Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Antique Fishing Rods

You are a dedicated angler and you have just found what is quite obviously an antique fly rod at a garage sale while on your saturday morning prowl. You findit very interesting so you ask the owner how much it is selling for. He informs you that this was his grandfather,s rod and he has inherited it handed down to him but he knows no more about it. Anyway he believes that it is an antique and he is asking $20 for it. You put on a face and offer him $10. He says look give me $15 and I will include the old reel that belongs with it. You examine the reel old and it looks interesting so you hand over $15 and hope you have made a sound purchase.

Then you put it carefully in your car beside all the other acquisitions of the morning. Later at home you lug all your "stuff" into the house and have a close look at it. A faint inscription on the brass cap below the handle shows the name Hardy Bros, Alnwick England. You then ezamine closely the old grey colored metal fly reel, which has white bone handle, find the same Hardy Bros mark on the front panel along with the name "Model Perfect". This is quite Interesting but just how much it is actually worth you wonder. Have you made a good buy or did you overpay?

You have in the past looked up various items on eBay to see what they cost so maybe an eBay search will provide information. After entering the details in the eBay search box you scroll through the list of fishing reels for sale. There it is "Hardy Model Perfect trout fly reel" listed at $175 and it has not been sold yet. There is still a day to go before the auction ends. Now this is really starting to look good you think. Then you go to the fly rod auctionsand and there are some similar Hardy fly rods listed at $125 to $250 and the first auction ends tomorrow. Can this actually be real? You purchased a rod and reel for just $15 and it looks like it is worth about $500 ?

Yes of course it is true and the next day the auction for the rod ends at $276 and the Model Perfect fly reel is sold for a final bid of$336.50. Your finds are worth over $600 it seems.You have been bitten by the collector bug and your life will never be the same again.

Antique fishing rods are quite hard to find and you will not often come across tremendous buys like this first one. But hey thats how the game is played. This is what makes it all such great fun. It will make you get out of bed at the unearthly hour of 6am every Saturday morning to descend on the first garage sales as soon as they open. You will be called an "early bird" and they will not let you in at some sales but there are always quite a number which will welcome you bright and early before the main rush of people get there. This allows you to get the really good buys before the crowd gets there and cleans them out. For more information about used rods see our website at used rods. and for information on used fishing tackle check this out used fishing tackle

Monday, April 26, 2010

Used Fishing Rods--A Good Buy In Fishing Tackle

If you are a cash strapped fisherman, who is searching for the best price for a rod, you should consider buying a used rod. Do your research and decide on just what kind of rod you want, and what your top price will be. It is reasonable to expect to buy a used rod, in good condion, for around half the price of a similar new rod. Where should you look? Well if you are a garage sale fiend you already know that a lot of good fishing tackle shows up in garage sales. Just keep your eye open and the rod you want will show up sooner or later. If you are in more of a hurry you should consider searching eBay for your rod. There you will find a huge selection of used rods and tackle which is constantly changing. If the rod you are looking for is a popular make you may find several available from various sellers. One caution--it is easy to get caught up in a bidding war and pay too much. Just set your top price in advance and stick with it.  Another rod will be along very soon for you to bid on.

If an older collectible rod is your desire, these are more difficult to buy, but you can still get an excellent price by just biding your time for the rod to come along on eBay. Rods by top makers such as Hardy Bros of England do not usually sell cheaply. Hardy Bros split bamboo rods commonly fetch $150 up to several hundred dollars depending on the model and condition of the rod. Many anglers like to use split cane rods as well as to collect them and these rods even by lesser known makers will sell commonly for $50 to $150 or more.

Greenheart is a flexible hardwood which was used to make rods in the past. A good greenheart rod is still very serviceable and will cost about half the price of split cane. Fiberglass rods came on the market in the 1960s and many used fiberglass rods are still around. They can often be bought quite cheaply both locally and online. The earliest rods were solid fiberglass and later models are hollow and lighter in weight. A good fiberglass rod can be a great buy for someone looking for the lowest price in a good usable rod.

Graphite rods were the successor to fiberglass and are the present day most popular rod. They are very light, tough and flexible and have a nice action.Someone looking for a really good rod is well advised to buy a graphite model.They are very nice to fish with and prices are now quite reasonable. For more information about how and where to buy a used fishing rod see our website at used fishing rods and you will find a lot of good information about used fishing tackle here used fishing tackle