I: [CR] Interesting end to Moulton eBay auction

(Example: Bike Shops:R.E.W. Reynolds)

From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
Subject: I: [CR] Interesting end to Moulton eBay auction
To: Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 01:43:25 -0500

Brandon wrote:
> > We will all remember last weeks Moulton Speed auction
> > http://ebay.com/<blah
> > I just looked at the bid history and there seems to have been a very
> > interesting bidding war. In under 4 hours two people went back and
> > fourth more than doubling the price that anyone else was willing to
> > pay. Neither are regulars or known high bidders on classic or odd
> > bikes, so I wonder if this is just a really serious case of
> > one-upmanship taken to the extreme. Personally I think the auction
> > went about 3x higher than it should have. Anyone else care to
> > comment on this interesting auction?

to which Greg responded:


> Yup. I'll comment on it:
>
> Discriminating, savvy Japanese collectors are willing to pay large sums of
> money for very rare bicycles.....
>
> Even more so if two of them have at it on the same item.....
>
> They take a long-term view. It's like buying a Bugatti Royale: you can't pay
> too much for one, you can only pay it too soon.
>
> (Tom Monahan of Domino's Pizza fame here in Ann Arbor bought one many years
> ago for $8 million. People said he was nuts, until he sold it a couple years
> later for $12.5 million!)

I agree with Greg about savvy collectors. While the price is higher than I expected (I had expected the $4K barrier to be broken,) I don't think the price is absurd given the prices being paid for much more commonly available components ($1500 for a hub and cambio corsa gear! $1200 for Cinelli Bivalent hubs, Gaslo plugs, JOS lights...) Japan is the only country in the world where you can go into a department store and buy an Alex Moulton designed bike off the shelf (go to Takashimaya to see for yourself.) They have an appreciation for the Moulton designs virtually unknown here in the US. The bike in question is a very rare speed S not the merely uncommon speed 6. It also is a piece of cycling history in that it successfully went against so many historical 'truths'. If I am not mistaken, it was only subsequent to the building of the racing Moulton bikes that the UCI modified their regulations to make such bikes 'illegal.' Perhaps if the UCI had supported Moulton's revolutionary ideas, we would all now be riding similar bikes.

I think that one of the things that is much more telling is that there were 2 not overly experienced bidders going at each other. 44 bids of which half were made by two bidders.

After gettign $4400 for his Bianchi and now $6000 for the Moulton, the question is now: Will Carsten's Cinelli Laser do as well?

Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ

---