There are some frames that I buy knowing I will probably not build them up. I have bought and sold quite a few, and I know by now that the great majority will never be built up by me. My appreciation for bike frames is more an immense awe of the craftsmen that built the frames and the beauty that I see in the frames. While I have no qualms about them being built up and ridden lots of miles by me or someone else, I still see them as functional and rideable works of art.

Sometimes I see a frame for sale that I have never actually seen in person, and I end up buying it. I remember the old Colorado Cyclist catalogs with the stunning pictures of Bassos and Tommasinis. I remember the Bicycle Guide reviews of Marinoni's and IF when it first started. Once I got some of these bikes I thought them even prettier than the pictures, so when another one came along it was easy to want to buy it.

I am also a bargain buyer, and part of the fun for me is the looking for and finding frames that are what I think of as values. I know it was hard for me to pay full retail for the Habanero ti frame I bought a few months back, and it took me a couple of years to break down and do that. I see so many great frames at what I think are prices much less than their worth that I end up buying them.

Sometimes I get them and think they are so nice, especially the NOS ones, that I think about how pleased someone else would be who has been looking for just such a bike. I had a beautiful NOS 50th Anniversary Schwinn Paramount with the gold fork, but I knew that if I built it that I would someday sell it. I thought that someone who had an appreciation for such a bike would love to be the first to build and ride it. I could see them so proud to be out on a ride with his friends as the metallic candy apple red frame and gold fork sparkled in the sun. I knew even if I built it I would eventually sell it, so decided to let someone else be the first and they could tell me about it.

I have to sell most of the frames I buy eventually because I don't have room for them all, plus I have to sell stuff to buy other stuff ;-) It is a relatively inexpensive hobby and I enjoy both seeing the frames myself, building up a few and riding them, and getting to see them go to other folks who are so appreciative of nice frames.