My local vintage guru, Quas at Village Schwinn in Somers Point, NJ tells me that the $12K is no an unusual price for a Rene Herse in excellent condition. According to Quas, similar bikes in smaller frame sizes often fetch that much and more from Japanese buyers. If I recall, the late 50's Campy crankset went for over $3K and the same era Campy RD also went for over $3K, both to Japanese bidders earlier this year.