Subtitled:
“pre-estate” sale of 25 year collection
Who is this mysterious Bluetarp?
Hi, I’m not Bluetarp, I’m Phil Marshall (RMS37) and I’m posting this second hand introduction for my friend, neighbor (4 blocks removed), and fellow bicycle collector Ron Summer.
I’m writing this for two reasons:
First, after collecting for over 25 years, Ron has decided to sell the bulk of his balloon collection. We agreed that the logical first place to list what is available and begin selling items is here on the CABE.
Secondly, Ron has been fighting macular degeneration for most of the time he has been in this hobby and has been legally blind for several years. Ron still has enough sight to enjoy the hobby but not enough to handle reading and responding to emails. Because of that I will be organizing and facilitating the sale here on the CABE for Ron.
Ron Summer
Many of you may know Ron from his long involvement in this hobby. If you don’t know Ron by name you may know him as Mr. Colson. After years as an active cyclist and lightweight aficionado, Ron turned his interest to balloon tired bicycles and settled on the Colson brand as his niche in the hobby. Ron has studied and collected Colson heavily for years building an excellent representative collection of their bicycles and an equally large collection of Colson specific and high end generic parts and accessories.
In the last year Ron has rekindled his interest in lightweights and early bicycles and has sold some of his Colson collection to finance a move in that direction. Ron has now decided to liquidate the remainder of his Colson and Balloon collections save for two bicycles and the parts to finish them.
Contacting Ron
This thread will be the home base for the sale, while it lasts, for listing and posting pictures of what is for sale, and the Bluetarp Private Mailbox will be your access portal to contacting Ron regarding the items you are interested in purchasing.
Ron and I discussed how best to handle transferring information from prospective buyers to Ron and we decided that using the Private Mail system on this site will ensure people can record their requests in writing and that they will be documented as to the order they are received in.
To contact Ron; PM him on this site and I will forward the information, along with the order in which it is received, to Ron. Please include your name and phone number because, as I noted Ron cannot respond by email and you will need to complete your deals with Ron by phone. (Ron is planning on gluing a phone to his head for the duration of the sale.)
All sales will be confirmed by Ron via phone and I will update postings to note what has been sold. I will not be answering individual emails to this site as my time will be fully consumed with other aspects of this sale.
Sale Items
I am preparing lists of what is available and I will begin with lists of the Headbadges today and Original Literature next week.
Lists of complete and project bicycles will follow along with listings of lights, horns and other accessories. The process will end with the sale of miscellaneous generic Colson parts like forks and headsets/crank parts. To keep moving forward we will try to focus on what has been listed rather than items that have not yet been fully cataloged and priced.
Ron and I will try to estimate fair market prices for sale items but some of the items are very rare and hard to estimate as there are no easy comps. The prices listed will be to get the ball rolling so if you want to offer on something or make a group offer for a bundled price you can call Ron to negotiate.
As noted above, the actual sale and any final price negotiation on all items is entirely up to Ron. My part of this sale is photographing, listing, and posting the items Ron is selling along with helping him pack the sold items and get them to the shipper.
Shipping
Any negotiations regarding shipping cost need to be made with Ron at the time of sale.
As Items sell, I will be helping Ron with the packing and shipping. Smaller items should go out quickly but larger items or those that require more elaborate packing will be dealt with in the order of sale but will be shipped on a biweekly basis as we can get them prepared to go. If we become backlogged by the volume of items we are shipping I will post here to advise buyers how things are going. Bicycles and parts can also be delivered free to the upcoming Seattle Old Bike Swap at the end of March.
And…..
The best laid plans….We have considered this sale at some length but obviously we will adjust our procedures as necessary as we get deeper into the process, again, I will try to keep everyone up-to-date and in the game with posts on this thread.
Best,
Phil Marshall
