I noticed that too and assume it is because it is easier to work in steel. The pivot bolt has been cut and threaded and a new part has been made that screws into the pivot bolt to sandwich the stop. That piece threads into the drop-out. I have to say, the design is so elegant that I do not immediately think the seller is wrong. I am open to the possibility that it may be a factory prototype or even just an R&D piece done as a test that was never even considered a prototype for any real production. Simply, a "how are we going to incorporate a and adjustable parallelogram angle" type of exercise done in the factory machine shop. It's possible.

If you look at the first year C-Record you will see three different attempts at an adjustable b angle, none of which resembled the type on the SR derailleur being discussed (the only rear derailleur that was not adjustable was the Triomphe).

Wow, I get called uptight for MY rants.

I am pbbikes Barry Scott of Portland, OR.

Lets start with the derailleur being talked about. It's rare as hell, i think we all can agree, save for few who thought for a moment that it was an ICS like mod. Then someone looked closer and figured out that the Campy steel bolt was part of it. There are a few pics from the back that I have on another computer and will add. Its got a removable pin with a screw head, like the spring stop on any nr/sr derailleur (i think the parts typically called a grub screw, but I don't recall offhand)

The whole thing was made by Campy, i don't doubt it. I put hours and hours into searching and questions to others about it- no one's seen it before. And these are people who have played with this stuff for decades. I have seen one other person labeling it as some short lived attempt at adding the angle adjustability. Perhaps it was too early for that, and campy only made a few. perhaps there's a ton of these and campy never let them out for some reason (maybe they break, like first Gen C record stop) Maybe they were looking for replaceable stop option because a few mashers broke the typical tab of the sr/nr derailleurs but there just wasn't enough need? I really don't know.

I referenced the Japanese book, Campagnolo derailleurs, they have 11 variations of the Super record "2nd gen" derailleur but not this one. Everyone knows the japanese are some of the best collectors and have great eye for this stuff and all the subtle variations that most of could care less about, (check out Hi Campy's page) .

Your all correct , the price is ludicrous, I honestly have no idea if it will sell- nor do I care. Its created quite the stir, and fast. This thing has been sitting on my desk for the last month. I'm a hoarder. I love being surrounded by everything bike. My life is bike from waking til sleep. I don't ride or wrench as much as I used to, The collector geek side of me has taken full control. I get high of finding this stuff, I search every country I can, constantly, both online and in person. I make many friends in the process and no one is giving this stuff away, and haven't been for years.

So Invest crazy amounts of time and even more money; everything I make goes back into parts. In the end I may be the haggard man on an episode of hoarders who poops on the floor but has an immaculately kept collection of bikes and parts in the kitchen cupboards. yet to be seen.

I am very aware that my prices are extremely high and that this leaves most people unable to purchase the goods I have secured. Simple economics isn't the only reason. As rootboy pointed out in our conversation about China, these people are paying whack money for this stuff right now, it began about a year ago. Unless you're a seller on ebay or have dealings with these people, you cant see it, ebay hides id's so you can only speculate on what country the bidders from. I've been on the forum and read a lot for years, also I reference stuff here. Everyone is in agreement that when a rare GS rear goes for 5k, its the Japanese. So most people already know this. A couple years ago, the Southeast asians (all countries) started buying up my stuff at a crazy rate, they were a large percentage of my business.

I dont think Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, cambodia, and now China imported campagnolo in the vintage/classic days. So in these countries , the rarity is extreme. Not here where even the most modest collections have campy derailleurs kicking around. As the internet becomes more accessible, or maybe just ebay , these guys are buying direct with all kind of factors, currency conversion, true rarity, that weird nostalgic feeling you get when you weren't really there the first time, maybe that's just fascination.

That's one factor of my high pricing, people do buy this stuff, right now 50% foreign, another odd economic phenomenon is VAT. All the Euro countries are charging 21% value added tax, this is bringing in quick loot in taxes short term but drying up their own domestic sales. So now these guys in the Euro union are having trouble selling to each other because they're charged 21% more on top of asking price. So that $100 is actually $121+ if you buy from next door, If my part is $100 also , its a $100 plus shipping which doesn't always make it worth it -but a bucks a buck.

Plus this gear isn't rare in Europe, it was manufactured there, theres always some guy who finds a lot of Ideale saddles that are worth a fortune.

So I think that some of that market is coming directly to we US sellers as a result of that VAT tax & all kinds of economic problems in europe. Of course they have the asian market too.

It comes down to if someone will pay x why would I sell it for less? If it was easier I would. That brings me to the second "justification" of my prices. This business is run by myself and my wife (somewhat reluctant wife). If we are the only 2 doing almost everything and 20 packages a day is enough madness, then I cant drop my prices, because we couldn't keep up with packages . We had a sale before we left CA last year, i think it was 30% off, for october and it was madness. we could not keep up with packages, every question(of which I get maybe 25 a day on average) They take a bit of time,I cant even answer the how many grams or some measurement questions, not because I don't want to , but because I cant. Not enough time.

So supply and demand , cost of these new parts with inflation of the original cost in today's dollars (which sometimes that expensive parts was expensive in 1983 $ wen it was in high production, which should give a bit of premium for rarity aside from inflation of 32 years), how I would just love to please you all and be loved by everyone, its just not possible. There's a limit to what we can do without becoming a big biz like everyone else. We are truly mom and pop.

One more little tidbit, We are store that happens to be on ebay, not to be confused with an auction. Were convenient and fast. That justifies a premium.

There are are only a few of us that sell as stores and never auction anything off. The stuff only gets harder to find as the years go on. This means that there are 2 distinctly different price structures, so comparing my price (right there when you want it), with an item that no ones awake to snipe that day or the other side , where 17 guys battle it out and 1 win, 16 lose isnt a very good marker on where my price should be.

A few of you guys love to flame me, its the same few guys that love me enough to bring up my absurd asking prices in as many threads as they can with lots of lols and ha's .

I didn't set out to become a huge parts dealer, I rode and wrenched and got good at finding gear for my own bikes and bikes themselves, so this organically morphed into the pb bikes.

Oh and the reason people do sell to me is because i'm not a lowballer, i rarely complain about price , Im willing to take the risk of spending 10's of thousands of dollars at a time to get the gear i covet. If i cant do the price I walk away from negotiations without insulting the seller, in some cases this the case dealing with so many nationalities. That why i wake up daily with someone offering something, sometimes huge, guys in Itlay I havent dealt with in a few years come with deals because theyre tired and want out, they hate ebay, or the ruthless customers.

Oh ruthless customers , its been brought up that i have quite the tongue, yes I do. Im not always the most sane individual- but who is really? When you are bombarded with BS hate mail about your prices from people that aren't your customers that dont take really anything but the end price into consideration , it gets a little old and makes you grumpy. I can ignore most , but sometimes people get caught at the wrong moment. If im reading a rad thread about how much of ****** i am and someone sends me a 30% offer on a 60 year old nos part (coloneljlloyd- I wasnt sure what you were talking about so i went back to my email), I can be a jerk. Trust me I'd rather make friends and welcome corrections to my listing listing mistakes when thyere not laced with wankerness. So if I was a jerk and you didnt deserve such a response , im sorry.

Im a pretty reclusive guy , so its a shame that the only fame i receive is that im a ******bag for my boutique prices, even though thats pretty much what I am (a boutique, not a ******bag) If you cant or don't want to shop in my high priced store, I wish you the best in your search for deals, truly. I get high of scores. I know i have my part in driving prices up, its not intentional, I frequently make prices up when I dont really want to sell something, just look at the top $ stuff in my store - i know I will maybe never have it again, so we must enjoy our time together as long as possible.

So what has happened as a result of being too busy to deal with also being the shipping department , is that the parts are piling up and even I am at a point where i need to move stuff which means prices will drop. i dont want my wife to be stuck with this stuff, when i have heart attack due to working constantly. That said until I have shipping dept and someone can deal with lots of other aspects or I stop buying, the time isnt now. And frankly who cares, i love this gear as much as anyone, but its luxury goods, were all nerds who geek at the site of this stuff. We cant contain ourselves when we see the score of the year. I've almost passed out before.

I should probably move on with my day as the coffees obviously working and let you guys go back to hating on me. Sorry for getting in the way of you "REAL" collectors (sorry I couldnt resist.)

ciao

thats just stupid and untrue - to cycloteine about me trying to trick people, Thats not something i need to do and actually would cause problems for me as well. You know how ebay is.

and as my own edit and hopeful bowing out of this thread - some of my listings lack details, some stuffs just wrong, yes and there is some light keywording that ebay put a stop to, but the descriptions say what it is and Ive never ever had one person come at me saying i sold them something as something else. 10,000+ transactions on ebay the odds are in my favor there and if I were to check back at Cycloteine, rootboy, and a few others, i could find my name or links to my absurd listings in your posts, many complaining about different reasons Im a wanker.

I would love to be a part of this community , since I think I have some stuff to offer aside from my parts for sale. My own time restrictions typically and the fact that some will start a fight and make accusations about anything i say kinda keeps me away

Cool. Thanks.

Well Well Barry!
I kept your ID a secret but now you came clean!

One correction.

EU and taxes.

I being in Finland (EU) can buy anything from another EU country and do not have to pay additional taxes on arrival.

Now If I buy an item from you(or anywhere outside of EU), you filled out the customs declaration correctly....I get called up by Finnish customs to come down and pay the taxes which is around 26% of the items value and the postage fees.
the gift thing only goes so far-they are in the business of squeezing every last shekel out of a resident of Finland
anything over 20 euros worth they want money.
(remember Robin Hoods beef? very true around here)

I am awaiting your reply on other business matters-mike

HA! I saw a BADLY used Bianci (dirty, rusty, non matching wheels, but mostly there) at a second-hand/thrift store....no price on it, so I asked....they had to round up the "Bike Person". I ask HIM how much....he starts off with, "Well, it's a $1,000, HIGH quality bike", I retort that about the only thing good on it was the frame, and NOT being my size, not worth $100 to me, and I just walked.....with a starting $1000....um....RIGHT!!!!! Yes, his right to ask whatever he wants, and a fool and their money are easily parted!

Thank you Mike for the correction, My knowledge of this only goes so far and I welcome someone with daily experience to set me straight. I frequently think i know whats going on but don't , well sort of still. How the VAT plays a role in our world and the economics of it is something I need to pursue more before putting my theories out there .

I was just going to post about the derailleur that started this post.

I just gently disassembled the whole bolt mech, yes that little bolt is actually a bunch of pieces with a spring inside. I added a bunch of pictures also to the listing .

Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken but the bolt and all the other stuff in the bolt mech seems to be stainless, its extremely lovely, unlike the other steel bolts we usually see.

You are right. I do sincerely apologize. It clearly states lower down in the description that they are victory/triomphe. I will delete my post.

Also, I appreciate your position and your responding to this thread. I do believe that the Super Record derailleur may be from the Campagnolo factory/development shop. No one can disprove it or prove so we have a unique piece that seems of campagnolo quality modification. If you a collector has the money, then why the hell not!

That is incredible. The use of steel makes sense now that we see the smaller diameter threaded piece.

What a lot of people dont realize is how time consuming it is to sell in quantity.....20 packages a day is madness. And the nonsense emails....sometimes it seems like the more info I put into my ads the more questions I get.

Thanks for posting, your comments are very informative. And yes, there're ****ing ****** bags on every forum.

Bottom line is, whether notoptube (pb*bikes) realizes it, admits it or not, his and other sellers doing the mega pricing in their auctions for the otherwise close to run of the mill stuff, drive the pricing on components up in an accelerated way when other sellers see their auctions and do the copycat thing on the prices. I understand that sellers like pb*bikes might need to do this to support their particular sales/profit structures, but then all of a sudden so many things become unaffordable for C&V bike builders/restorers/riders. Just in the last couple of years I've seen prices jump up to over double on many different components when these mega pricers suddenly popped up. Yes, the prices on the other auctions usually go down again after their items don't sell for a while, but they do not go down to what most would think they should be at or reasonable as the pricing boost affect seems to be hard to totally shake off once they first tried to sell at the super high prices. so the net affect on C&V component buyers is negative....
I just want it back to the days before wallet busting $220 Mavic NOS 851 RDs, $100 NOS TA waterbottles, $100 NOS TA and REG Cages, $250 NOS Mavic handlebars, $250 Mavic stems, $100 NOS Stronglight 107/106 chainrings, ....those little Universal brake lever adjusters (ever see he latest prices on just the small hoods for them?) ever existed at eBay..I'm sure it's even worse with Italian components these days.
Just about three/four years ago, I did not have trouble finding and buying most of these things at easily 1/3rd the price or less......now they are just mostly unaffordable....No, not rare, but just always priced way too high now....so my component stash box is slowly but surely emprtying quickly as I cannot afford to replenish what I use lately anymore.
JMOs

Chombi

Chombi,

regardless of me, the stuff hasnt been produced in years and years. Less available obviously means higher price, my own stash of certain parts is gone as well. YOu know this.

To cry about the prices you got 3 years ago, just doent make sense, other than sentiment. I could do the same, the stuff and prices I could find years ago, i cant get now. Gets passed on. So you take shots at me whenever you get a chance, but know half the time, I see a negative comment, the stuff sells anyway. So what does that say.

Stuff I used to sell regularly,gone. Supply and demand 25-30 years. frankly from a business standpoint I cant believe stuff was over run and over ordered this much to make it last this long. If i go back to the same guys from 3 years ago, half of the distributors have become dealers . If theres anything left, the prices are through the roof, so much that I cant even buy some and sell at my high prices. So not only more people dealing, whole other countries competing for an ever dwindling stash.

You can blame it on whoever you want, if your not out there securing the stuff, or spending all of your money on it, then its gone. Blame yourself. Anyone could have been doing this, many are, many that throw stones too...

These are luxury goods, you dont need 10 bikes with Mavic handlebars, you dont need NOS anything, are you riding NOS parts? To me thats crazy, this stuff is traded, plenty of used nice parts, of which You dont see me dealing in much, but my bikes are loaded with them. i dont care if you think you need all this stuff. Its art, not performance gear for today, been collected for ever by some. BMX is crazier , has been. MTB getting nutty too. grab what you can.

If you really need this stuff to ride, you have lots of guys to support, Velo orange, compass bikes, Mike Kone, Some of those guys were the dealing predecessors. Go buy Greg Parkers Bicycle classics stash if you think its so greatly priced.

You are not keeping up with the market. I cant imagine how many people are messing with this stuff right now, getting harder for the next gen.

My facebook page , almost all young Thailanders.

Sorry we messed up your good time of cheap parts

That argument is old and doesnt mean anything, the markets huge. You want it back to the old days. who doesnt?

Ha, ha. I think I got a couple off that card for 10. because no one else bid!

My general point is, they are not rare. they are definitely mostly still out there. Just for example, I have not seen so many Mavic 851 RDs pop up at eBay for sale in the last couple of years. There where hardly any for auction at eBay two/three years ago (most likely because the sellers and buyers just did not really notice them yet.) and when they did pop up, I could get them for about $100 easy WITH a matching NOS FD. Same with Mavic handlebars. Heck the two NOS ones I bought a little more than two years ago cost me about 40 bucks each, I now see more Mavic handlebars for auction at eBay than I ever did, but for three times the price now. Before that So, sorry I cannot buy into your theories of supply and demand causing the dramatic price rise.
I don't think I'll ever convince you otherwise and more power to you if you want to sell at your prices and be able to do so with the deep pocket collectors from the far east, but that's the facts on my side and it's all pretty simple and obvious IMO.

Chombi

Regarding the MAvic stuff, I just paid more than you mention for bars and stems a few days ago. Not NOS either. Paid a buttload from Hilary Stone , that awesome GBP conversion tricks me every time. USed stuff for my own projects too.

Theres so many stocks still sitting around, Spain is flooding the market with stuff, I suspect the Mavic has always been coveted by some, me! But maybe as a general rule , it was overlooked . Look at track bikes, Some of the craziest prices years ago, the whole market shift toward fixiedom , You cant give that stuff away now. Guess what , perfect time for me to collect it. Not for the re-re-birth but because its rad and the demand is down, Die hard track racers and collectors probably felt shafted during that period. Track Bikes are awesome whether cool or not, and you can actually buy the stuff now. again. All the new production stuff is keeping people new to the bike world something top get into versus competing with you. Not to mention, the stuffs better for riding on the road, unlike some agressive track bike.

Im an end user as well. You wont ever convince me , and thats fine, I dont need convincing or you to love me. Just every once in a while its nice to pop and say "hey guys , theres more than meets the eye" I not dr. evil trying to keep parts out of the hands of anyone. Not judging what you collect, how much you pay, whatever. there was a time when I was squeezing for craiglist scores. love swap meets , still love swaps. You want to continue to post sweet stuff about my prices , more power to you. I already agreed , theyre high, sometimes Im not my own customer. My store is aboutique and theres no doubt, if i would have never gone this direction, someone one else would have the gear. Or perhaps it would still be hidden.

It doesnt seem really fair (which who really cares) That i will spend my day from 6am today until 12:30 doing something with bikes, almost nonstop everyday. I stop for food and coffee occasionally, work deals all day long, constantly trip over my own stuff. The other day my chiropractor asked what i did for fun , I said I mess with bikes, she laughed because thats my job. So if Im spending upwards of 12 hrs a day 7 days a week, and your browsing ebay (i dont know what you do) Why would you have any say in market price. even at my prices , my hourly wage probably sucks, my lack of healthcare does. I love what i do but sometimes, i wish i could come home from work at 4 and stop working, i cant .

When I was younger and loved to indulge my beer tooth, my own mom, used to raz me about my champaign taste and pbr budget (actually it was Genesee) i grew up pretty poor in central PA . Still to this day , noones kicked any loot my way. I wanted a MAsi, found away to get it. Dont think I complained that much. probably some.

I have few customers who have been buying from me for a good while. I have a beat up website that i never finished and the prices are mostly out of date. The guys who can ask for a better price nicely (what i consider reasonable) or are buying many items from me get a better price. I talk with a couple guys on the phone for an hour or more in a pop, guys ive never met in person, they give me project lists and I try and find parts either in my own stash or when Im searching abroad . Sometimes all it takes is to ask nicely. I should compile a list of all the rude words i get about my prices while being asked to sell it cheaper. A bunch of matter of fact stuff. Its akin to spitting at me and shaking my hand.

im young, 37 years old in this bares all - tellall. The knowledge these guys have and the stories are killer. These guys dont go to ebay , some of them call or email and say I need this or that, i do my best to be fair .

Probably some of you guys have met me here or there or will in future, Youll see that im not too much of a D@@@ maybe thats self delusion.

Allright now im tired and need an IV of coffee , so this last one may have turned into a rant. Sorry for the lack of clarity, spelling, punctuation. Gotta go move some bike parts, literally out of my way.

ciao

no that wasnt me, some guy was selling them for $10, if i was trying to keep the market in my favor, i would have snatched them up. I saw them and left them . Yes I know how sweet of me.

sorry I need to reply with quote.

Barry, if I may, Thanks for taking the time to address this forum. For what it's worth, we met briefly and have exchanged communications a few times here and there, and you've always been a gentleman during our dealings. Yes, I think your prices are too high, but you say as much yourself. Maybe you are helping to driving prices up, but the same can be said about your customers and it's a free market. We've all got bills to pay and mouths to feed. If you are moving product I can't afford, then it must mean that my pockets aren't deep enough. More power to you.

I still think individual component prices on campagnolo are far below what they were 6-7 years ago with the exception of the crazy nos stuff. That was the height of the fixie craze an beat up pista cranks were selling for over $200 without a chainring. Someone was trying to sell a set of nuovo record derailleurs in the for sale thread for under $50 shipped. That same RD would have sold for $100 easy in 2007. Just thought I would point this out and I have pointed it our repeatedly. Unfortunately, I did a lot of buying as that was when I first got the bug, but I cashed out before the end of 2008 on most of my surplus. I paid more to build my three vintage bikes than I could get for them in today's market, but it's okay. I learned a lot and I will hang onto them.

I read the additional posts to this thread late last night and spent some time thinking about it. I figured I'd better check in as I am one of the ones who have criticized pb*bikes for his pricing. I too would like to thank Barry for checking in here and responding to this thread, and especially for helping to keep it civil. It would have been easy to tell all of his detractors to Eff off and I respect him for not doing so. And I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read his views and take them into consideration. It always helps when formulating an opinion to have more information. Some of this information has opened my eyes a bit. Such as the fact that this seems to be the sole form of livelihood for you and your wife, Barry. That must be a tough thing to do, strictly selling NOS parts and I respect that too. If I were in that position I think I'd try to maximize my profit on every item too.
But here is where my view diverges.

My main critique has always been based on what Chombi elucidated in his post. I've always admitted that my view of this high pricing is based on an ideal that probably has no place in the mind of a businessman. I fully admit it is a naive viewpoint, but I do believe there is a community of people who share an interest and passion for vintage bikes and parts and, more to the point, that this super high pricing does a disservice to this community. It is not, of course, the responsibility of pb*bikes to serve this community by offering up admittedly scarce NOS parts to it for less than current market value, whatever that might be. PB*bikes is a business and as such its responsibility is to itself. To survive and prosper. But I also value the community, for lack of a better term. And I think this super high pricing does hurt this community's ability to sustain and maintain the objects of their interest by helping to influence overall pricing of vintage parts to levels that might make it no longer a viable option to keep these fine old bikes on the road. That could be over-stating it a bit but I think my point is clear.

I know this concept of a community of vintage bike enthusiasts who have an altruistic allegiance to one another might seem naive and goofy to some. Granted. And I realize that sellers of vintage parts have no real interest or motivation to strengthen or service this allegiance. I do not expect this. Nor do I expect them to adjust their pricing based on this common interest. But I would like to think that reasonable pricing for vintage items could serve both the interests of the businessman and the customer. Then again, if you can and have sold a widget for a certain price, "X", who am I to suggest that you ought to sell it to anyone else for "Y" ? None of my business I guess and as I've already said, it's your stuff and you can, of course, put whatever price you want on it. The problem I see here though is that if one or two high end collectors pay 3 or 4 times what this part has generally, recently sold for by other sellers, the price point for the next one immediately becomes X times 3 or 4. Can I blame you? Nope. But what this pricing philosophy does, in effect, is price the 95% of those below the few high end collectors out of the market. On your parts, anyway. More important though, I think it influences sellers with similar products to believe that X times 3 is the new "value" of said product. Thus driving up pricing across the board. A specious argument? Perhaps. And I fully admit it is just my personal theory. "Value" is a nebulous concept at best.

I have to admit that I am not a big consumer of these products. An argument could be made that if I'm not, then why b**ch? Good point and I have considered that. I think it goes back to this sense of community. I've witnessed this community many times right here. A member recently sent me a nearly new early Record crown race for nothing. Another member sent me a couple of Nuovo Record derailleurs, also for no charge. Now, these were not NOS parts to be sure but it illustrates what I mean by a sense of community. What does this have to do with market prices on NOS parts? Nothing.
Only to express that I value this community highly and that I will speak out when I see a trend that I think might affect this group of like-minded people, and their best interests, negatively. Idealistic and silly, eh?

I will disagree with you on one point Barry. You stated above that using NOS parts was crazy, to paraphrase. But there are many, many vintage bikes out there that, in order to be serviced and used, need new parts as they wear out. As I mentioned, I recently purchased a NOS Record head set from Bicycle Classics. It would make no sense to remove one used head set only to replace it with another used one. Sometimes NOS parts must be used. Some collect them. Some use them, out of necessity.

On the subject of Asian collectors. I can appreciate that there is a growing population of newly prosperous people, in China specifically. A whole new generation of potential collectors, and some have a lot of money. I've realized in the last couple of years that many of the small articles I collected while living in Beijing are now worth, in China, ten to 20 times what I paid for them in the early nineties. If this is a new reality in the vintage bike parts market I'm going to have to adjust to it. So be it. And I can fully understand that these market influences may affect the pricing of your goods, Barry.

OK. Again, thanks for checking in here Barry. I appreciate your input. Although I suspect my criticisms could have been construed as a personal attack, I hope they weren't. I have called into question your motivations but I do realize, and respect, that you are a businessman and must do what you will to thrive. My views mostly have to do with the "spirit" of the vintage bike community and I'm fully aware that that has little or nothing to do with business.
But I believe the two can coexist and overlap.


Scott

And the Nobel Peaceprice goes to:

Bikeforums - Classic & Vintage and pb*bikes!


*sorry, but I genuinely appreciate the way this thread is going...

Nice posts Scott (rootboy) and Gaucho. I agree andI applaud Barry for taking the time and having the guts to post a well-toned and reasoned view from his perspective.

For me, the assemblage is too "swiss watch" delicate and complicated, it is unique, but there is no evidence that it was fabricated in house by Campagnolo. Maybe produced to a special request of a national team (for some reason). Big Maybe. If one looks up the patent applications of Campagnolo in the early 80's they were churning through the ideas most likely to find an alternative to the Suntour slant parallelogram design that they could patent. Go through those patent applications and lots of derailleur designs that never saw the light of day can be found, but nothing like this fabrication.

Campagnolo "skunk works"??...maybe....
Anyway, aside from Titanium at the pivot bolt, I don't think the upper pivot design was something they really poured too much attention too, so if anything, this was definitely a one-off from the company or anyone else out there that might have needed it for a specific frame/gearing configuration.....I guess i'm pretty much repeating what repechage said above....

Chombi

It's interesting to note that the derailleur has a 1982 patent date. Simplex had brought out their first parallelogram rear derailleur with a sprung top pivot in 1961. That's just over 20 years. What was the patent limit in Europe? SunTour's slant parallelogram patent ran for 20 years, so maybe this is a similar case and Campagnolo just wanted to see how a sprung upper pivot version would perform, now that a patent may have run out? The only other sprung upper pivot derailleurs that I'm aware of were Shimano's, which had the Servo Panta mechanism. They may have gotten around the Simplex patent somehow or simply paid a fee to Simplex. I have no proof, it's just speculation, but the timing sure is interesting.