Originally Posted by
wrk101
On Shimano, I use either RX100 or Shimano 105. Anything above that, the price starts going up. Anything below that is pretty crappy looking. Note, most of my groups come in the form of a complete bike. The really "sweet spot" is to find a bike with those components where you can sell the frame for what you paid for the complete bike. At that point, the group is "free".
+1 I did buy an 89 Schwinn Tempo for under $100, full 105, though one of the rims/hubs is not oem. 56cm frame is up for sale. Also, sloar got a lot of groupset offers with a WTB posting on the for sale thread. I bought a 9 speed Tiagra group and a tricolor group including rims, from listings on the for sale thread at good prices.