Whats with this Rebadged stuff?

[honestherman]

I see some people call their bikes Rebadged.. I see that because a bike maker, Did private label for another company. They are calling them Rebadged. They want to claim the Maker rather than the Private label company.
I have a Cadillac Bike, from the 50's. I like it. It will always be a Cadillac to me. Even though it was built by Schwinn. I think it is cooler to be a Cadillac.
Would it not be more rare for me to have a Cadillac than a Schwinn? Less Made. Different color options? Like mine is a deep royal blue, What is left of the paint anyway..
Just wanted to throw this out there for discussion.

 

[Bicycle808]

I guess, if you consider the actual builder of the bike, it can prevent confusion. Recently, a member here saw someone's Mercury and thought they got ripped off b/c the frame was identical to an Elgin they'd just bought. In reality, both bikes were Murray-built frames. Knowing it's a Murray-built bike will help when it comes time to find replacement parts, or if one is trying to figure out the vintage of a given bike, or trying to find correct parts for a restoration. This is why you'll find ppl referring to a bike as an Elgin-badged Murray-built bike. There never was an Elgin factory; Elgin was one of the marques that Sears came up with to sell bikes in their stores, but the frames were built by actual bike manufacturers. Information is good thing; by figuring out who made your bike and what badge it wore, you are learning more about that bike. By referencing a bike by both its badge and its maker on a forum, you are offering more info to ppl reading your post. Remember, ppl might find your forum post on an internet search YEARS after you post it. So, some guy trying to figure out who built his "Cadillac" badged bike will be better able to find out it's Schwinn-built... which will give him access to serial number databases, good info on parts, etc.

Now, as for that other discussion, I guess we get into "rebadging" when a corporation buys a storied marque, closes its factories, and begins to put the once-respected name-brand on their garbage bicycles. B/c ppl might be more likely to buy it, or more likely to pay an extra $20 for it, if it says "Schwinn" on the downtube, rather than "Dorel" or "Pacific"....

 

[honestherman]

Thanks for your input and opinion