I no longer scour ebay lists, boring and depresing. But I look from time to time. What do I see today ? A nice crank arm set from Stronglight, with so me alloy rings stamped "LV". These go for big bucks. But why ? Because they are stronglight ? Most doubtful. They mostly were found on 1950's mid qual ity Peugeot "randonneurs" (a Peugeot randonneur is a dolled up demi-course as a rule). A load of people think this "LV" stamp is sign of early Strongl ight chainrings. I can show you steel, most definitely not stronglight, cha inrings stamped "LV". Saw one add the guy actually wrote "these come from a Peugeot", wanted to write to him and ask him what the heck he had done wit h the rest of the bike. Junked it ? In the end couldn't be bothered.
Point is the market is very misinformed and ignorant (like me) on a lot of matters, and some items which are common inflate to a terrific price. Then drop :)))
Like alloy rails saddles. Idéale made so many of those you wouldn't belei ve it. Trick now is to scour listings 'till you see a bike with one, make t he seller an offer for the saddle alone, and stick anywhere between 200 and 1500 bucks profit in your pocket. Then one day the market realizes and say s "hang on, these n° xx Idéales were supposed to be rare, how come they turn up in such numbers ?".
Just some random thoughts.
Nick March, Agen, 47000, Lot et Garonne, France.
_____________________ _____________________________ Do You Yahoo!? En finir avec le spam? Yah oo! Mail vous offre la meilleure protection possible contre les messages no n sollicités http://mail.yahoo.fr Yahoo! Mail