I read with interest all the responses to Mike's first observation to the DeRosa in question. Like my previous observations about a MASI this held my interest for the pure sake of increasing my knowledge. I am continually amazed on how many of the CR members can almost give you the molecular structure of the metal used on some bicycles from looking at an ebay posting. I guess when you look at enough of the real things you get real good at this. It will take me some time to reach that level of expertise. I do not mean this to be a smart alec posting just my observations so please no hate mail. I am struck by all the information one can get from an ebay posting and with follow up with questions to the owner. I am a shy bidder, this means that I am over cautious and more suspicious of anything I buy on line then most people seem to be. No particular reason for this, it just is. I read in today's Star Ledger (Local news rag here in NJ) that the NJ Symphony purchased last year what they thought to be a lot of very classic and very expensive violins. They believed they got a deal spending $17 Million for $45 Million worth of violins. It was the biggest one lot sale ever of these priceless instruments. Today's story has experts challenging the provenance of these same instruments and of course the seller is in a German prison awaiting extradition on tax fraud. They even list the experts by name and give an instrument by instrument assessment of what they believe each instrument to be. I find it interesting that even when we are talking about millions the experts still cannot agree. A couple of grand is chicken feed by comparison. The moral I took away from this is if you like the bike it is worth the money. If you think it will bring more money than you paid for it, that is a real crap shoot. If you think any expert can guarantee what you bought is the real thing, well I will let that comment stay in my head. Good luck to all the buyers (Including me) and I hope we all continue to enjoy the hobby.
Ray Homiski
Elizabeth, NJ