When it comes to salesmanship, if you are going to lie, at least make it a good one! This one is at least extensively embellished, the personae dramatis include- a "team rider" ("I do not know who this was" gee what are the odds of that? "but he would have had to be able to speak passable English" nice, make up some plausible sounding details), and an "ABC Wide World of Sports segment producer who kept it in his New York office for 25 years in a case" (again anonymous and nameless but show bizzy person- for added sizzle- with made-up details to add depth). Up to here we perhaps naively excuse the fictitious story as simply the product of a gullible buyer, but then the account becomes first-hand, and we have added to the cast "two former team racers" very conveniently unnamed, at a very prestigious sounding event that has nothing to do with bikes but presumably included to add some cachet to the tale. Stir in non-existent "many very rare, race team-only pieces" and call this very mundanely production piece a "totally one-of-a-kind bike!!" (with double exclamation points, was one too few and three too many?), and you have a truly outstanding piece of overblown, hyperbolic ad copy writing.
Well I suppose we should be thankful it wasn't claimed to be made of the true cross and able to effortlessly melt away pounds of unsightly fat in days.
Kurt Sperry Bellingham, Washington USA
2009/8/10 Marc St. Martin <marc.stmartin@earthlink.net>:
> Wow,
>
> Wide World of Sports, Tour De France, Monterey Concorso...this 'Nago's been everywhere except 1975 ;^)
>
> Marc St. Martin
> Livermore, California
> USA
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Charles Andrews <chasds@mindspring.com>
>>Sent: Aug 10, 2009 10:48 AM
>>To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>>Subject: Re: [CR] ebay outing: colnago super
>>
>>Sorry I put up the wrong link!
>>
>>Here's the correct one. Have a look..
>>
>>http://ebay.com/<blah>
>>
>>Charles Andrews
>>Los Angeles
>>
>>
>>"everyone has elites; the important thing is
>> to change them from time to time."
>>
>>--Joseph Schumpeter, via Simon Johnson