Good grief, what a hectic affair cycle collecting seems to have become.
Scott McCaskey even suggested switching off the computer and going for a cycleride. Is this possible now, or will we miss out on important offers?
Why not take out a subscription of News & Views through becoming a member of the V-CC, study the small ads there, ring or mail your friends if you feel you "need" something for your collection, go round to people´s houses to have a look and swap? Isn´t this much more in keeping with our pastime, much more sociable, and often cheaper on top of being mostly hassle-free?
Why do we seem to need hourly updates of offers on eBay? Why do we, in our free time, too, voluntarily become minute cogs in a system the only aim of which seems to be to get at its members´ money? Easy on rpm, lads (and girls, I suspect)! Less is more sometimes, as all cyclists should know.
I invite everyone to have a look in my cellar and see the result of not using eBay (or any other electric auction) by themselves; after all, Germany is not all that far away nowadays, and in our new house there is a spare room now. And don´t forget to bring bike bits to swap.
Cheers,
Toni "old Europe" Theilmeier, Osnabrueck, Germany.