Back in '80 I was working at Island Cycles on Naples in Long Beach, and we were selling these little MX bikes from Japan that were individually color coordinated in annodized colors, and they were like full-campy equipped road bikes- all alloy, three piece cranks- beautiful- I think they were about $180 or something and I almost bought one for myself even though I was racing USCF road.
The same bikes on ebay now would go for untold ridiculous sums of money- even more if sold for parts.
That December I went to the BMX World indoor championships in Indianapolis, and started wondering why I was riding 200 km road races, in the saddle for five or six hours, for a lousy $200 in amateur prizes, when these teenage kids were winning a purse of several thousand dollars in races that lasted less than 30 seconds.