27inch

I found a guy selling a brand new 1980 Trek 412 64cm that's brand new in the box, never assembled.
Its dark blue, has a 25.5" frame, has Rigida rims, Silstar cranks, Suntour VXGT derailleur, Dia Compe 500 calipers, Sunshine hubs, 12 speeds, DT shifters, basically it matches the original brochure I found online. The frame says Ishiwatta 022 'Double Butted Three Main Tubes".
He says the bike would have sold for about $375 brand new back in 1980-81.
I don't have a pic, its not advertised anywhere for sale and it still in its box. I would have to assemble it, (which I prefer anyhow).
He's asking $750 firm. (He also offered to swap the oem tires for a fresh set of 27" Bontrager black skinwall tires if I wanted as well. but I'm inclined to leave it with the factory tires as it comes out of the box). I doubt the tires are bad, they feel and look just fine from what I could tell just looking at it in the box.

Does this price seem about right for something like this?

bargainguy

Depends. If you absolutely must have a NOS Trek in the box, there probably aren't too many available.

But you have to consider what an '80 412 is worth. Even in cherry condition, $375-400 is pushing it. So is $750 reasonable? I don't know, you tell me.

GrainBrain

$750? No way. You could spend that much by buying a much higher end bike and getting it repainted imo.

vintagebicycle

I would say first off, $750 would be a lot to spend on an old bike but the OP says this is new in the box, that's a whole different animal than what were used to seeing.
The 412 is a three tube Ishiwatta frame, the forks and stays are Ishiwatta hi-ten steel. In a tall frame, that's probably a good thing. I don't think I'd want my 325 lbs riding a top two 1/2" diameter or smaller seat stays made of tubing .022 thick. Most larger frames, whether advertised or not get a step down in tubing for the stays and forks likely for this reason.

If you break down that bike in parts, figure what it would cost you to build a bike that age brand new, if you managed to find a brand new old stock frame, What will that cost you, sure it may be a higher end model, but what brand with it be? Anything decent is going to cost you big these days. I'd figure no less than $200, plus some hefty shipping for a tall frame, they don't fit in any bike box even stripped down. So a $200 frame is likely a $250 frame after shipping. If its anything really iconic, double it.
figure about $250 for the wheelset, if your lucky enough to find all the parts to build one, because finding a new old stock set like that isn't going to be likely, unless your very patient.
Figure another $125 plus for a vintage derailleur set, that one uses Suntour V, the last pair I saw went for $90 new in the box plus shipping, plus another $45 for a pair of matching shifters.
Tires and tubes of any decent quality will run you $80 these days.
A good saddle another $40, plus shipping, plus you need to hunt down a new old stock seat post, again, likely another $30-40.
Bars and stem, $50? depends on what your after, but most SR stems like that bike uses are going in the $35-45 range, and handle bars about the same. Again, you gotta add shipping because none of these items are coming from the same source.
You need a new old stock crankset, even a cheaper vintage crankset will run you $50, then add a BB for another $35 or so with more shipping.
Then you have brakes, two new old stock calipers or a whole brake set in a box will likely cost you close to $80 if you get lucky and spot one on fleabay.
Again, likely there will be more shipping.
You also need bar tape, and end plugs, another $20, maybe more.
With all these parts, you still have some added labor, your time hunting it all down, and then making it all work together. Plus, chances are you'll splurge a bit here and there, maybe a better saddle, maybe a Brooks B17? Then figure closer to $100 for the saddle, maybe a lighter forged crankset, another $100 or so and so on.

Building something like this starting with a used frame, your looking at first buying the frame, stripping it and paying someone to properly refinish it and replace all the lettering or decals. I just repainted a 1950's Raleigh Sports, I paid $100 for the bike in fair shape with mismatched paint on various parts. It was made up from three different bikes. The paint alone cost me $165, by the time I bought primer, filler primer, sealer, and the black lacquer, then a bottle of gold One shot to redo all the pinstripes, another 9 hours making up all the jigs to repaint the pinstripes exactly as they belong, plus a reproduction water slide decal set, added another $50 plus shipping from the UK, the whole repaint cost me over $300 before any labor is figured and I have over 30 hours in it so far. AND, when its all done, it'll just be another restored old Raleigh Sports. Not an original, and likely too perfect to really use the way I'd like to because I've got way too much money and time in it making it perfect.
If it were a modern bike, I may well be dealing with a high metallic candy color or multiple colors and gold leaf, plus base coat, clear coat and higher dollar paint.

So if I came across something I liked, that was my size, that was new old stock, perfect, never molested or abused, and I could afford it, I'd likely jump on it. Especially if it were only $750. Like mentioned above, where on earth will you ever find another one? More even so, when will you ever find another one that is for sale.

bikemig 

That is a crazy price given the alternatives even during a pandemic that has pushed up the prices of used bikes. If you want to spend that much money, you can find a better bike than this.

27inch

The way I see it is I can't go back to 1980 and buy a new bike and I absolutely do not want anything any newer. I'm not set on any brand, just so its older. I already have two brand new Ross bicycles new in the box, both are 1980 models, one Super Grand Tour, and one Grand Tour, plus I bought two smaller frame Super Grand Tours just to get the Arabesque Shimano 600 group off them and wheelsets. I paid $275 each for four, parted out two, sold the two new framesets and recovered $145 just out of two small frames and unwanted parts. I used the one set of parts to rebuild another 25" Ross Gran Tour and the other is waiting for a suitable frame.

VB is right, building a new vintage bike from parts, regardless of the make or model would cost a fortune these days, 27" wheels are hard to fine, even harder in vintage form.
I did get lucky and bought a case of Weinmann concave rims in 27" and a full case of 12 pair of Araya alloy rims. That was 11 years ago, I've not seen another deal like that since.
The Trek 412 uses Rigida 1320 rims, which are getting super hard to find. I picked up a super clean Peugeot U08 a few months ago, but the wheels are rusted on the bottom where they sat with flats on concrete for years. I've been searching for months trying to find a new pair of Rigida Chrolux 27" rims for that bike but they seem non existent unless I want to pay $100 each plus shipping to get a pair from overseas.
By the way, has anyone priced spokes lately? I drove 2 hours up and back to the nearest bike shop that sells spokes and they wanted $2 each for a set of DT stainless straight gauge. I left and came home and ordered four boxes of 100 for $212, two boxes in the most common sizes I use.

The same guy who has the Trek has four 25" mid 70's Motobecane Grand Jubile bikes still in the box, but he won't sell those, he says he'll die with them.
He's got a whole garage full of new bikes from the 60's and 70's, it looks like he must have either had a bike shop or just bought someone out. None are high end, all are mid range models, basically what I tend to like best. I'm only really interested in bikes I would have looked at buying back then, and there was absolutely no way I'd have spent more than $400 for a bike back then. Just the same there's no way I'd spend any amount of money on any bike made it China these days. .

Trakhak

I'd consider sending an inquiry to the current management of Trek to ask whether they'd like to buy one of their 1980 bikes in the original box. That's a bit of history.

27inch

I'm under the impression that he had a few of these, he told me he had the 25.5" (64cm), and one 21,5" model in a 414. He said someone was coming today to get the 414.
My buddy, who told me about this guy bought a pair of new old stock 1978 Raleigh's, a Super Grand Prix and a Grand Prix for $600 and $550, he's shipping the GP to someone out west who wants it. When I get done work I'm going to take the company van home and go see if I can make a deal, if the second one is still there I'm leaning toward buying both, and any other new in the box bike he's go.
The guy's a bit of a hoarder, his whole house and garage are packed with bikes, mostly all new, and he's got huge display cases all over the place with new old stock parts in them from the 70's. The problem is he won't sell anything he hasn't already decided to sell, there's no talking him into selling something he didn't already decide to let go of. He had a couple of new old stock Schwinn's that he sold before I got there last week, he wanted $500 for a 24" Varsity and $650 for a pair of Letour II's. They were gone by the time I got there. I wanted to buy the Varsity because it was identical to one I used to have but sold years ago, for almost that much back then.
He was mad because the guy who bought the Varsity turned out to be a dealer who just flipped it for a profit on FB. He made it clear that he'll never sell another thing to that guy again. He was seriously upset that the guy lied and said he wanted it for his own collection and then turned around and sold it right away.

Takeshi

Might take a while to find the right customer who will be willing to pay top $$. People who are buying budget new bikes under $1K aren't the same people who will pay similar money for vintage imho. Cool to see something like this preserved, though.

tkamd73 

You’ll just have to leave it in the box. The minute you pull it out and assemble it, it’s a 375 to 400 dollar bike.
Tim

barnfind

Not the same if the op is looking at New in the box bikes, a repainted anything isn't the same thing. When it comes to most older bikes, one of the quickest ways to ruin its value is to repaint it unless its a total loss cause to start with, then you probably are better off just finding something nicer in the first place.
Also, not everyone wants to go through all that work. Lately I'm finding that most people only want read to ride bikes, fewer and fewer folks know how to or want to work on their own bikes.

barnfind

With the way bikes have been selling lately, I'm not sure there's any such thing these days as a $375-400 bike if its complete and ready to ride.

There's likely a lot more new old stock bikes sitting in back rooms and garages than we all realize. I've bought dozens of them over the years.
I think what happens all too often is that a dealer buys up a ton of the popular models that he sells the most of, but only a buys a handful of the higher end bikes.
When the model year changes the older bikes get pushed aside, and if the new models offer a lot of big changes, those bikes in the storeroom go unsold.
I bought out a guy who retired about 10 years ago who had dozens of 'forgotten' bikes in his storage trailer. Most were just run of the mill entry level bikes, but since many were 40 to 60 years old, they were now collectible. He sold each one to me at his cost minus 30% and was happy to get it so he could retire. I sold each bike individually over the next few months, and every last one sold for good money. Most who bought the new bikes didn't want them assembled, they were going to keep them in the box forever.

barnfind

As to the value of a new old stock 412, as stated above, they were $375 to $400 bikes brand new back in 1980-81. If you figure in inflation, and the fact that any bike you buy today will be from China or Taiwan, that old Trek is likely really a $1400 bike by today's standards.
Ishiwatta tubes were every bit comparable to Reynolds 531, and the Trek had a big advantage over most three tube bikes in that they used double butted tubes vs straight gauge tubes in those bikes, making them a bit lighter than most.
They also had a ride that surpassed most other bikes, and certainly most others in their price range.

Take a look around and see what bikes are selling for these days, they're asking and getting $450-500 for used Schwinn Varsity's and other entry level bikes, let alone a Trek touring bike. Also keep in mind that back in the day, Trek wasn't your average bike company, they didn't make low end bikes, their models started in the upper mid range area and went up. They weren't like Schwinn and Raleigh with the array of bikes from top to bottom, they only sold upper end models. They were a small company that specialized in road bike frames and road bikes. 1980-81 was very much still the infancy of Trek, with them having only been around five or six years at that point.
To me those first bikes were the best, they were trying to make a name for themselves and their bikes showed it.

Kabuki12

I have never bought a new in the box old bike. I have purchased bikes that were never ridden “new” bikes from the seventies and it is nice to have a new 1970’s bike. With vintage bikes it is whatever you are willing to pay and even though that seems high to most of us, it is your bike and your money.

27inch

I got done work yesterday, made sure I could take the company van home with me, and gave the guy a call around 5:30 already to make the drive. He tells me he sold both of the 412's, the 25.5 and the 21" that he had, both sold during the day. He said didn't have any other 27" road bikes he wanted to sell. I called my buddy to see if he maybe just changed his mind about selling them but he called me back a few minutes later and said he called the guy and he was told that someone came down from NY that wanted a his and her pair and bought them both.
I probably should have just forked over the cash when I saw it the other day.
So much for adding a new toy to the garage this week I guess.

bikemig 

There's nothing that special about an old bike that is new in a box. You will still need to overhaul it to get it running. For that price, you can get a better quality bike.

Here is a 64 cm Raleigh Competition GS that looks clean on eBay for $600 plus $100 shipping. I'm sure that there are other bikes your size and that quality for that amount of money. This bike has better parts than the 412 and a better frame:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-Rally-...4AAOSwzwxeVBWA

This Bertin is cool at $449 BIN:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bertin-Cycl...kAAOSwA9xejqW5

Here is a Miyata 610 at $275. The price is not bad but the shipping is high since the S is going through a shop to do the work:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-198...sAAOSwO7deqx-W

There are plenty more fish out there in the sea but you get the idea.

27inch

I'm not sure how any of those compare to a New Old Trek still in the box.
All three are used bikes with various changes and wear on them from years of use.
I have dozens of better bikes, but no new Treks in a box.
The sole attraction that bike had was the fact that its brand new. I would likely never ride it, it would get assembled, adjusted, and kept, the box would be saved.
If I had gotten the smaller bike, I'd have likely stripped it and sold the frame, in hopes of finding a perfect frame to put those parts on.
I did the same with a few other bikes I've got. Of the three bikes above, the Raleigh is likely the best of the bunch but its paint and decals are rough, the wheels on a Competition are 700c not 27".
While the Bertin does look interesting, it doesn't really interest me much. The Miyata looks well worn by the pics. The Miyata equipped about the same as the Trek 412, but with lots of wear. I'd spend far more turning that bike into what the Trek would be right out of the box. It would need a full restoration.
I'm also not a fan of larger Japanese bikes, the geometry rarely fits me well. The Trek 412 fits me, I've ridden a couple over the years. The feel of the 412 always reminded me of my Peugeot U08 but a lot lighter.
I also would never spend that kind of money on an eBay bike, I strongly prefer to see first hand what I'm buying. I bought a few bikes off eBay in the past and every last one was a bit of disappointment in one way or another.
What I really wanted was the 24" new in the box Schwinn Varsity he had before, but I missed that one too. I've got a few here now but none are perfect, every one was bought used in various states of repair. I took one and went through it with a fine tooth comb so to speak and made it perfect mechanically but its got its share of battle scars and wear that can never be repaired.
For years as a kid and teen I rode bikes with steel rims, never once did one show any wear through of the chrome on the rims, but every last one I find these days has its chrome worn off the sidewalls of the rims. I put over 10,000 miles on a Varsity I had years ago that I bought used no less and the rims were as perfect as the day it was built. I wore out hubs and bearing races, but not the rims. Brake pads would wear out pretty fast but the chrome never got scarred or worn away, and I lived in an area with lots of dirt roads, trails, and farm fields. I did buy a small frame Varsity about four years ago, but I didn't realize that the Schwinn S6 rims and hubs had dates on them, the new bike was a '79, and the bike I have here is a 1974. I had intended to just strip the small frame bike for its wheels and Huret derailleurs but they weren't the same as those on my '74. The date codes were wrong. So I left the too small bike in its box packed away for safe keeping till I find one that can use its parts.

bikemig 

Fair enough if all you care about is that the bike is new in a box, then sure nothing else will really compare to that.

barnfind

I know your looking for New in the box but I saw this today, it looks pretty clean by the pics, https://southjersey.craigslist.org/bik/7156088700.html
There have been a few used 412 models listed lately but most are pretty pricey, but all seem to sell.
Its not new old stock but it looks decent. The early Treks have been getting higher and higher lately, especially since the latest issues everyone is dealing with.
The newer aluminum and carbon frame bikes don't seem to be garnering the same attention.
Maybe people are just looking for American made again. Or maybe its just anything that's not from China, but bikes like your after have gotten hot again and this many years down the line, those early models are pretty scarce, especially in nice condition.

nesteel 

Put it in perspective: $750 is more than halfway to a very nice vintage Paramount.
Why waste it on a low level Trek, even if it is "new" in the box. BTW, once you pull it out of the box and assemble it for wall art, it isn't NOS anymore.
If that's your game, then play it. I just don't see the point.

27inch

That's sort of like saying why did you by the Ford when you could have spent twice as much and bought a Lincoln?

The Trek and Paramount are different bikes, and no one was dangling a new old stock Paramount in front of me for sale either.

No, but it'll be a perfect as any old bike of its kind could ever be. You could spend hundreds just trying to get an old used bike back to that point and it still not be 'new' again. The paint could be a shade off, the decals different, the tires different, the spokes different, etc.
Years ago I 'restored' an old Schwinn Typhoon, I was given the bike for free, it was in rough shape but complete. The bike was a 1965 model.
Both rims were perfect but the spokes had turned gray and the tires were dryrotted. I was lucky in that you could still by new Westwind tires from Schwinn back then.
I broke down each wheel, and respoked both wheels with spokes from Schwinn. The paint was still available in rattle cans, it was pretty much the only way to match old Schwinn Flamboyant red. It took four trys to make the paint match just right, to get the candy effect all over just right. All the chrome on the bike was in near mint shape except for the fenders, The front fender was cut off short and the rear fender was dented badly. I went to Schwinn and bought two brand new fenders.
I put the bike all back together, making sure every last bit was perfect. One thing that bothered me was that the handle bars had to be replaced and instead of saying 1965 in the middle under the clamp, they now said 1978. I put that bike up on a rack for safe keeping. 20 years later I found a brand new 1966 Typhoon still in the box, same color, same size. I put that bike all together and next to the restored bike, it looked rough. The chrome on the fenders was a different color, as was the chrome on the bars. The newer parts on the restored bike were more silver, the older chrome was darker and deeper looking. The original bikes tires were flat black, the newer replacement tires were shiny, smoother rubber. The fenders were also different, the rear brace was higher on the restored bike, the new Schwinn fenders had changed over the years and what I had used was the later style. They were wrong for the bike. The spokes I used were also different. The new spokes from Schwinn were straight gauge and very bright silver color spokes, the original bike had butted spokes that were more of a galvanized color. The newer spokes looked better but they were also wrong. The rear fender on the restored bike had a separate hole for the rear reflector just below the fender brace, the new old stock bike had the reflector hole in the middle of the two fender brace rivets. The newer fenders were also 'flatter' with less arch. The color was also different, the original bike was a darker red, similar but not the same as the paint they had sold me in 1978. The newer red was brighter and much lighter. The older red was more on the burgundy side of red. The repainted bike's paint job was better overall, but the lack of small defects made it look too perfect and that stood out sitting next to the original bike. It bothered me so bad I sold the restored bike and eventually sold the new old bike as well when I got the right offer. I now have a 1969 Typhoon in green new in the box that will never get assembled or taken out of the box.
Plus I've got a daily rider of the exact same model with all the patina a 50 year old bike would have that I ride quite often.

I tend to buy bikes I either owned before or would have bought back in the day and either just didn't or didn't have the money back then. I rarely buy anything that I wasn't familiar with back then or a bike I wouldn't have ever bought back in the day. While I did own one Paramount years ago, I never particularly liked that bike, mostly due to the fact it didn't fit me well. It took a ton of modifications and changes to make it ridable and I still rode my Varsity more back then because it was far more comfortable. The simple fact the Paramount never had a kickstand was reason enough not to take it out as much. I couldn't stand the fact it didn't have brake extension levers and the shifters were too hard to reach as well. I did eventually ad a set of barcon shifters to it but I still preferred the stem shifters.

Walter

$750 is a lot of money for what was not a top of the line model back in 1980. As was mentioned, the moment it comes out of the box it’s just a used bike. What is a variable here is the frame size as it is in a size range that is much less common than most and will have less options to compete against for its potential buyer.

Despite that, 750 can get you on to many vintage bikes that were much higher line than this Trek when new and that’s where I’d look to spend my money. But, if a NIB Trek floats your boat, buy it. Despite not knowing you I’ll still venture to say it won’t be the worst thing you’ve ever done with your money.

Edit: Reading through the thread more carefully, I see the bike sold. Bummer.

GrainBrain

Good point, I watched a guy on Craig's try and sell a Schwinn Letour I think, fully done over with great looking new paint. Claimed to have spent $500 on painting it, great looking chrome. It sat forever at $750, kinda wished I had bought it but the top tube was too long. Be sure to post when you do snag that NOS bike, those make great threads

27inch

The point is that the new in the box bike was a Trek 412, not a higher model, if it were a higher end model, I wouldn't have any interest in it. I think the 412/414 model was the only one to use 27" wheels, anything else would have had 700c. Of the whole Trek line, the 412-414 were the only two models I'd want from those years. They were still older style bikes with older components. The 412 had a more relaxed geometry, and a shorter top tube which made it a nicer bike to ride.

Walter

I understand wanting a specific bike. Obviously, you weren't the only person interested either. We always think about the "ones that got away." I bought a 1977 vintage Motobecane Gran Jubile some years ago for similar reasons. When I bought my own first "real" bike it was a Motobecane Nomade b/c that was all I could afford. The Jubile sitting on the rack next to it was what I wanted. In reality Jubiles before 1977 were better bikes but it was 1977 when I was a 14 year old standing in the shop. Not NIB but very clean and original, I paid about $200 including shipping. Prices have gone up.