Have you ever received a gift so huge you felt you could not take it?
 

I just received a vintage lovers pandora's box of parts + frame&fork. My quandary is I don't think my brother&sister-in-law really knew what they were giving me.

The box is full of early 1980's Shimano 600EX (6207 series), Dura-Ace EX and Campagolo parts. Among the many items of never been used, still in wrappers and still in the box:

(1) Shimano 600EX front chainwheel 52/42 with bottom bracket and bearings
(2) Shimano 600EX brake calipers and levers with immaculate gummed hoods, cables and ss housing
(3) Shimano 600EX 36H hubset with quick releases
(4) Shimano 600EX front derailleur
(5) Shimano 600EX rear deraileur
(6) Various shift levers including Shimano 600EX, Dura-Ace EX and Campagnolo to be used as either clamp-on or braze-on
(7) Dura-Ace EX seat pillar
(8) Cinelli Domino stem 110mm
(9) Shimano 600EX 6sp freewheels; two of them 13-14-15-16-17-18, another 13-15-17-20-24-28
(10) Suntour Perfect freewheel; 13-14-15-17-19-21, gold in color. Perfect condition
(11) Shimano 600EX pedals and clips. Perfect
(12) Two sets of Shimano 600EX headsets

I could keep going. Campy toe clips of various sizes. Campy Record front derailleur, NOS Shimano 600 uniglide chains, Ofmega pedals and many other small parts such as Modolo sintered brake pads from 1983. I mean noone would use them for ripping their rims apart but they are NOS and marked "World Champions 1983".

To top it off he had already given me a beautiful NOS blue Basso Gap frame last year. This year he gives me a metallic black 1984 Basso Gap frame. The dropouts all say Basso on them. Basso in gold lettering on the detail work. The remainder of the frame decals are still in an envelope waiting to be applied.

I have never seen a black Basso Gap. I have to think it is almost one of a kind. The chrome is perfect and only a few paint chips accrued over the last 30 years.

Sure, I could buy some rims and a vintage handlebar and build this bike but I am not sure I could ever ride it.

Frankly, I need an expert or two to help me price this out offline. I want to put the hard numbers to my in-law's and tell them that this could be a nice down payment on college tuition for their son.

I am guessing someone will say this needs to go over to the other vintage site for pricing, but I'm hoping to catch the eye of some vastly more educated long-time vintage experts who might avoid that forum and Basso frame owners to help me out with the parts and the frame set.

If someone responds I will post detailed pics. Maybe the best thing is to just mothball this stuff for another 10 years and sell it then to help with the college expenses.

I've already eyeballed some retail pricing on ebay for the components. The retail pricing quickly grows to a big number.

No I do lots of nice things so should you

I think you'll get your best pricing indicators from ebay. Then price the stuff accordingly, buy a membership here for twelve bucks, and post them in the C&V for sale section. A deserving crowd, and no ebay fees.

rid yourself of the guilt....send the stuff to me!

You received a wonderful gift from family. Do your duty and start building nice bikes with this stuff. Stop with the "I don't think I could ride it nonsense, mount up! Make sure you build brother and sister in law bikes too. If he's giving you Basso Gap frames on a regular basis, he knows what he's giving you.
Quick man, have at it!

Use some of the parts for your projects, sell some of the parts to us for good deals, buy them a gift in thanks with the proceeds.

So... what's keeping you from building up the Bassos? Your brother keeps trying to encourage you, if I'm not mistaken.

If he had a couple Basso's and all those high end parts, he knew what he was giving you. He could have sold them on ebay. He gave them to you so you would use them. So build up those Basso's and then figure put what to do with the leftovers.

give me your brother in law's number i'll take care of the problem :)

Only feel guilty if you sell the stuff and don't offer to split the $ with them or at least buy them a nice gift.

If they gave it to you with the understanding you would keep or use it and you sell it without their knowledge...that's a dick move (not in any way suggesting that is your intention).

Just take the stuff and use or sell it to make it usefull. This is what expectied when friends or family members give stuff to bike guys. They have no clue what yo do with it and would rather it go to good use.

Why not build up the bikes, sell the leftover parts, and put that money into an account or investment of some sort for their sons college fund. Make good use of the bikes you build up, and if the need is really there when their son reaches college, you can always sell one of the bikes or part it out and put that money towards his college education. You would still end up with at least one very nice bike and feel you were doing the right thing, based on your feelings. I don't know how old their son is, so this is based on the assumption he his not yet of college age.

Watch their kids every now and then so they can go out to dinner alone together.

Unless the gifters are poor, AND have no idea of the value of the gift they have bestowed on you, It just sounds like they love you, understand your interests, and want you to be happy.

Problem?

If they really are poor, then sell the lot on eBay for maximum profits and take an agent's fee of 15% of the proceeds, and give them the rest. But since you're the one who who wastes his time mucking about with old bicycles, I'm guessing they're more well off than you.

I agree, they know what they're handing you. Build the bikes and give one to your brother-in-law or kids to ride. He'll appreciate it more considering he probably doesn't have the time to do the build himself.

Retail pricing on ebay? For items actually SOLD? Or just silly, crazy listing prices. Hopefully you have been looking at completed auctions that sold. The rest of the pricing on ebay is nonsense.

Ignore what people are asking on ebay. That is meaningless. There are always a handful of dreamers on ebay (first 50 listings per month are free) that post silly sky high prices. Then some newb sees these prices, and joins in on the nonsense. Those items rarely/never sell.

And everything on ebay is about condition: NOS? With original box? Or lightly worn? Or whatever? Willing to ship internationally, or limited to one country? All of this has a huge impact on prices.

Finally on ebay you have the god of variance. Even with a great ad, some items go silly high, some go low, and some in between. Hang on for those swings, and do not expect to get the top price wise. And do you have a proven track record of selling on ebay, with perfect, pristine feedback? Buyers want to buy from "safe" sellers. And sellers with a long track record tend to go out of their way to maintain it.


If their son has earned income, buy him a Roth IRA. No earned income, consider a 529 account instead. Split proceeds 50/50 (if it is a lot of money, make it 25% you, 75% them). Bad bike karma if you just pocket the $$, even though it was a gift.

The thing to consider is what you can do with your hands and time to repay the favor.

Yes. It's all about good Karma.

+1

If my inlaws gave me a Frameset and parts, they would want me to build it and ride it. I don't care if it was nos. I would just have a really nice bike to ride.

Remember because something has great value to you doesn't mean it has value to the next person..Your family likely just had the stuff laying around and knew you liked it.

That stuff you listed off have no real value to me either.

Thanks for the opinions folks. To Germany_Chris I get your point. I know a lot of the C&V'ers prefer Campy on their bikes so seeing a bunch of NOS/NIB Shimano 600EX and Dura-Ace means nothing to them. Others want a bike full of Suntour parts.

A good problem for me is that I have 7 bikes and room for only 5. The last 2 years I have been searching for a nice mixte frame. Last night I disassembled one of my bikes and boxed it up. I am drifting to preserve the black Basso frame and the components. That way I'll have a spare that is nicer than the one I am riding and enough retro parts to build it out. I'll take the hubset and get a nice wheelset built for that happy time in the future when I do the build.

Meanwhile, I'll continue my search for a nice Japanese mixte frame.

I don't think all that is too nice of a gift to accept. If you really feel bad about taking it, sell it all on ebay and give your fam some of the money.

Agreed, I don't see this adding up to a significant figure (college is pretty darn expensive these days.) Build up the Basso and show us some photos :)

I agree with this. Would your family be upset if they knew about the value of this stuff? Does someone else who might have a claim to this stuff need money for something important? Are you being sneaky at all? If not then I say it's yours no problem, but I personally would feel a responsibility to do something nice with the windfall.

I once had a band mate/good friend buy a roughly $1k guitar for me as a gift. We were both mostly poor at the time. Though I really wanted to I wouldn't accept it -- it was too generous. I'm glad I didn't take it, though there wouldn't be any hard feelings if I had.