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I like how the death of middle class can be seen in something as silly as used bike parts. Pre-covid I could pop onto local marketplaces and find just about anything for any price point, but nowadays it's either recent extreme low end (more often than not sold by people who are too lazy to check amazon, nevermind ali, for comparable parts and realise that they are asking way too much), or like-new quality extreme high end, new or vintage, for insane prices. Midrange is gone, imperfect/fixer-upper high-end for midrange prices is gone, niche parts (that are not cranked to absolute bejesus) are gone, there's a big jump between BSO garbage and fred sled paraphernelia, and also dwindling variety.
Case in point, something as simple as turn of the century cantilever brakes are impossible to find now, used to have to filter these out because cheap ones were everywhere and none of my bikes had a need for 'em, but now I need a pair to remain period correct on my new build and there's a single hit for any cantis in my entire city, for 80 fucking bucks. They are super nice, all shiny and chrome and polished, and for someone looking for that probably worth the price, but they are also way too nice for what I'm building, which is a humble 90s mostly Shimano-equipped touring bike. Also need an inch quill stem that goes up instead of down, but those seem to also have ceased to exist, only shoulders down ass up fixiebait shit can be found. 36-spoke hubs are all gone too, for that matter, modern 32-hole ones (vast majority of them for dick brakes) flood the listings, I've given up and ordered a new chink Shufeng, it looks inconspicuous enough.
