Paramount value
OK, this isn't going to be a usual "what's this bike worth?" post. I'm asking for the group mind to bring me up to speed on a particular market. To wit:
The wife asked me to run to the nearby FoodLion to pick her up a box of wine. I take the Raleigh Sprite, but am wearing a Triumph motorcycle t-shirt. Realizing I've forgotten my key to the bike lock, I take the bike inside with me, park it by the shopping carts, grab the wine, run thru the register and I'm on my way back out the doors. A guy walking in comments, "That t-shirt should say Raleigh."
Immediate stop, he's barely looked at my bike and recognizes it? Of course we start talking. He's got (claimed) a '71 Paramount and a Waterford, plus another bike he'd like to sell. I give him my card.
Now, having realized long, long ago that I'd never own a Paramount (no, my PDG Paramount I built about five years ago doesn't count), I've never followed the market. Yes, I can already hear the objections, "You haven't seen the bike." Correct. What I'm asking is, what is the current market value of an early 70's Paramount? For the sake of argument, assume it's complete, hanging in the garage unused for years, but hasn't deteriorated badly. Something that a teardown, rubbing out the finish, and reassembly and tune would make rideable/sellable (it's a 25" frame, too tall for me).
If this guy gets back to me, I'd like to have an idea of what kind of ballpark I'm playing in. I know British 3-speeds and Rossins, not Paramounts.
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Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)