Originally Posted by
KonAaron Snake
. . . a lot of the time the value is just whatever you come to agreement with.
I think this true all of the time, not just a lot of the time, and for everything that is bought and sold, not just bikes. You see something in the store. You think "I'm not paying that much for that." You don't buy it. You have determined that item's value to you, or at least what it's value to you isn't. Any statement of something's value is only an estimate based on recent sales of similar items. The more recent sales in the particular market and the greater the similarity between items (up to being identical with brand-new mass-produced items), the more likely the estimate will be. Something like a Confente is rare enough and the finite number of examples dissimilar enough (size, frame geometry, color, condition, etc.) that any estimate is an educated guess at best.
Originally Posted by
markk900
BTW - flipping bikes is not in my mind an investment activity - it may be a good way to fund the hobby and in extreme cases may provide enough income to allow one not to work at other jobs, but is not in itself a way of generating a predictable return on your seed money.
Flipping is absolutely an investment activity. It is a short-term investment strategy. Nobody flips anything - bikes, homes, or anything else - with the idea of losing money. It is just a variation of "buy low, sell high." Nothing more, nothing less.