[CR]Swap Gripe and Praise

(Example: Framebuilders:Brian Baylis)

Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 21:12:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: <wheelman@nac.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Swap Gripe and Praise

Went to two swaps this weekend and I guess I can say I was lucky. Two swaps in one weekend is more than one person deserves. The first was at Copake NY which has a swap the day before the auction. Sold some stuff and actually took home more money than I spent. That is a first in a long time. Not much in the way of lightweights, if it were not for Sam Fitz' there would have been a lot less. Still a few gems showed up. I traded Sam a Claude Butler that I was never going to get to for some nice parts.

One gripe, this tactic I have seen several times and some of you will think nothing of it while others like me will find it distasteful. I spotted a Raleigh track bike on the back of a pickup truck that had no attendee. I did what I always, do in those cases, I camped out at the truck till the owner came back. No one else in site, then it happened. The owner walked up so I asked him how much for the bike. Then like locust they all came out of the field. This does not bother me because after I make my deal there should be no problems.

The owner does the usual thing when several people walk up at once, he responds with "Make me an offer". Now here comes the hook. One of the runners up says to the owner, "That's at least a $300 bike". So now there I am with my stunned look wondering what the hell just happened. The second person, a thoughtful and well mannered CR member, told this person "hey this guy (me) was first. He then proceeded to tell the guy he (himself) was second. Now that the cat was out of the bag my negotiations were no longer between the owner and myself. I offered $350 and within a minute came the counter $400 from the same ill mannered person. At that point I walked away because I did not want an on site auction. The second person also passed so the joker got it for $400.

Some of you might think this is fine and a fair business transaction. I think it is plain rude. I hold no ill will towards anyone as this is just a hobby and not worth my wrath or anger. I just thought I would share with you my opinion on this type of dealing.

The next day I did the Trexlertown swap. What a difference between the two. First I met a lot of CR members. Very friendly, every one of them. All gentlemen and courteous to a fault. I never once got into any competition for an item. In fact I did my usual and spent more than I did the day before. Not only did I wipe out the previous days gain. I put a nice dent in my bike funds with all the goodies that I needed to complete some bikes. Also bought two new helmets, a jersey and a bib tight. All an all a wonderful day. I did purchase a 1970 Rickert from an older gentleman who was just wheeling it around with a For Sale sign on it. Now I have another project. I will need some help on this one but I will do that on another posting.

The day ended with a ride through the Pennsylvania back roads. Great riding weather and a great route. My friend and I were looking for someone to ride with so we tagged up with a small group. Three young women and three gentlemen. None seemed related but they warned us that they were going for a slow ride, about 12 mile an hour avg. I said, that is fine by me as I have been walking my butt off for the last two days.

We left the velodrome area and very soon I noticed that something was wrong. My computer never saw 12 miles an hour during the entire ride. Early on in one of the 20+ MPH runs, I caught up to one of the young women. Riding along side her she said, how does it feel to ride with two of the T Town track riders. Now I knew what was up. One of the gentlemen took off and the group never saw him again. Then as we got deeper and deeper into unfamiliar territory the group stopped for a chat. I was happy to hydrate and catch my breath. We were about 15 miles out in an area I have never seen before. The group decided to head back as they were pressed for time. Now my friend and I caught up with the lead rider after a few more miles. He stopped at a intersection and told us that he was going back and did not know what the rest of the group was going to do. We both thought, we wanted to get back also so we asked if it was no problem to tag along.

To shorten this story, we rode with him for about another mile and he took off and we never saw him again. Now here we were in the middle of PA and no idea where. We just kept riding till we spotted some signs and half guessed and made our way back. Near the end the rest of the group caught up with us. We told them what happened and they just smiled and wished us well. Great bunch of people but they estimation capabilities are seriously flawed. We chatted a bit more then headed home.

Ray Homiski
Elizabeth, NJ