I'm not so sure that prices are always on the rise - and the con denti pedals are an example. Back around 1994 I remember Japanese buyers offering upwards of 1K for a very nice pair. Right now the ebay price is hovering in the $400 to $600 range. The key is that the Con Denti pedals were never really all that rare - sure they aren't everywhere, but if your patient and look at lots of old vintage bikes you start to see them.
Another item that has taken its lumps is the first generation Campy crank Charles speaks of - awhile back a list member sold a really nice one for over 3K. But one recently sold (not quite the same condition, but it did have its caps in place and it looked pretty decent at least) went for a good bit under 1K.
The real key is having something rare when at least one person is looking to go deep for such an item. Timing is everything.
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
> Gene Balk noted in a recent post that he was selling a pair of Campagnolo con
\r?\n> denti track pedals.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I was about to e-mail him privately to suggest that he cancel the auction and
\r?\n> keep the pedals, then I thought that that was a rather presumptuous thing to
\r?\n> do...and then the auction brought up a more general notion that I wish I'd been
\r?\n> aware of when I got back into old bikes in the mid-1990s.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> When you have a bit that's rare, and you know it's rare, and you have only one
\r?\n> of them...or maybe even two...it's probably smart to just keep them.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Because, inevitably, sure as the sun rises in the East, you're going to need
\r?\n> that very rare bit someday, and you're going to wish you had it.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> And keeping such things, even if you don't have a use for it right away, is
\r?\n> almost never bad from a financial point-of-view. Extremely rare and desired
\r?\n> items like con denti pedals will just keep going up in value. The longer you
\r?\n> hold them, the more they're worth.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Now, if a person needs the money, for whatever reason, far be it from me to say
\r?\n> they shouldn't sell something.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> But I can't tell you how many times, until the last couple of years, anyway,
\r?\n> that I have sold some very rare bits, and regretted it later. More than a few
\r?\n> times. And I probably never really *needed* the money, except in the cases of a
\r?\n> couple of very valuable bikes that I don't regret selling. The money came in
\r?\n> handy, and I don't miss them.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> But, in general, when it comes to things like con denti pedals..I'd keep such
\r?\n> beasts until I knew I was leaving the vintage bike biz completely.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> For all the people here who may be looking at some very rare bit and wondering
\r?\n> if they should sell it..I say, think VERY hard about it...and then keep it.
\r?\n> Because, more likely than not, you'll regret selling it.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> one hard-won plugged nickle from..
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Charles (I've been thinking of selling a first-gen campagnolo crankset for
\r?\n> months now...but I think I'm going to keep it, for exactly the reasons noted
\r?\n> above) Andrews
\r?\n> SoCal