come on Mike, this is an atrocious idea. currently, the impetus for collecting bikes is as varied as the amount of people participating. Codifying the values would suddenly make certain collections more 'legitimate' based on value. The diversity and interesting approaches to collecting bicycles will suddenly drop because of the new influx of investment collectors. The novice collector will not go by her heart in choosing the bike, there are those 'value' contingencies.
setting values on symbolic items such as coins and stamps are one thing, but placing it on functional items are a completely different and diabolical to the discipline. All of a sudden, every time one takes out a bike to ride they will be lessening it's value. Personal attitudes towards amassing a collection are now directed by a 'guide' as opposed to what one grew up with. For example, the interesting debate on refinishing all of a sudden ends up as a mute point, because rarity will be the determinate. The pristine out of the factory will always trump the refinish. Most of the subjective and interesting discussions on our list are essentially eliminated as collective judgment has more bearing on value rather than quirky individual assessments on other aspects such as ridability and looks.
As i mentioned before, this happened with cameras eliminating the availability of certain types necessary for doing particular types of work back in the seventies. this has happened also with hand woodworking tools. Try and find a good hand jointer plane for less than a fortune out there.
It happened with those classic cars. now they are only driven to and from shows. what a great driving experience!
Anybody want to take this debate to cirque?
mdschmidt@patmedia.net wrote:
> Why just lay this on the shoulders of one person? Set a task force,
> publish and sell the results. Donate the profits to Operation Smile
> and the cost of operating future Cirque.
>
> Mikey Schmidt BattleGround Inn 4th Floor
--
gabriel l romeu
chesterfield nj usa, on my way to cirque tomorrow
± http://studiofurniture.com Ø http://journalphoto.org ±