The real world cost of retro builds....!

I guessed who the seller was before opening the link.... !

M-Power - my take is the retro bike market was starting to recover in the US and then Mombat hit... It will take some time for the market to absorb all the inventory. The vast part of the US is still out of the game, but prices in Europe are still substantially higher than in the US. The US has no appreciation of history or anything past next weeks release, but that will change as generation X ages and wants to relive their past (think baby boomers and muscle cars). It will come back, it is just going to take some time. I see it as one of the few opportunities in the collectable market. Sure some items are always going to be in high demand, but In the mean time, it is a great opportunity to pick up some amazing deals at least in the US.

I often see some great deals on retro mtbs/parts from sellers in the USA, but shipping and import taxes on top of the purchase price negates the lower initial price.
Guess I'll have to convince my other half that we need to move to the USA

While this is insane, you can't confuse Retro with NOS. You can pick up functional and
virtual unworn STX-RC equipped bikes still for peanuts if you look in the right place. Not exotic, but
no excuse not to thrash the daylights out of it either and have some fun.

The price on the NOS Judy XC is crazy to me. I'm sure they are rare, but is there any real desire to have the lowest of the 3 models?

Woz":4x4kuvnk said:

While this is insane, you can't confuse Retro with NOS. You can pick up functional and
virtual unworn STX-RC equipped bikes still for peanuts if you look in the right place. Not exotic, but
no excuse not to thrash the daylights out of it either and have some fun.

Click to expand...

I think I get your point... :?

But by the same token, would you want to pay say £1500 for a complete Tioga built wheel, that's Retro Not NOS, and had 30 years worth of use....?

I dont think I would want to ride it, because of the money or the safety aspect.

But the point remains the same, NOS or Retro, the cost of some of this stuff is unfathomable to me.

Re:

I'm humbled by the disposable income on display here. I have to admit that I can't even begin to justify £300 for a rare titanium stem. My hobby is clearly at the opposite end of the spectrum to some of the discussions I read here. I think I'm being self- indulgent getting hold of a couple of xtr bits.