Kommisar89

Your dad is probably correct as far as what was true in the mid 80's. The whole Campy vs. Shimano and to a certain extent Suntour started around that time as both Japanese companies introduced products that were functionaly superior to Campagnolo at least until Suntour went under and Campagnolo caught up with Shimano in the early 90's. That has no bearing on the modern collector market. People don't buy high-end collectable bicycles based on their cost to performance ratio as they might buy a new bike. An Italian made Bianchi with full Campy, preferably in celeste, will outsell a Suntour or Shimano equipped example regardless of its actual performance capabilities. So you can tell dear ol' dad that he is right but quit living back in the day and welcome to the 21st century OK, don't really tell him that but you know what I mean. The value of a collectable is not based on its functional capability.

As to why that all came to be...well Campagnolo was a respected component manufacturer but competing on the same level as other manufacturers of the time probably until the introduction of the Gran Sport parallelagram rear derailleur around 1952 I think. Then throughout the 50's and 60's they built on their reputation as the maker of the finest cycling products available. Suntour's slant parallelagram rear derailleur design was better but they couldn't gain any tractoin in the market. Campagnolo was the 800-lb gorrilla. The in the 80's their patent ran out and Shimano brought out a drop parallelagram rear derailleur, superior front derailleur designs and of course indexed shifting. That put Campagnolo in the position of playing catch-up until things equalized around 1992 with the introduction of Campy's Ergo lever indexed shifting system. Along the way Suntour went out of business. And nothing much has changed since then.