Couldn't agree with you more, I think for many of us a first memory would be an old gusset goose or similar from the same era.
Regards the price of the complete in the ebay listing you presented, I think unfortunately with the current crazy prices in the market that is about what people are expecting. Whether it's worth that or not depends on whether there are people out there prepared to 'hit the button', and at the moment (maybe through 'lockdown syndrome' maybe through lack of knowledge
) there are a few that do.
Imho though, if your prepared to do a little work you should be able to build yourself one for a little over half that price.
If your prepared to look around and shop outside of eBay a 79 motomag f&f can be found for around ?200ish. e.g.
https://bmxmuseum.com/forsale/384700If your prepared to talk to museum sellers (even when they don't list as offering international sales) some will ship to you. Some flat out won't, but many will. This seller would, as he regularly sells internationally on the bay too.
So that's $260 for the frame (~?207 at todays change rate)
But remember shipping, about $100, or ?80
Then you'll get clobbered for import duties on arrival of the package at our boarder (and they're arses), about 1/3 the cost as a rule of thumb, so another ~?65
So, all in for f&f, ~?352
Nice set of early tuff, shop around, don't be fooled by stupid eBay BIN prices, and look to spend no more than ?200, depending on age, condition, etc. Rough saveable ones you should get for quite a bit less.
Bars, gooseneck, chainring & crank, really does depend what finish you're after, period correct Ashtabula, snowflakes, and box bars, or? But even with the former you could get change from estimating ?100/piece, quite easily.
so, ?300
Seat & post, again, will depend how period correct you want to be, but say a generic post and era right seat could possibly think of ?100
Pedals, depends, anything from ?20 to 200+ for the purists.
say ?100
Tyres, same sentiment as pedals.
say ?100
then it's down to the smalls, of grips, chains, seat clamp, etc.
Say ?200.
So, all in around
?1350 and you could have a great build, if you're lucky with the sourcing of the parts. And, whilst the smile used to come from looking in the shop windows, waiting for Christmas or birthday to arrive, and then thrashing the result around the streets, fields, parks, most now comes from hunting the parts down, getting them for sensible prices, and building the bike. Then riding it too, but no where near as well as you did at 10-16 years old
.
And, btw, the above are rough estimates, you could possibly spend a bit less (repo tyres <?50, repo seat the same, as examples), but you could also easily spend a heck of a lot more. It really just comes down to you, snd what you'll be happy with.
Good luck in your endeavours
