Ed wrote:
That's why at some point, I'd open a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, put some Bill Evans on the CD player, and open that bad boy and put it together. Then, I'd go for a Christmas-morning-type ride (after sobering up, of course). And I wouldn't regret the consequent drop in value one iota, nor what I'd paid for the experience.
Ed Granger Lancaster, PA, USA One NOS bike in my collection my size, and not yet sure of its destiny
*******
Seems to me doing this with that Raleigh is not a big deal. If you pay $1600 for it, (including shipping), save all the original packing, build it up and ride it lightly, don't damage it, you'd probably be able to sell it for nearly a grand any time. Internationals seem to command prices somewhat beyond what I'd expect, but it is a fact...so you don't lose very much by building and riding it, and you do get a lot of pleasure out of it, the way Ed would go about it.
I think the problem is much more interesting when you consider the NOS Masis John Barron was selling awhile back. Now *those* presented a puzzle. You'd pay around, what? 5.5K for one? Something like that. If you build it up and ride it, you'd be lucky to get 3K for it (they were TALL bikes too, so the market would be even thinner than it already is)... losing that much money to ride a NOS bike a few times would trouble me, but if you have plenty of money already, maybe even that's not much of a problem.
It's moments like these when I realize that our little obsession is really very inexpensive compared to just about any other sort of serious collecting jones.
I say, whoever bought that International should build it up and ride it. The loss is modest, but the enjoyment considerable.
Charles Andrews SoCal
"It's impossible to make a man understand something when his livelihood depends on him not understanding it."
-Upton Sinclair