I get the feeling bikes in the last 5 years have turned into investment vehicles (pun intended) like rare bottles of wine and art. Often by people who have no personal interest in the chosen market, just a place to park money (again with the puns)
1968 Porsche, low-end model? 300k. Dakar winning motorcycle? 15k.
Steel Rolex with scratches? 30k. Early digital quartz watches? 300.
Personally I am waiting for a few things to blow up. Palm Treo and Blackberry phones, Nokia fashion phones (think 7260), and weird Sony cameras (dsc-f828). Immensely hard to predict, but fun nonetheless.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/09/15/vhs-tapes-cl...
Apparently old video game things are going nuts, too. My brother says our family's beat-up copy of Earthbound is worth $300. The old Virtual Boy my other brother picked up for $30 could probably be sold for more than $500 (because it's still in it's original beat-up box). Apparently an old tube TV we have in such demand by video game collectors that the model is hard to find now.
The moral of the story: check eBay when you're getting rid of your old junk.
https://www.ebay.com/str/wunderbid lists many VHS tapes for $1000s. But when I look into the past sales I see any price over $1000 is crossed through (best price accepted, not the asking price). Still some VHS went for $300-$600.
Its almost like we are in a 2-5 year window where you can still buy these museum pieces new from the dealership.
I'll take one old, one new please!
Side note- Surron really needs to work on differentiating themselves away from the EBike scene, if I'm to take them seriously. I pretty much only see kids of affluent families destroying mixed use trails on Surrons or people forgoing any sort of judgement hoping between sidewalk, pavement, drainage ditches. "Mid-Drive Electric Bike you can ride anywhere" is an irresponsible sales pitch. I've not ridden one personally, but they seem roughly equivalent to a 125CC two stroke dirt bike. No Pedals? not a bike.
The redesigned J-series engines on their new motorcycles are smoother and I've heard some people wax nostalgic about the old thumpers and say that the new ones "lack character". I've even heard people speak fondly of the the UCE engines (introduced in the early 2000s) which were hated for a similar "lack of character" when they replaced the older engines (which were originally designed back in the 50s I think).
They also are accustomed to the effects of sub-optimal or economical designs, the main example being vibrations, and learnt to like them. "If it doesn't vibrate hard, stinks, pours oil, yells... it is cannot be a true bike!"
Modern bikes (especially electric) are way less quirks-plagued, more 'linear', easy to exploit and their performances (at equivalent 'cost', inflation-adjusted) are way better on all accounts (grip, brakes, flexibility/driveability, acceleration, max speed, reliability...).