonable most nice vintage bikes are. I grew up collecting antiques, and the originals often cost 5 to 10X their modern equivalent (knockoffs if you will). But look at the re-creation bikes being sold now (I am thinking in particular of the mixte and townie styles). A lot of them cost 5X what someone can buy a pristine original for. The originals certainly have a limited supply vs the new re-creations. Weird.

I caulk it up to uninformed buyers, and some people just want it NOW (and cost is not so important to me).

As far as the modern re-creations being made of better materials, lighter weight, etc., the same could be said of classic cars vs reproductions.

I have a self imposed limit on any one bike, no more than what an entry level LBS road bike sells for. Right now, that figure is about $800. I am astounded at what has been available under that mark, usually, way under that mark.

Sure there are the occasional rare models, where buyers get auction fever. But those are the exceptions.

A couple of years ago, we did have a bubble on SS conversions of POS vintage bikes. Hipsters were paying silly prices for them. Around here, that is now over.