If it jazzes you, is $2,000 really too much for a 30-year old top-of-the-line DeRosa ?? A top-of-the-line DeRosa today costs more than twice as much. In fact, the same people who made the 30-year old bike *might* be making that $5,000 DeRosa bike today.
I think peoples' shock should be more directed at deflation. Because that $400 frameset in 1974 would be a $2500 frameset today.
You can hardly buy an all-steel waterford today for less than $2,000. Waterford does not have the DeRosa cachet, or the DeRosa ride (disclaimer : this statement is hearsay.)
I personally prefer to buy production bikes at dumpster prices (Raleigh Gransport, $75 / almost new, wow!), but $2,000 for a rare frameset, that if necessary could be retouched or restored to like-new, is not insane. It's mostly what is in the mind of the buyer that matters.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA