Disagree with the OP. The market for vintage road bikes is way down, complete bikes and parts.
With diligent fingering a keyboard with eBay, and some patience I find parts are far lower priced than only a few years ago. Same with bike swap meets.
Even the rare items, CLB Pro brakes to Campy Cambio Corsa and early Simplex are now circulating for lower prices. Just last month watched a full and nice condition Cambio Corsa setup including hubs sell for $360. Mint CLB Pro brakeset for $39. Today I just scored a Super Record bb for $12 shipped.
Suntour barcons? Patience pays and $25 is not uncommon. Premium tubulars? Two recent and seperate transactions ~~~ FMB n.o.s. $75 pair shipped. Dugast n.o.s. $80 pair shipped. That's for pair's!
Of course there's the crazy asking and items that are listed on Craigslist and eBay, often for YEAR's, but who cares? That's not dictating the market. Only what sells is the true telltale.
Lastly, for those who think certain and prominent vintage bike parts / eBay sellers whom specifically had long offered at absurd high prices, its now the time to re-consider them. Recently acquired excellent Campy S.Record parts at WAY under any others. I put my offer in, we went two rounds of countering and it was done. Pleased.
The buy it now is screwy too for sellers. One seller that I've purchased a fair amount from will list as auction, buy it now and or best offer with a very low and miniscule start price. So, in the past, I've put in a best offer far HIGHER than his listed opening. Seller declines. OK then, I follow the auction and have been top bidder for way BELOW my first offer to the seller. And... consider the other bidders were below me??? Lol.
Last edited by crank_addict; 02-11-20 at 02:50 PM.