Oldbikeguy1960
Wore out three sets of tires already!
I don't want everything. To me there is no thrill of the hunt. The thrill to me comes when I have it.It's a fact, some people like to "hoard" things. Folks that think this is a bad thing are always two steps behind the deal.
I have never heard of someone that collected say Ferrari's,(insert any quality item here), for years, called a hoarder, he will be a "curator" at his estate auction.
Where would this hobby be if everything in basements, attics and man-caves, became available all at once ? What would become of the "the thrill of the hunt" ?
Dead boring.
Just remember, You can't have everything, where would you put it .
A poor crazy person is called crazy, a rich crazy person is called eccentric. Hoarders or curators fall in the same parameters. Remember a few years back the rash of shows about hoarders, and people going in to clean their stuff out and free them from the burdens of all the stuff they accumulated but didnt need?
Not many reality shows about guys curating things though, at least in my world.
I am not saying anyone has to feel as I do, or dump all their stuff on the market to make me happy. Here is the scenario as I see it. I use the term items as a generic term because all the hobbies and lifestyles are suffering from this same situation.
Before the investors got involved a person that wanted a particular item could usually find one in reasonable shape and mostly complete. It was not necessary to spend years and hundreds or thousands of dollars on hard to find parts that were being held until the prices were at the level needed to make a big profit.
Then the investors stepped in and bought up all the items they could get their hands on, sold the best at much higher prices to other investors and parted everything else out eliminating all the excess in the market that would lower the prices of the items they were investing in.
Now there is a captive market on the item, and they can charge whatever they feel like and you can buy it or not.
Ten years ago I built an entire December 1971 Disc Brake Orange Krate from parts including a frame from a show bike and a complete 6-71 disc brake wheel. The whole bike cost less to build than the rear wheel sells for now.
Or what about the Cook Brothers cruiser bike on eBay? The last I saw I was over $60,000 and still had not hit reserve. For a bike that wasnt even that popular in its day.
I am not trying to make enemies here, although this and another thread has done so to the point one member and I had to be put on mutual ignore. Sometimes I guess I strike a nerve. If that is so bad I don't know what to say. It strikes my nerve to accept that a Krate disc wheel can be on the market for $2700 and the going rate for complete drum brake hubs is approaching $500. It seems like that's ok with a lot of people as long as nobody complains about it.
It isnt so much the hoarders, or collectors I am focused on herr, It is the Investors that drive up markets to unbeluevable prices and when the bottom falls out they take a lot of people with them that bought these items at hyperinflated prices and now are unable to get out of them and brake even. It is happening now in the A body Mopars and a couple other hobby items i have been involved in.
Hope this post doesn't go south on me.
My name is Rob, and I approve this rant