Two things contributed to the low final bid in this auction. One, is obviously all the inconsistencies regarding its history. It was enough to make any potential buyer wonder what he would actually receive once it got to his doorstep. How could any other part of the bicycle description be relied upon?
Secondly, placing a reserve on an auction always dampens bidder enthusiasm. If it had been a no reserve auction, and bidders knew it was really going to sell, they would have been more active. But it's gutsy to put a high priced item on eBay at no reserve. The compromise I use when selling more expensive items is to list the minimum price I want to receive, then no reserve beyond that. That protects the seller from taking less than he wants and it lets buyers know it's really for sale and that they are bidding against each other, versus competing with the seller's hidden (and potentially inflated) idea of what the item is worth. Though granted, even doing it that way will not garner the excitement as starting the auction at $1.00 and letting the winds take it where they will.
Mark Winkelman
Dallas, Texas USA
> The final result of the seller's story is that he only got $890 top bid.
> It didn't meet his reserve price and he admitted (or accepted) that his
> story about the bike being featured in the first American coverage of the
> Tour De France in 1975 was not remembered correctly. My personal opinion
> or theory is that a story that good involves some degree of research
> (When was the first year the TDF was covered by the backwards American tv
> press ??? hmmm ... 1975. That's a good year to say this bike is from. Now
> the seller seems to remember that this bike was ridden in the Race Across
> America in 1982 - also covered by Wide World of Sports. If that doesn't
> work out for him he may next claim that the bike was featured in the Wide
> World of Sports first coverage of the Tour de Trump in 1989.
>
> In any event, the bike does seem to be in nearly mint condition and
> virtually unridden and it is in every regard a Colnago in a desirable
> size. I would have thought that an early 80's mint Colnago would be worth
> more than $890. This means that rather than having remorse that this is
> the time I should be buying and not selling, I should be glad that I've
> owned my bikes for as many years as I have. Strangely, an old Colnago
> might bring more on ebay if the deraileurs and other parts are parted out
> and the frame then converted to a fixie. That way one would get a grand
> for the converted fixie and another 300 for the mint parts. When the
> economy finally recovers people can then reconstruct these bikes by
> sourcing the parts and reassembling history. (Assuming the dropout ear
> wasn't cut off)
>
> My personal opinion is that way too many fixies are being sold relative
> to the amount of people that can actually appreciate them. Most people
> would be better off with a nice geared bike which brings us back to bike
> boom of the early 70's where steel and relative simplicity of design was
> king.
>
>
> Garth Libre in Miami Fl USA
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