DB, thanks for the opinion. I am tending towards your view. I haven't been paying that much to classic market until the last 3 months or so, but my feeling as an amateur economist is that prices for good classic steel are rising, and from hanging around bike shops recently, more people are talking with enthusiasm for the prior generation of racing bikes. As for my Masi, it's already been repainted with a decent pro paint job in an approximation of a Masi red, and the plan was that my original Masi decal set was going to be applied by the owner of the shop, who's main business is industrial design, and he is quite graphically skilled and has a passion for good old bikes. I haven't seen the results yet, but likely it will present as a competent looking restoration, but not equal to high class pro restoration. I will send you all pix as for further comments as soon as I pick it up, likely in a week or two. I am bit cash poor, so I am hedging on the date.
Thanks again for weighing in.
Jim Innes Wireless Access Technologies, Inc. 4217 Ridge Ave. #2 Philadelphia, PA 19129-1745 267 481 1461 f215 438 1220 innesj@watinc.net
-----Original Message----- From: DB [mailto:db@home-work.com] Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 11:32 PM To: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos; brianbaylis@juno.com; innesj@i-2000.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Reasonable Restored Masi Gran Criterium Frame - Any Advice, Da ta Appreciated, + a List of My other Rides
Jerry, I will offer an alternative opinion, based on an Italian made Masi GC from the early 70's. I bought the bike on ebay last summer for $800. It was a red spray can repaint, but was obviously (to my amateur trained eye) the Masi it was represented to be by the seller. I scooped it up very quickly using "buy it now", yet realizing it would be slightly too small for me. I decided I wanted to have it restored by Baylis, and maybe ride it, maybe keep it, maybe sell it. Brian did a bang-up job, repainting the bike in the medium Masi metallic blue. Thank you again, Brian.
I ended up listing the frame six months later on ebay and to my surprise it sold for $2000 - hence I netted a handsome profit. Truthfully, I did not expect to do much better than break even, but when it comes to early 1970's Masi's, the market remains quite hot. If any CR listers would like me to send before/after photos of the bike, just LMK. -Dan Borden in Brookline, MA
At 5:30 AM -0700 7/15/05, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>I'll second, from the customer side, what Brian said. I've had
>several frames restored, always with the full knowledge that I could
>never recoup the cost by selling them. There is simply, absolutely,
>no money in paying to restore a bike, then selling it. At least not
>if you pay to have it done properly by one of the highly skilled
>people on this list, including Brian. Perhaps a restorer might make
>a bit of money by buying and restoring frames himself, or at least
>make something for his time. But this would only make sense if he
>had idle time on his hands. As long as he has plenty of orders, he
>will do MUCH better by simply doing restorations for paying
>customers.