Been dry (without a score) for 2 years. Thought I finally found one today. 50+ boxes of vintage bike parts to sift through, all originally coming from a LBS's excess inventory that had been sold long ago and sitting in storage since. The new owner got the stuff included when he recently bought the building, and knows nothing about bike parts. He was asking $1,500 for it all.

Spent 3 hours sifting. Came up with 2 small boxes and 8 or 10 rims. Some early Rad Pads, impressed Kashimax pads, the typical Pro Neck snap and checkered Cal Lite pads, an NOS brown/blue SE bar pad, maybe 2 dozen 1985 and earlier date-stamped NOS brake cables in white and black, 7B's and Araya 2.125 steel. The rest was all junky no-name road bike stuff, all used. He did have a vintage cast aluminum truing stand though. I didn't see a name, but it had a nice wood base and in between the uprights it was cast with "Pat. Pending".

Went to offer him a fair price of $200.00 for the BMX stuff, and he proceeded to turn me down before I even got the price out. "Nope, I want it all gone".

To make a long story short, he said he was offered $800 already and turned it down, which utterly shocked me. The ONLY thing that could be worth any money would be the truing stand. So my question is: did Phil Wood make a truing stand in the late 70's or early 80's, and is it possible based on my description that the truing stand could be Phil or something similar to be worth that much?

The only way I am going to get any of the BMX stuff is try and figure out why anyone would offer that much for the rest.

Need pic's!! It could be a Wheelsmith or Park!

Interesting in so many ways.

He was lying. I deal with lots of guys who clean out houses and storage units. They always claim to have another offer pending. It's rarely true. It's not that these guys are dishonest, it's just the way they do business. What he was really telling you is "I was asking $1500, but my true baseline for negotiation is $800."

He wants you to buy everything so he can make a decent profit without hauling leftovers to the dump. Which is perfectly understandable. But if you're not willing to pay him $800+ and sell box lots of greasy road bike scraps on eBay for the next six months, the best you can do is make a cash offer on the parts you need. If he says no, call him once in a while until he says yes.

the most I ever spent for stuff like this is about $150 for all. Maybe $200

Yeah, my $200 would have been a solid offer. There was nothing spectacular in there. I doubt anyone could get more than $100 for the other 50 boxes. I may not know road bikes, but I would know a quality item if I saw it.

I thought about calling his bluff by asking him for the name/number of the guy who offered $800.00. My $200 plus the other $800 would break that psychological $1000 mark, and since he did say that the he would consider offers less than $1500, he would be insane to reject that. Like you said, it's probably all BS though.

It's just disappointing to see some things that I know some other vintage members would probably like. There was some nice white date-coded Dia-Compe cables that appeared to be from 1976 or 1977...the earliest I've ever seen. Also black cables from 1980, 81, 84, and 85. The SE pad was nice too. Oh well.

The truing stand could be a VAR (French) - any old stand is pretty valuable as long as all the parts are there. Park has dominated the truing stand market for the last 20 years (although VAR was available until recently) - so any old stand is worth grabbing. I'm looking for a VAR btw.

An old stand could be worth as much as $400 (or more), and 70's road parts are pretty valuable (new or used) so $800 could be a fair price when you consider 50 boxes of parts.

I don't recall Phil making a stand, he's well known for his spoke cutter - that's the wheel related tool I remember.

Sounds like a typical BS artist to me. If he really had an offer for $800, he would have taken that offer.

Let him know that your offer stands, and that if he changes his mind on the BMX stuff only, that you are still willing to make a deal.

My guess is that he'll still be sitting on those boxes of junk next year this time.

SteveM.