After le Cirque, I continued to northeastern Ohio to visit my parents. There is a bike shop there that closed in the late 1980's (I would guess). I was able to contact the owner, make a visit and discuss his situation.
The owner became suddenly ill 15 or so years ago, and closed the shop for illness. It never reopened. It is virtually as it was at that time.
The stock is, of course, nos. Most of it is mid-level Torpado racers, and mid-level Dawes and Claud Butler tourers. Not bad stuff. All lugged steel, except for a few Vitus bonded aluminum bikes. There are some more interesting things.
There were a couple of nos Torpado Super-lights, with chrome details and complete Super Record gruppos. Quite nice. There was a Razesa that looked to be completely chromed, with a candy-apple finish over the chrome. Very pretty. There was an nos Cinelli road bike of some sort.
There were also some used bikes. A Hobbs of Barbican track bike, that appeared to be fillet brazed. A Legnano track bike with brass head badge in very nice condition. A Colnago of some sort. A custom Spectrum titanium. Other odds and ends. Lots of parts, of course. Some old balloon tire stuff as well.
I talked to the owner about selling some or all of his inventory. He is interested, but while not a computer user himself, he has the idea that eBay has made the inventory extremely valuable. In fact, looking at the price tags, very few items would equal their original wholesale prices. His estimate of the value of his inventory was around $40,000, which was about triple what I made it out to be. Of course, he was using some sort of "retail", while I was using "wholesale".
In any event, I mention all this in case there is someone who wouldn't mind spending some time in Northeastern Ohio trying to negotiate some sort of deal for some or all of this stuff. If you qualify, contact me off list letting me know if you are in a position to negotiate such a deal.
Louis Schulman
Tampa, Florida