My due centissimi regarding "wherefore are the collectors, etc."
I've been watching E-bay for about 6 years now. I remember some pretty high prices paid for beat-up Nuovo Record rear derailleurs back then. I know I shared the feeling with some of those buyers of "Holy Cow! I may never see that again". As the years wore on though, that same item became so available that I see them everytime I log on. No big deal if you wipe out your rear derailleur, get another one, and cheap too. This applies to a host of other items as well.
In the world of collectables, and it matters not what you are talking about, condition is everything. Once out of the wrapping paper, those parts that went on Richard Sachs' first Masi project plummeted in value as soon as he turned a wrench on them. Only the gestalt of the Masi Bicycle made it worthwhile. They plummeted in value because of the self-imposed rules he placed on himself to only use NOS parts out of the box. It was a crazy, admirable, fantastic, beautiful accomplishment, but there was one less NR gruppo for the next MASI collector to do so with.
So why are there not more (Campy) parts listed on Ebay? Yes, I'll agree that the summer doldrums are upon us, but the truly rare and unique and sought after stuff is watched for very carefully on Ebay year round. I have 6 current search and watch items. How many do you have? I'll submit that used NR stuff is almost "a dime a dozen" and folks are less motivated to sell used stuff for next to nothing. The truly pristine stuff (Masi Water Bottle, anyone?) is going, going, gone. Are "collectors" swapping between themselves. Absolutely. I know of at least 4 personally who do not like to discuss money, who prefer the negotiation of schoolyard baseball card trading, I.e. "whaddya trade for this?". But guess how they (the ones I know) establish some sort of monetarily based valuation? Yep, they go check Ebay.
Good for them, but I suspect they gain a certain ego satisfaction of a connection with the item. For example, I DO know of the existence of another Masi Waterbottle identical to the one I sold for $215. The owner is not a collector by any means, but is someone who has been intimately connected to the bike biz for almost as long as I and he has had the bottle as long as I. He does NOT want to sell right now. Why? As he puts it, "Now I can show everybody my $215 dollar bottle." It's one of the very few things like that he owns. He doesn't want more, and he doesn't need the money.
To paraphrase Will Rogers, buy Campy-oldy, they ain't making any more of the stuff. But buy it ONLY if you are Richard Sachs or Peter Johnson or equal and have the dollars and the courage to pull it off and make a lasting (hopefully) contribution to conservation of these fine machines.
To buy or hold bike parts (I will allow a very few exceptions... make that very, very, very few) as a monetary investment vehicle, you'd be nutz. The stuff I am offing on Ebay MAY pay for the (I'm really not joking) trip to Italy. To organize it, photo and list it, answer questions, pack and ship it, frankly is a major time suck. If I wasn't temporarily burned out on my real life job (Architect), I could make more money one heck of a lot faster and easier by just designing one more custom home. Economically, I would net more dollars for my time if I took it all down to the recycling dump where they would instantly pay me 31 cents a pound for it, no problem. But then it would be lost to everyone and that would be a shame. While I unabashedly seek to turn this stuff into cash, I do take no small amount of pleasure in hearing from many buyers, would-be buyers & old bike industry acquaintances regarding my trove, and how much they appreciate the opportunity to latch onto an item of interest.
So I auction it, and maybe it finds an appreciative home for the NEXT thirty years of its existence. Meanwhile, I'll invest in conservative mutual funds and dream I'm climbing the Stelvio, on my way to lunch in Bormio.
Caio, cicisti,
Ricardo Bulissimo, Verdi, Nevada.