doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com F&S magazine revisited

No wishing to "mess up my own thread" in that issue they discuss older "Vintage" fishing tackle- I am familiar with the Fin-Nor Tycoon "Wedding Cake" Gar Wood salt water reels the writer mentions, also the older Garcia-Mitchell 300 open-faced spinning reels- but as I have a closet full of Penn Senators- how do you determine if they are "pre-1990 mfg." and how does that factor play in today's market value, should I wish to sell some.? Those "in the box" with the paperwork w/o a zip code are for sure, pre-1966--

What are the best venues to sell "vintage fishing tackle" today?? Thanks- RWTF

I would think eBay would be one of the best places. A lot of bamboo and modern composite fly rods have active bidding there. Probably the same with your reels, etc. Some of the bidding gets fierce!

RWTF you are correct in asking how do I know what I have? Have you looked for any chat boards on vintage fishing equipment. Some are on Facebook, use to be a lot on Yahoo. Once you find a couple you need to do a little reading of old posting or lurk quietly for awhile. Just like here you need to figure out who has real information and can help and who just likes to post their opinions.

EBay is a good place to sell but you must know what you are selling first. Otherwise you will never get fair value for it. I have seen countless split bamboo setups going for 1/10 of their true value because they are poorly described, poorly listed or just bad luck of not having two serious bidders both taking an interest in the item.

Not exactly the same thing, but last year I bought two high condition Sterlingworth ejector fore ends, in great condition, with mint wood and metal for less than fifty dollars. Seller listed them as gun parts, not fore arms, one bad, out of focus photo, with no view of the metal side. I saw the ejector medallion and knew what they were at once. Put in a delayed bid and ended up being the only bidder. Point is he had no information about what he had, did not list them properly to attract maximum attention, took a lazy picture and accepted what ever he got as a bid. Had he done it right he easily could have gotten 200 dollars each for them. They were just like they came out of the factory. I even emailed him asking if he had anymore gun or shotgun parts. Would have been sweet to pickup a couple ejector barrels in high condition. But he said that was all he had.

Jon;
That is usually extremely good advice, However. I have seen the opposite happen. A good example there were two Lyman bullet molds of the same number listed on e-Bay at the same time. they were Hollow Base & both included the base plug. One appeared to be virtually un-used while the other looked as if it had cast many bullets. I put in the only bid on the "Best" one & bought it hor less than half of what the other sold for, with multiple bids.
Why? The only reason I can figure is the seller of the one I bought "Correctly" listed it as for the 1860 Cal .44 Colt Army model, while the other was listed for a .45 Colt SAA. No doubt many of those bidders simply looked at what the Seller Said it fit, & failed to see the two molds had the exact same bullet number.
I could tell from the seller's comments when he shipped it that he was highly disappointed it had received no more bids, but he did not in any way try to Weazel out of the deal. Mold # is 450229 with a weight of about 155 grains.

No E-Bay for me. Nothing but bad experiences in my "log-book"--I'll go there to see what's out there, but no "Buy and Sell"- will try to get a e-mail address for this Mike Kalafut in PA-- see if he is a serious buyer.

Years ago, when the "Hopalong Shapiro" of tackle dealing, Martin J. Keane "ruled the roost"- I dealt exclusively with Bill Hunter from NH. Bill was the "go-to" guy on Stan and Steve Bogdan's "Rolex reels", also a few Captain Mac salt water fly reels- Fin-Nor "wedding cakes" not so much. I fished with Bill in July 1990 out in Yellowstone, and we pulled off a great spoof on the late Ernie Schweibert on night on the Firehole River--

I favored the Merrick-Stoner R.L. Winstons for my split cane rods, also the Granger and Phillipson- all Western made fly rods- and the R.L. Winston Green graphite 2 and 3 pc. fly rofd- My only Fiberglas fly rods were Shakespeare and Heddon- All in the past now, but the albums I have with great fotos in those halycon pre-9/11 years- timeless. RWTF PS-found auction site for this dude mentined in recent F&S "vintage article" Junque store antiques, not my venue to sell or trade older fishing tackle. The dude that wrote that article in F&S is full of scheise- RWTF

I've bought and sold with Marty over the years and had good experiences. Bought two pre-fire Leonards from him and years later sold them back for profit. Len Codella was also a man I had good dealings with on fly tackle. Gil
Here's my old Wedding Cake #2 with a local redfish I caught many tides ago:

I knew Bill Hunter and visited his store in New Boston, NH and had several good dealings with Len Codella... the most recent was about a year when I bought a 3-wt fly reel from him. I knew Len when he worked at T&T in Turner's Falls, MA.

I did business with T&T and Len, also with Marty Keane and Carmine Lisella- also got a phone call once from Hoagy Bix Carmichael-about a Garrison- recall 2 anecdotes from that era- (1_ Oldest daughter Mavis was at work,radio on, and a contest to win tickets to a Bob Seger concert was the prize- question was:"Who wrote "Stardust"-? piece of cake for an oldies music buff like me- so I gave her "Hoagy Carmichael" and she won 4 tickets-- She was home at the time Howard Hoagland Carmichael's only son called me from his upstate NY home-about the Garrison- "Dad,she called to me (I was in my basement workshop)- Hoagy Carmichael is on the phone for you- he wrote "Stardust", right?

Hoagy Bix Carmichael- named for his late father's closest friend, the Iowa cornet maestro- Bix Beiderbecke--

In that same 1980's era- our TU chapter hosted many fly fishing illuminaries at our annual banquet- Bernard "Lefty"Kreh, Dave Whitlock, Poal Jorgensen- and my pal Bill Hunter-- we were discussing the split cane rod market, and there was an Orvis Shoppe in the Grand Rapids area- the topic of their impregnated split bamboo rod came up--IMO- comparing an Orvis rod to, say a pre-fire Leonard or a Gary Howells, is like comparing a VW beetle to a BMW- both German designed cars- well anyway- the term "Made to last, not to cast" came up over 'sundowners'- and Lefty Kreh said: "Why are fine bamboo rods like HS cheerleaders? No one knew the right answer- so Lefty said: "They come with two matched tips, and are best Not impregnated!" He later told me he got that from Len Codella.

Marty was also a bit of a gun collector-shooter. He told me than when he and Ester were divorced, he had to sell 2 guns to come up with the settlement dinero- (1) A.H.Fox 20 gauge ejector gun (grade unknown) (2) Mannlicher-Schoenauer BA 6.5x54mm with the full length stock and 20" Karabiner length barrel-- RWTF

I bought a nice FE Thomas 8' 4 wgt. with intermediate wraps and a 4/0 Otto Zwarg mulitplier fly reel from Hoagy. Both have gone the way of sales. After I sold it to a friend, the Thomas went to another man who promptly snagged a muskrat and put a permanent set into the rod. Gil

I have a ton of fine bamboo rods that need to go down the road. Mostly higher grade Heddons�couple of Presidents, #65�s, #35, etc. Bernard Hill, longtime foreman of the Heddon bamboo rod factory and I became good friends back in the 70�s and we had a bunch of blanks made in England to his specs, swelled butts, three piece, etc. I still have about ten blanks unfinished.