Also, if one well-heeled buyer purchases the bike of their dreams for a high price that reflects the perfect match between buyer and seller, then others may think that they can sell theirs for a similar price.

Sheldon Brown did some editing, converted to HTML, and made a number of additions, which appear in brown text.

If somebody were to call a few people who deal in vintage lightweights, or perhaps ask a VRBN subscriber, then they would have a reasonable amount of market knowledge.

In such a circumstance, the price it is advertised at may be far below current market levels.

If an older bike is well abused but the seller thinks it is a much better bike than it really is, then the price may be way too high.

Such a mistake is common with production bikes that were originally expensive but in reality were rather mediocre.

With relatively few buyers and sellers, a market transaction depends upon the perfect alignment of a perhaps reluctant seller and a cautious buyer.

When the dollars increase beyond that, the field of buyers decreases.

Interestingly, though, at a certain point - perhaps in the 1,500 and above market price becomes less of an issue.

That is because in the mega-buck price zone the market is driven by individuals with relatively large incomes.

Among those who are quite wealthy, bicycle collecting is relatively inexpensive compared to collecting automobiles or expensive artwork.

It may be that the blue bike will only sell to a person who can pay 1,500 for it out of financial necessity.

As a rule, the more interested buyers and sellers, the more stable prices will be if everyone has equal information.

The first is to look at it in its entirety and consider its overall appeal.

Imagine a 1969 Bottechia with Universal brakes and a smattering of Campy.

Now suppose that on that bike is an early 60s Brooks B17 Swallow saddle in virtually N.O.S.

Such a saddle alone is worth at least 300.

That almost doubles the value of the bike Similarly, a mid 60s production bike with little following might be hard to sell as a bike for more than 400.

If it has a Campy group in near new condition, original tires, original old label Mavic rims and its original silk tires, the parts group alone might be worth 1,000.

Those who really care about preservation, though, might argue that is not right to take a complete but nice bike and part it out - and I agree.

At Bicycle Classics we have sold many bikes below their part-out value because we like to preserve the gems.

That is our choice.

That is why we often screen buyers to insure that they will not capitalize on our sentimentality by parting out a complete bike we sell.

Conversely, we do part out some bikes that others would spend years trying to restore to perfection.

This tends to distort price levels because others see such high prices and think that they accurately reflect the market.

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