In a message dated 5/21/03 1:57:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mowalsh@erols.com writes:
> Subj: [CR]GIOS VS. PARAMOUNT on e-bay
> Date: 5/21/03 1:57:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time
> From: <A HREF="mailto:mowalsh@erols.com">mowalsh@erols.com</A>
> To: <A HREF="mailto:classicrendezvous@bikelist.org">classicrendezvous@bikelist.org</A>
> Sent from the Internet
>
>
>
> Dear CR List,
> Lou Deeter asked which would sell for more, the results are in:
> 1982 NOS GIOS Super Record,sold today on e-bay auction for $3050.00 (Ken
> Denny seller).
> 1972 NOS Schwinn Paramount sold on e-bay for the "buy it now" price of
> $2495.00 (Jack Bissell seller).
> Money talks and BS walks......
> I think the Paramount would have gone for more dollars,than it did, if
> there had NOT been a buy it now price.
> The logic that 3000+ Paramounts were made does not devalue the Schwinn
> Paramount marque, since emotion dictates what people are willing to
> spend.
> Schwinn did an amazing job of marketing their bicycles. Everyone of us
> growing up probably saw hundreds of ads for Schwinn bicycles in comic
> books, Boy's Life etc.
> Many small towns had "SCHWINN" dealerships selling only Schwinns.What a
> feeling of nostalgia thinking about the first time I went into the
> "Schwinn dealer". For me it was like an auto showroom of today...
> Where I grew up in Massachusetts the Schwinn bicycles were favored over
> the locally made Columbia's.
> The million dollar question is: had there not been a buy it now price
> which bicycle would have sold for more???
> I seriously doubt that it will be any time soon that we will see
> examples, of such fine NOS bicycles as the two sellers sold today.
> Yours truly,
> Martin Walsh in Vienna,Va.
Great insight , Marty! I was going to get the Gios for John at the shop but missed it by a few hubdred dollars and about 20 minutes. The thing I lkike most about the Paramounts is that they were the surprise bike in the line and in the US!! Also the fact that I have a few dozen and sold just few in that era but dealt with so many other of the rolling iron. Unload a monthly semi of 300 long-pack Varsities, stay up til 3 am building them (they were allocated during the boooom) for a week (I specialized in installing the HuntWilde plastic tape around the safety levered chrome bars and made a small assembly line. Then a funny box that weighs half as much and has staplkes instead of glue rolls off the steel wheelked conveyor tracks. It's my own P13 after three months. The bike was to the schwinnline as the vette was to chevy. Is that a close analogy. A machine out of context. A separate room in the plant. that certain mystery. The Wastyns, Youngs, Novaras, Disneys.... That bald guy on the velodrome with the hairnet smilin' and loving the concrete crater. Those fashion models in the catalogs on their twin-stik stem-shifter p15's with their tennies and cardigan sweaters tied 'round their wastes. Can the European catalogs and image compete? Dunno, but there are many here among us that were closet and open aficionados.
Larry Black
Mt airy, Md