Re: [CR]Ti Ideale 90 sold....

Chuck,

I've tried to rationalize spending $100 on a handlebar that origionally sold for $15 by telling myself that today's top of the line bars now cost $100. I was kidding myself that a used old-logo 66-42 was somehow the same thing as a brand-new 200 gram heat treated handlebar. One is for collecting and one is for someone else to buy for racing. My point is that all attempts to wedge prices of vintage bike parts into some sort of rational framework are pretty much a waste of energy.

New Corollas in GT-S trim sell for over $21K. If we use Corolla prices as a proxy for changes in the costs of goods and services in general we have a %1400 increase in the cost of living between 1977 an 2001. Applying this factor, it looks like the saddle should run about $1500. Of course, there are all sorts of problems with this approach. Foremost among these problems is that there is simply no comparison between '77 and '01 Corollas. Cars in general have improved drastically during this time in performance, durability, convenience, safety, environmental costs, etc. This is a problem that the Bureau of Labor Statistics wrestles with constantly when computing the Consumer Price Index. I believe they refer to it as quality adjustment. It is a particularly difficult issue with things like computers and cars.

Another problem is that the Corolla is not even the same class of car as it was in 1977. What was once an econobox is now about the highest-performance front wheel drive sports compact on the market.

Finally, it is not possible to account for the "collectability" of products when assesing the rationality of price changes through time.

This is not meant to be an attack on what was obviously a casual comparison on your part. It is intended to (possibly) get listers to give some thought to what it is that controls the prices of this stuff we all buy.

Tom Dalton