Sunday, July 26, 2009

"...did you make your own NJS stamp?"




"Q: Hi there, I'm bidding on this stem. Just out of curiosity...did you make your own NJS stamp? I still intend to bid on this stem regardless of your answer because frankly I need an 80mm stem and Nitto makes a nice product. Here is why I ask: I checked out some of your previous auctions and all of the stamps look the same. Good, but not quite perfect...a little large and sharp looking and then a few examples with multiple strike marks, also, the stems are not models that I recognize as having been offered as NJS approved. I'm not trying to be a jerk about this, I've actually had the idea to do the same thing on my own before and I can see why stems would be the logical choice (soft metal, flat striking surface) Like I said, just curious. I'm not trying to ruin this for you.

A: Yikes! No that would be bordering on some sort of fraud. All of the stuff we have we have pulled out of older bikes (and yes some of it seems pretty strange but it is what it is). i am a mom of 6 kids that works part time as an RN and my Husband races bikes. Neither of us have either the time, inclination, or skills to do anything of the sort, and after running through this with my Husband we concluded that if we did, it would be much simplier and smarter to stick to parts that were at least colorably recognizeable to the track community. A couple of years ago we bought out a bike shop that went out of business and a lot of this stuff comes from that inventory. There seems to be a lot of NJS stamping on older (like 1970s-early 1980s) mundane type parts as well as some unusual bikes (ie a stainless steel shiny "Kubuki Submariner"?? So the answer to your question is definately no."


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