Re: [CR] ebay colnago

(Example: Framebuilders:Alberto Masi)

Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 16:42:30 -0800
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, <stephen.p.kinne@hsbcpb.com>
In-Reply-To: <OFC9272E2E.1AA0E2FE-ON8525769F.007C36B9-8525769F.00828739@smtpgate.us.hsbc>
Subject: Re: [CR] ebay colnago


Well I was surprised at the price, although I believe Alex is the seller so congratulations to him. I was sure the bike would bring thousands of dollars, but I sort of expected that would be more like $3000 than $7000.

As for someone living in a trailer park buying it, I would doubt that. Personally I think it would be irresponsible for someone struggling to get by to make such a purchase. But if someone has the deposable income and wants it that bad, who am I to say he shouldn't. It does surprise me that a Colnago, even and extremely nice one, would bring the kind of money we associate with Singers, Herses and even Confentes. I mean Colnagos in general are very common, even though this one is rare. But some people are just big Colnago fans, so I guess to them a rare early Colnago may be as nice as a Singer or Herse. The bike wouldn't have been worth near $7000 to me, but that's just me.

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA


--- On Sat, 1/2/10, stephen.p.kinne@hsbcpb.com wrote:


> From: stephen.p.kinne@hsbcpb.com <stephen.p.kinne@hsbcpb.com>

\r?\n> Subject: [CR] ebay colnago

\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

\r?\n> Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 5:45 PM

\r?\n> I'm with Charles and Steve on this

\r?\n> one.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Whether we want to admit to it or not, vintage lightweights

\r?\n> are

\r?\n> (relatively) cheap compared to other collectible

\r?\n> classes.  If you don't

\r?\n> think so, look into rare clocks, art, furniture or check

\r?\n> out the Barrett

\r?\n> Jackson car auction this weekend on SPEED.  It's hard

\r?\n> for folks to NOT

\r?\n> spend $100,000 for the really good stuff. Or millions.

\r?\n> $7,100 won't buy a

\r?\n> new car, is not a lot of money for an original, unmolested

\r?\n> 60's Colnago,

\r?\n> another primo example of which one is unlikely to even see

\r?\n> again in their

\r?\n> lifetime much less have another opportunity to bid on (the

\r?\n> brakes would be

\r?\n> an easy fix, even I have a pair of NOS Universal 68's some

\r?\n> where in my

\r?\n> basement).

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Economic downturns typically do not dramatically affect the

\r?\n> value of

\r?\n> rarest of the rare and ORIGINAL unmolested examples because

\r?\n> the most

\r?\n> serious collectors will always acquire the best examples

\r?\n> they can find and

\r?\n> will have the resources and have patience to do so. That is

\r?\n> typically

\r?\n> fewer than 5% or 10% of available examples (think

\r?\n> "survivor" car or that

\r?\n> '68 Colnago). Unmolested vintage lightweights are a tuff

\r?\n> find because many

\r?\n> of them were raced, updated, repainted and on and on and

\r?\n> on. Really

\r?\n> serious collectors don't bother with items that have been

\r?\n> altered because

\r?\n> they don't have to. They square off with each other over

\r?\n> the top decile

\r?\n> and leave the 90% to 95% to the masses, all prices get

\r?\n> pulled along for

\r?\n> the upswing in the top 5% of the stuff but when the bottom

\r?\n> falls out the

\r?\n> bid falls by far the most for the altered stuff because the

\r?\n> masses have to

\r?\n> make the choice between speculating and eating. Myself, I

\r?\n> like to eat. For

\r?\n> the Colnago to get bid to $7,100, there had to be at least

\r?\n> TWO collectors

\r?\n> squaring off that thought it was worth $7,000.  The

\r?\n> Japanese vacuum up a

\r?\n> lot of good bikes but are able to so because they are big

\r?\n> savers, that's

\r?\n> not their fault.  It's cultural. When you borrow to

\r?\n> spend as many folks in

\r?\n> this country did, you are just borrowing from future

\r?\n> consumption and

\r?\n> postponing the sacrifice 'til tomorrow. It always amuses me

\r?\n> how many folks

\r?\n> fall into the trap of leasing a new car every 3 years,

\r?\n> eating $10,000 to

\r?\n> $15,000 in payments and depreciation and then turning the

\r?\n> car back in with

\r?\n> 75% of its useful life remaining. That's TWO ultra-rare

\r?\n> Colnago's.  Maybe

\r?\n> the winning bidder drives a spartan but reliable 12-year

\r?\n> old Japanese car

\r?\n> and he saved the car payments he no longer had to make for

\r?\n> the last 7 plus

\r?\n> years to get that special bike.  That's what I'd do

\r?\n> (I'm not a bidder). As

\r?\n> Steve said, it's about priorities.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> I believe that John may have misspoken about the recent

\r?\n> economic downturn

\r?\n> not affecting the very wealthy, because their equity

\r?\n> holdings and real

\r?\n> estate fell right along with every one else (and the

\r?\n> markets) unless they

\r?\n> were fortunate enough to have been invested on some other

\r?\n> planet. They may

\r?\n> still be wealthy only because they entered the downturn

\r?\n> with more, not

\r?\n> because they have some mythical special deal.  Many

\r?\n> created their wealth

\r?\n> through brains and hard work, some were lucky, some

\r?\n> inherited it, a few

\r?\n> may have used more nefarious means.  $7,100 might

\r?\n> still look (relatively)

\r?\n> cheap to them.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Or it could have been all the money in the world to a

\r?\n> serious collector

\r?\n> pinching his pennies to get that one special Colnago.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Steve Kinne

\r?\n> NY, USA

\r?\n>

\r?\n> -----------------------------------------

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