Crossthreaded88

Just found a Puch Meteor Luxe on CL and went to see it and the guy only wanted $40 for it. I don't know much about vintage foreign 10 speeds outside of Peugeot, Motobecane, Nishiki, and the other big makers of mass produced road bikes. The only Puch I remember from back in the day was a moped. I 've heard guys on this forum gush about Puch bikes and from what I know about bike flesh in general it was a good buy at that price. Obviously this is not a full Campy model it has Suntour components, 27 inch wheels and a cool Swiss rack on the back. Very little is available as far as information on these bikes and models and their pecking order. I am not blind and know this is not one of those exciting collector bikes but I think it was more of an entry level school/work bike. Do these bikes still have any collector value? As soon as I change the tires and do a wheels off clean and tune I will post pictures. There is a similar bike in a 10 year old thread in C&V burgundy with gold decals. Is it because Puch is a small manufacturer they are less common and just because of that more desirable?

noobinsf 

This is not a top-line model, so no collector's value, but you got a solid bike for $40. Puchs are well-built, and Suntour are good components. You could do a lot worse for $40.

wrk101

Rarity has little/no impact on value. Look at the Chicago built Schwinn Paramounts. They bring high prices from collectors, even though they made a ton of them. Collectors want desirable models, some are rare, some are not. Puch is less common because they were less successful in the marketplace.


Consider the early 1965/1966 Ford Mustang. Ford made more than 1 million of them. Meanwhile, similar models from less popular brands like the Rambler/AMC Marlin. 10,000 were sold in 1965, less than 5,000 were sold in 1966.

Guess which one is more desirable by collectors?

The very high production volume Mustang.

I've never seen this ---> " I've heard guys on this forum gush about Puch bikes" In fact, the better Puch's were typically but not always sold as A/D bikes. Most of the Puch's I have seen were nothing special, I would not gush about them. There are exceptions. I had one that was full first generation Dura Ace. I would "gush" over the Dura Ace, not so much the Puch frame it came on which went to the co op.

Crossthreaded88

I think it was a guy in the "saved from the dump" section bragging about scoring a vintage Puch with all Campy on it. From the responses he got from other forum members it sounded like they were "gushing" with jealousy about his find. $40 total value? What about a flip? In So Cal, where we ride 365 a bike like this can easily pull $150 regardless of make and model and $200 with tires, cables, and pads.