Hi Jon & CRBL,
The only time I ever bought a complete bike, a 1983 Rossin, just to harvest the parts I felt justified, kind of, because it was obvious from the photos on eBay that it had been run hard. There were a couple of shallow dents in the top tube and the paint was dull and chipped. But it had the total Campy Grupo and everything looked pretty good. Well, when I unpacked it and checked it over the Campy stuff was better than just okay, it was near perfect. Worth well over what I paid for the whole package. Talk about your "frame for free." And the paint wasn't too bad really. The number-plate tab under the top tube behind the head tube said "real racer" so the now even-more- shallow dents now said "really raced." I thought what the hell, it is my size. So retaped the bars, replaced ratty seat with a spare Concor, replaced the cables and housings and polished it up. It certainly passed the "stand back 20 feet inspection." Then I took it out for a little ride in the park. Wow! It's now my second favorite ride. Out of 20 ready-to-ride. It's second only to my new Steelman Eurocross, but that's way off topic so I won't even mention it.
Just thought you all would like a story with a happy ending for a change.
Mark Fulton
Redwood City
California
USA