Mike & CR group,
I like the Jack Taylor "price guide" at:
http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
It is simple, but informative. The text at the top provides some guidance & points out some limitations. The prices are actual prices assuming the ebay sale is completed or the reported private sale actually occurred. Actual year, serial number & buyer's name is left out to encourage participation.
Website creator is probably a CR member. Definitely a Jack Taylor enthusiast. Maybe a decentralized, brand/builder &/or model based pricing guide linked to a central website could work.
Of course Larry Osborn, Chuck Brooks & I might flip 1973 Raleigh RRA's back & forth, inflate the price, then all sell at once to unsuspecting newbies so we could retire to S. France.
Mike Self Cincinnati, OH USA
Seriously the
<classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 7:39 PM Subject: Re: [CR]PX-10 Vintage Bike Prices-Price Guide Needed and Mike Kone'sGuide?
> Hi CR folks,
>
> Yes the price guide update I'm supposed to write is on the slow track -
> especially with time I'm putting into Rene Herse Bicycles Inc.
>
> The big stumbling block to the price guide is the variability in the
> market. For the same reason folks want a price guide, it is also
> extremely difficult to develop. In a sense, average (or mean) price is
> easy to come up with, but the stinker is wrapping my brain around
> capturing price variability. The market for vintage road bikes in general
> is extremely thin. It isn't like trying to place a value on an excellent
> Leica M3 single stroke, or a MCintosh MC240 amplifier. Some of those
> collectibles change hands multiple times in a day - how many of the
> Peugeots like the one in question change hands? - and how many of the
> exact same vintage with the cool plastic stuff yet with the alloy rail
> saddle and the mod 63 crank? And in that size? I bet there are perhaps
> NO close comps!
>
> The kicker is if a bike has something slightly cool that captures the
> imagination of only two folks on ebay, then for less than the cost of
> adding a bunch of options to a mid-line BMW automobile someone can pay a
> seemingly crazy sum for a particular bike.
>
> My latest thoughts are to come up with "gut" what it should typically sell
> for prices, and then rate particular bikes with the relative probablilty
> that the bike might sell for much more.
>
> I have worked on some price-value-templates, and it gets mighty ugly
> pretty fast. At some point I might bite into the project again (I had
> played with it only a couple of weeks ago), but to do it right is no
> picnic.
>
> Mike Kone in Boulder CO
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: gholl@optonline.net
>
>> I gather many feel that the price lately paid for a PX-10 on eBay was
>> excessive.
>> Perhaps it was.
>> But, in the absence of a current price guide, how is one to know what the
>> "right
>> price" for a vintage bike really is?
>> The topic of a current price guide for vintage bikes generally is not
>> well
>> received on CR-but many who decry the price guide idea are quick to find
>> fault
>> with some poor soul who has "paid too much".
>> Most times on CR inquiries about price of bikes and components are held
>> in
>> contempt-until a high price is reached-then comments abound-almost always
>> derogatory ones. It would seem that one can't have it both ways. If the
>> rules
>> or convention prohibit such inquires on CR that's fine-but there should
>> be
>> somewhere to find such information. Some info is present on eBay itself,
>> but
>> it's too limited to be really useful.
>> I think such a vintage bike price guide is badly needed-almost every
>> other form
>> of collectible has a current price guide.
>> Some collectibles have several.
>> George Hollenberg MD
>> Westport, CT, USA
>>
>>
>> George Hollenberg MD
>> CT, USA