Nowhere near as amusing - I picked up a '73 Carlton Raleigh Competition frame several years ago for $80 as a rather nice beater bike. Parts came off the frame I was replacing Rode it, Fun! Rode it on gravel. Really fun! Took it out into the hilly gravel roads. Grinning ear-to-ear fun. But the frame had a couple of issues. Huret derailleur hanger was a challenge for my SunTour derailleur. Seatpin ears were in sad shape. And there wasn't visible braze under the DT shifter clamp stop. (If that's poor, is anything else not up to snuff? This bike is too much fun blasting down steep gravel roads and out here, the hill bottoms are abrupt and severely washboarded. Frame breakers.
So I took the frame to "my" frame builder, asked him to have it stripped, then inspect it, report back and fix the seatlug ears and modify the hanger if it is worth saving. Report? Very little braze in any of the lugs. Two tubes with minor cracks at the lugs - no big deal and easily repaired but clearly due to very inadequate support from the lug and braze. He flowed in the braze that a new frame would take! Work done. frame painted and returned looking like a brand new frame (less decals and stickers) - $1000. For a frame I paid $80 for and that cost as a new bike $500?
Sadly, I've given up gravel riding. Too hard on my brain. I have NFL caliber "loose brain syndrome" (my words) or post TBI susceptibility to further injury. So it's mostly a working truck. (Two racks, 4 panniers; an excellent farmers market bike.) An $1100 grocery bike.
Ben