I frequent our local flea market about every weekend and have purchased several nice bikes there; an 80s Colnago with pantographed Campy NR, a 70s Windsor, a Viner, an early Italvega, and a 70s Cilo also with a Campy group. I don't know if they had been stolen or not, but the prices were unbelievable. It was sad to see how they were treated, most flea market dealers weren't aware of what they had and the bikes were usually just thrown into the back of their pickups with all their other junk on top. Luckily, the frames survived being dented, but they did incur some damage from this mistreatment. Another time, I found an old guy that had a back yard full of vintage components. So much that the neighbors petitioned him to get rid of it. Some were literally buried in the dirt. It would have been the proverbial goldmine except that the nicer stuff suffered from rust and corrosion. I've also seen nice vintage frames at our local dump that unfortunately has a policy against picking through the trash. Alas, to common folk, old bikes aren't as attractive as other vintage stuff. The only exception seems to be old ballon tire bikes like Schwinn Phantoms or Spaceliners that everyone sees as collectible.
Fred Durrette
Summerville, SC