Well, I still find that price a little silly, but then I find the prices some people pay for art silly as well. I personally appreciate practical "art" - well designed clothes one can wear every day, architectural designs people actually live and work in, bicycles people actually ride. Paying big money for a box doesn't make sense to me, but then neither does a bike that only hangs on a wall, never to be used. However, those are only my values, affected not only by American culture, but by my personal background.
As to future prices making today's look cheap, we've been saying that for years, but it is happening only slowly and inconsistently. I have now accumulated enough stuff that I suppose I should hope prices do skyrocket, but somehow I hope things remain cheap so new people can enter the hobby a decade from now. I'd rather have the camaraderie than the windfall. Maybe you feel the same, as I note you didn't say you HOPE for much higher prices, just that you expect them.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
John wrote:
> John-
>
> I don't think it's dirty, dishonest, or absurd for the value of a
> collectable item to be increased with the addition of a box or other
> packaging. I suspect you're not a collector of old bikes or parts,
> because if you were, you may understand why someone would trade money
> for a paper box. One person's junk, is anothers treasure- don't you
> see? EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT VALUES-
>
> I believe that the intent of the buyer of the old box, is to match up a
> set of hubs with the correct box. Nothing more, nothing less.
>
> If it costs the guy over $100 to do that, so what? What's the big deal?
>
> My gut feeling is that in 10 years, we will look back on the prices that
> things are trading for now, and think that this is cheap!
>
> John Barron
> Minneapolis
>
> John Dunn wrote-
> Incredible? Yes, but wouldn't absurd be a more apt description,
> especially
> if, as someone implied, that this box would be used to bump the "value"
> of a
> set of hubs?
>
> John Dunn in Napa Valley