:o

Besides price there is often a very long wait.

+1...........I'm not that much of a risk taker at this point in my life.

The thought of coming home one day and finding the big dollar bike
parked on the driveway with a note that says, "Your key won't work,
I had the locks rekeyed," just does not appeal to me at all.

I have crossed the line and also sold across the line.

I've sold across the line, but not purchased.

Buying custom at this point.

I am sure I will never even cross the $1k line. There are just too many good diamonds in the rough for me to have to go much higher.

As I crossed it, I kicked it in the crotch and then spit on it.

Biking is booming again. More folks want bikes. A lot of them are looking at the value of a mid to upper range 70's or 80's steel bike, and see it as a solid, practical alternative to dishing out $1500 for a new bike. Thinking back on my own CL sales over the past year, every single buyer wanted something solid to commute on or to use as urban transportation. I'm actually surprised that $500 isn't the new normal for such bikes, and that you can still find a lot of good deals in the $200-ish range.

Also the rich are getting richer, and it just takes a handful of them worldwide interested in the same bike/component to drive prices through the roof on scarcer, high-end stuff.

You don't have to be rich to collect the higher end bikes...most of could afford a $2,000 bike if we decided to prioritize it and sacrificed other needless expenditures.

If you compare the prices of top end bikes to other collector markets, it's actually one of the few that the average Joe can afford to do...look at coin collecting prices...stamps...fire arms.

A few times, fortunately the existing bikes were much better values.

Oh absolutely. Not to mention guitars. I miss the days when you could buy a '65 Fender for under $500 at a music store.

I've never spent more than $400 and have had maybe 25 bikes in the past few years.

If I chose to have just one bike, a $2000 bike could be a possibility. My entire collection on 5 1/2 bikes(tandems count as a half?) comes in at about $2000 if I got fair market value for them. However I can not think of one bike I would trade them all for. I find more pleasure in having several bikes to choose from.

I get your point though. If I had 5 1/2 $2000 bikes my total investment would only be $11,000. Not an outrageous amount, but more than i would want to tie up in a hobby, because I don't use my bikes to commute with. At that point I would also need to start collecting firearms to protect it.

Or you could give something else up...drinking, gambling, whatever. I'm not remotely rich - I'm strictly middle class income. I can only afford this hobby because I don't drive and my taste in most other areas is pretty plebeian. I like bikes and I like to have fairly nice high tech...other than that, I'm pretty frugal. Not having kids helps.

I also funded a significant portion of what I have with bike sales a few years ago. I've been moving away from that for a variety of reasons.

Yeah, I was going to post something like this, but you worded it better. If anything, perhaps vintage bikes were due for a "correction" in price after being undervalued for so long.

That's pretty much it for me. If I can buy comparable new for less, I'll get new. The ride is much more important to me than the name. I've been getting into used/vintage bikes (mostly for the kids) because they're less then trying to find a new 20"wheel road bike for example. I think I've bought two new bikes in my life- one on the 70's, one in the 90's and I still have both.

Very true.

When I first got back into biking and wanted to upgrade from my old MTB, I went shopping for a roadie. Well, I was quickly blown away by the prices of even entry level bikes. Poor components, made-in-Taiwan no matter what brand was decaled on the tubes, and loud, garish plastic frames made me re-think the whole thing. So I stumbled into the C&V market on e-bay almost by accident, and I knew instantly that this was where I would find my roadie. Here were the bikes of my youth, cheap, plentiful and so many to choose from. It opened up a world of possibilities.

I'm glad I found this world...

A couple thoughts that may already be touched on somewhat:

the utility of a bike is a factor. any bike is gonna have a certain value simply "as a bike" vs. other "collectable" items.

service: if you're looking at prices of bikes that are basically in completely functional/serviceable condition, then there is a basic value that you ought to associate with a bike that won't need to be dropped off at the LBS for $100 of maintenance (and, thus, as labor rates may increase, so should the bottom dollar value of a bike...whether it's a Giant or Cinelli)

new bike prices. I watched this annoying phenomenon in the late 1990s when I was looking for a deal on a used Suburban. At the time, those vehicles had made a market shift from being work/utility trucks to being decked out/leather/power everything SUVs and the MSRPs were going through the roof...thus, the older ones had this period where their depreciation was being delayed due to the massive stretch in new prices. Along the same lines, as entry-level bike prices rise, the apparent value of a nice looking/nice functioning bike are inherently going to do the same.

As far as real collector values, meh! I have old bikes because I like the aesthetic, the design, the craftsmanship, the history, and (of course) the ride. The fact that they may hold their value (vs. depreciate massively for anything <25 years of ownership) is just a bonus I suppose. Like anything, I always try to look for a bargain & have invested in something an amount that I know I can pull back out if I decide to sell...but that's probably more for sport than a pressing necessity. I do have a friend or two who have massive collection of less-than-mainstream specialty antique cars. Their philosophy is that as long as they're bought "right" they present a solid place to hold your money regardless of the ebbs & flows of the market. (and, like us, they chose them because it's something they enjoy).

There's a local bike flipper who wears out CL with a non-stop barrage of $250 low end '80s road bikes that appear to be in only semi-serviceable condition. I see the same ads for long periods of time, so for the most part I doubt he's very successful moving them at the prices he asks. The interesting thing is that every few weeks or so, he'll have a bike that's probably a bit nicer or higher end and it's often similarly priced. I did see him move a mid-70s Raleigh Professional with a bad repaint and in poor shape for $500 locally and I'm still not sure how I feel about that (I mean, to me it seemed like a lot of money for the condition, but I could see others thinking that was the steal of a century).

For me, if i can get my money back either selling the bike as a whole or parting it out, I don't (and this is theoretical...not an open-ended offer to buy stuff!) have a problem with the purchase. If I end up viewing my bikes as a collection for which I must pull top dollar in sales, please shoot me.

I've crossed the line via flipping but I've never handed over $2k and I have sold across the line.

If there is a current resurgence in steel it will pass....just like the fixie/SS fad has passed.

Tulips, the South Seas, and the Mississippi company.......
 

Sometimes I think that the only thing keeping it going is the square footage of
available dry storage space in possession of the posters here on the C+V.:o

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Cards-Tree.png

But are you willing to drop $2k on the chance of getting your money back quick?

Well, for me that would theoretical. I guess what I mean is the actual dollar amount is irrelevant compared to the dollar amount verses some type of market value.