Today I biked into town against high winds, but believe me, Minnesota, I'm not complaining. I was on a mission to find a glass piggy bank as video prop, and sure enough, I found this cutie in the first antique shop I visited.
Cost me eight bucks plus tax. No idea how long it had been on the shelf, but the price certainly had not gone up recently due to inflation, commodity prices, transportation costs, devaluation of the dollar or supply and demand. I'm reasonably confident Colorado antiques retailers aren't walking through their shops, marking up prices of other inventory on the shelves, either.
If anything, there's downward pressure on their prices, just as there is on homes right now. I mean, who needs a butter churn — or a bigger house payment with a longer commute?
But bicycle parts?
Bike dealer Jim Thill reports that he watched the wholesale price of a certain item increase 25% over the weekend, and a 50% over the past few months. Unfortunately, it's probably an indicator of the dollar's weakness, and not a sign that bikes are becoming the new hybrids.
