At 06:14 PM 1/18/2010, coel canth wrote:
>are there really people out there offering to pay two or three times
>asking price when they stumble upon a SWEET DEAL ?!?
Depends on the situation; I did pay 3 times the asking price for a low mileage '70 Moulton Mk III. The seller had just lost her job and had no idea what it was worth. I paid the widow of a well known local bike nut twice what she had been told a '57 RRA project was worth.
OTOH
I was offered a very clean Jack Taylor Lugged Tourist frame, fork and racks* for $275!!!. He obviously didn't know what it was worth so I offered him $250 and we settled on $262.50.
The difference? The seller had been given the JT by an English friend. He said he didn't use it because the frame weighed 1/2 a pound more than his Trek 720 frame. When the friend passed away he was finally free to get rid of it. That he had a house the size of my lot and he and the wife had matching Escalades may have made me even more determined to get it as cheaply as possible.
*The front rack had never been installed, the rear installed but never used. Also a TA BB in like new condition.
BTW I thought he`was Philistine for preferring a Trek over a Jack Taylor. But now I also have a 720 and can sorta see his point. The story of the Taylor brothers, and British framebuilding are fascinating to me. If they weren't, I might favor the Trek too.
Mark Stonich;
BikeSmith Design & Fabrication
5349 Elliot Ave S. - Minneapolis. MN 55417
Ph. (612) 824-2372 http://bikesmithdesign.com
http://mnhpva.org