I read the additional posts to this thread late last night and spent some time thinking about it. I figured I'd better check in as I am one of the ones who have criticized pb*bikes for his pricing. I too would like to thank Barry for checking in here and responding to this thread, and especially for helping to keep it civil. It would have been easy to tell all of his detractors to Eff off and I respect him for not doing so. And I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read his views and take them into consideration. It always helps when formulating an opinion to have more information. Some of this information has opened my eyes a bit. Such as the fact that this seems to be the sole form of livelihood for you and your wife, Barry. That must be a tough thing to do, strictly selling NOS parts and I respect that too. If I were in that position I think I'd try to maximize my profit on every item too.
But here is where my view diverges.

My main critique has always been based on what Chombi elucidated in his post. I've always admitted that my view of this high pricing is based on an ideal that probably has no place in the mind of a businessman. I fully admit it is a naive viewpoint, but I do believe there is a community of people who share an interest and passion for vintage bikes and parts and, more to the point, that this super high pricing does a disservice to this community. It is not, of course, the responsibility of pb*bikes to serve this community by offering up admittedly scarce NOS parts to it for less than current market value, whatever that might be. PB*bikes is a business and as such its responsibility is to itself. To survive and prosper. But I also value the community, for lack of a better term. And I think this super high pricing does hurt this community's ability to sustain and maintain the objects of their interest by helping to influence overall pricing of vintage parts to levels that might make it no longer a viable option to keep these fine old bikes on the road. That could be over-stating it a bit but I think my point is clear.

I know this concept of a community of vintage bike enthusiasts who have an altruistic allegiance to one another might seem naive and goofy to some. Granted. And I realize that sellers of vintage parts have no real interest or motivation to strengthen or service this allegiance. I do not expect this. Nor do I expect them to adjust their pricing based on this common interest. But I would like to think that reasonable pricing for vintage items could serve both the interests of the businessman and the customer. Then again, if you can and have sold a widget for a certain price, "X", who am I to suggest that you ought to sell it to anyone else for "Y" ? None of my business I guess and as I've already said, it's your stuff and you can, of course, put whatever price you want on it. The problem I see here though is that if one or two high end collectors pay 3 or 4 times what this part has generally, recently sold for by other sellers, the price point for the next one immediately becomes X times 3 or 4. Can I blame you? Nope. But what this pricing philosophy does, in effect, is price the 95% of those below the few high end collectors out of the market. On your parts, anyway. More important though, I think it influences sellers with similar products to believe that X times 3 is the new "value" of said product. Thus driving up pricing across the board. A specious argument? Perhaps. And I fully admit it is just my personal theory. "Value" is a nebulous concept at best.

I have to admit that I am not a big consumer of these products. An argument could be made that if I'm not, then why b**ch? Good point and I have considered that. I think it goes back to this sense of community. I've witnessed this community many times right here. A member recently sent me a nearly new early Record crown race for nothing. Another member sent me a couple of Nuovo Record derailleurs, also for no charge. Now, these were not NOS parts to be sure but it illustrates what I mean by a sense of community. What does this have to do with market prices on NOS parts? Nothing.
Only to express that I value this community highly and that I will speak out when I see a trend that I think might affect this group of like-minded people, and their best interests, negatively. Idealistic and silly, eh?

I will disagree with you on one point Barry. You stated above that using NOS parts was crazy, to paraphrase. But there are many, many vintage bikes out there that, in order to be serviced and used, need new parts as they wear out. As I mentioned, I recently purchased a NOS Record head set from Bicycle Classics. It would make no sense to remove one used head set only to replace it with another used one. Sometimes NOS parts must be used. Some collect them. Some use them, out of necessity.

On the subject of Asian collectors. I can appreciate that there is a growing population of newly prosperous people, in China specifically. A whole new generation of potential collectors, and some have a lot of money. I've realized in the last couple of years that many of the small articles I collected while living in Beijing are now worth, in China, ten to 20 times what I paid for them in the early nineties. If this is a new reality in the vintage bike parts market I'm going to have to adjust to it. So be it. And I can fully understand that these market influences may affect the pricing of your goods, Barry.

OK. Again, thanks for checking in here Barry. I appreciate your input. Although I suspect my criticisms could have been construed as a personal attack, I hope they weren't. I have called into question your motivations but I do realize, and respect, that you are a businessman and must do what you will to thrive. My views mostly have to do with the "spirit" of the vintage bike community and I'm fully aware that that has little or nothing to do with business.
But I believe the two can coexist and overlap.


Scott