Hi Charles,
I agree completely with you premise and want to take it a step further... "expensive" purchases like MASIs that tend to climb in price are sometimes a measure of interest, affluence, and age of the bidders or purchasers.
People often buy nostalgic items they are most comfortable with at the time when they were younger. However, as the potential bidder/purchasers get older, some lose interest and through mortality the total pool of buyers and demand declines with age.
I see the current prices for older road bikes and parts pretty well maxed out because as we get older, interest from younger people in vintage bikes declines which reduces demand. You will probably see inflation-level price adjustments or changes to currency rates that affect vintage bike prices, but I do not see prices rising due to increased consumer demand. It does seem that more road bike collectors are considering bikes and parts as "investments" that appreciate in value, but I do not agree with this line of thinking.
Regards, Steve Neago
Cincinnati, OH
> This Trek, recently discussed:
>
>
http://ebay.com/
>
> Got me thinking about why some bikes have value and some don't. We've
been over most of *that*
> particular subject again and again, but one thing that's occured to me
more than once, is that
> the top pro, pre-index bikes of the 80s--as a class--seem to be
undervalued.
>
> There are exceptions, sure. The exceptions tend to be bikes that were
rare to
> begin with, like, say, a Bianchi Superleggere with chromed
head-lugs...those and bikes
> like them seem to
> go high on ebay at any time..the couple that have come up there.
>
> But in general? Up until quite recently you seldom saw clean 80s pro
> bikes break a grand on ebay, and elsewhere.
>
> I think that may be about to change though. I started getting back into
the bikes I loved as a teenager,
> when I was about 40. Life itself had me thinking about what had made me
happy back then, and
> I had the money to indulge myself. At the time (1996 or so), I had two
bikes. When I started
> hunting for the early 70s bikes I liked, I found that they were fairly
reasonably priced. Under
> $1000 for even very nice Pogliaghis and Colnago Supers from the early and
mid-70s.
>
> That's changed. Were I to try to buy those same bikes now, in the same
condition, I'd have to
> pay nearly double the price in 1996. This didn't happen to all bikes from
that time (as Steve
> Maasland's pretty Zinni makes clear), but it happened to many of the
premier marques.
>
> Now all those guys who were 14 or 15 in 1982, are closing in on 40. That
tells me that many of those
> nice 80s Super Record bikes may start to really jump up in value.
>
> Be interesting to see if it goes that way.
>
> Charles Andrews
> Socal