Is a Shimano Positron 10 speed shifter system complete with levers, solid cable & the rear deraileur that is made without any spings a valuable collectors item or just an interesting old part? By valuable I mean $25 or more.

Positron is not really been known to be collectable. Though that doesn't mean you couldn't sell it.

No.

Shimano Positron collectable?
HELL no.

you guys are not inspiring confidance in my almost newly completed Bianchi mixte project.

I would sell most of the bikes I have had with Positron on them for $25 as-is and be happy. So I guess my answer is no. =P

It is barely tolerable, not collectable. I would like to see the Dura-Ace FFS prototypes Shimano way back admitted they made though.

I would like to come across an FFS set-up too. Would be fun to try out.

Naturally, the collector's market being what it is, these bikes will become super valuable when people have finally thrown away most of them.

Maybe one day Pawn Stars will have someone walk in with a Huffy talking it up: "This fine bike has the first mass-market index system on the market!"

It looks like I am all alone on this one, I actually like the positron gear. I've had pretty good luck with it and have found that it works ok, even paired with a front freewheel. I'm not saying it's great or the even good... but I like it.

Its a funky setup, but it is a bit fun.

To the right person, almost anything can be of value. Difficulty is, in this case, there aren't too many people looking for such stuff. I'd guess that the whole shifter/cables/rd setup could fetch $25-$30 if you found someone who needed those parts.

I found a girl's Varsity with 24" wheels for an older petite lady and it had the Positron derailleur and the FFS. When I saw that stiff wire shift cable, I thought, who was the idiot that did that? Glad I didn't throw it away! System worked fine but clunky.

Most of the responces say it's not valuable/collectable because it doesn't work well. This raises an interesting question, does something have to work well to be colectable? For example a Ford Edsel is not a great working car but one in mint condition can be worth a lot of money.

Its a turd.

Edsels, while they were a flop, were pretty high end at the time. The FFS went on entry level bikes. More like Ford Pinto than Edsel.

Does something have to work well to be collectible? No. But it helps if it is rare, was found on higher end bikes (so someone restoring something special might want one), etc. The old plastic Simplex derailleurs come to mind. While not super valuable, they go for more than what better competitor products from the same era go for. In the case of the plastic Simplex, not rare (they made millions of them), but enough of them broke over the years, that they are getting less common (still see a lot of them).

But I bet you could get more than $25 for it on ebay. I had a friend sell a "broken toaster" on ebay once, paid for a new working one. And it wasn't rare or interesting, just broken. I sold a paperback book I bought on Amazon once after reading it. Sold for more than I paid at Amazon (started auction at 1 cent). Did it as a lark.

+1 to what wrk101 said. I do think it's an interesting point you made though. If anything, maybe the positron shift cables will be worth something at some point.