Listers,
I bought my first Raleigh Pro Mark IV (Mink Blue) in about 1973 for $425, and a post-crash (bent tubes) replacement Mark IV (silver and black) a couple of years later for $475. They were almost twice the price of PX-10s at the time, as I recall, and the PX-10s handled better. I would never value a Pro Mark IV at over $1000 today--they were pretty bikes, but did not ride that well, IMHO. Anyone who thinks they are worth $5000 is nuts.
A 753 or Team bike that had been raced in the Tour de France or other pro races might be one possible exception to that, but those were not the run-of-the-mill Mark IVs, either.
Jon Spangler Amazed at "inflation" in Alameda, California USA
On Jan 27, 2009, at 4:49 PM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
wrote:
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:21:03 -0800
> From: Mark Ritz <ritzmon@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [CR] Raleigh Pro Experts?
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Message-ID: <911941.70822.qm@web83101.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I would love to see a receipt for a $5000 Raleigh?from that time
> frame.
> ? $8-900 would be more like it.? It's a run of the mill Raleigh Pro.?
>
> ?
> Does anyone else think that the fork might be bent back just a tad?
> ?
> Mark Ritz
> Sunny but cold Arcata, CA, USA
> http://www.kinetic-koffee.com
>
> Steve sez:
> I've been watching the Raleigh Professional prices these days as I
> bought
> one as part of two bike deal and mine is going on the market soon.
> The typi
> cal
> models all seem to sell for about the same few bucks, but the other
> day I s
> aw
> this one on E-bay (Item No. 180323304429). Was there really a Pro
> model tha
> t
> sold for $5K back in the day? If so what about this specific bike
> was diffe
> rent?
> Is this seller fishing or was there a much more expensive model?
>
>
>
Jon Spangler
Writer/Editor
Linda Hudson Writing
510-864-0370/FAX 864-2144
MOBILE 510-846-5356
hudsonspangler@earthlink.net