I look out for interesting old bikes or parts on Ebay, and some of the sales are shocking yet people bid.
1) 1963ish Hobbs Of Barbican – I think Hobbs finished in the fifties.
2) Holdsworth for sale, a potential punter points out in the Q/A's that the seller has something really collectable so the price goes up. In fact it was the cheapest road holdsworth ot the 70/80s
It goes on. Loads of resprayed manhole cover steel frames being advertised as 50's classic Claud Butlers etc.
And since when was the late 80s early 90s vintage?
Vintage Renault Megane anyone.

oldgit – I stopped looking at suff on there for that very reason.

My Holdsworth is an Equipe. Gaspipe (but lugged), and free (friend gave it to me). It's nowhere near as nice as the Holdsworth Pro another friend has.

I'm in the process of getting a 1960s hercules off my dad, made in nottingham, out of scaffold poles…

And since when was the late 80s early 90s vintage?

Apparently it is! While looking for replacements bits for my Veloce groupset, most titles call it vintage Veloce, it came with a bike in 1999. 😯

That would make me positively antique!

rant fail!

Vintage does not mean old. it means its the best of its time. so you could well have vintage 2009

I don't think that's what it means in these cases, and if it did it would be even more ridiculous.
As in most cases it's the tat of the time, but because it's 'old' it suddenly becomes vintage