I was looking for the St. Croix link here and it's missing. Are they no longer sponsors here?? Odd that this is the one place where they would not sponsor a rod building site. This place would have to impact their blank sales more than any other. I was going to ask them directly but I've never seen a contact e-mail addy anywhere on their website. I like their products but IMO this is a bum business decision on their part.

They did not renew. I don't ask why and won't guess. You'd have to ask them. They're still a good company making a good product.

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The advertising divisions at many companies often do strange things. This is probably one of the strangest I can recall. I do hope they will be at the National Rod Building show in February.

While we're on the subject of St. Croix.......The epoxy was cracking on ALL of the guides and the hook keeper on my (less than 1 year old) manufactured Avid dropshot rod, so I decided to strip them off to rewrap. I was surprised.....shocked....dissapointed to see that NONE of the guide feet were prepped. Is this normal, or did I just get one that was made on Friday or Monday??

I know all the wrapping is done outside the factory by local wrappers. Not sure if St Croix makes them prep the guide feet or not. But these guys are payed on how quickly they can wrap the rods and get them back to the factory. The faster they get them done, the more they can do and the money they can make.

If you find the service and warranty page on the St Croix site, you will find their address and phone numbers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2005 02:14PM by Mike Sledden.

Hope they aren't planning a move to you know where...

Mike,

I was going to contact St Croix about this, but then figured I'd do it myself. Now I can set it up to properly match the reel. I'm slowly starting to rewrap all of my factory rods.

Scott



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2005 10:41PM by Scott Hovanec.

On the flip side - why would they advertise here? If some Marketting Guru looked a tteh numbers pre-.org and during .org, they might not see a diffrence. Plus if they read the boards here, and a lot of teh other interenet message boards, tehy see tehy get a LARGE amount of recomendations, so they get free advertising that way. Why would they pay for that, when the best advertising they could do is having fishermen & rodbuilders tell everyone ehat a great product it is.

Whether a company advertises here or not, that doesn't mean they are good or bad or whatever. TEhy just don't advertise here. If they were good before, great to deal with, etc - tehy will be exactly the same way, at least in teh shrt term, it's not like a switch went off and SC's all of a sudden reek becasue tehy don't advertise on .org.

I received the following from StCroix:

St. Croix has not decided to pull sponsorship of Rodbuilding.org. Unfortunately I have not received an invoice for continuation of sponsorship. I will contact Tom Kirkman to resolve this situation. However, it is the responsibility of Rodbuilding.org to send a sponsorship invoice to the proper contact.



Sincerely,

Jeff Schluter
V.P. - Sales & Marketing
St. Croix Rod
Ph: 715-762-3226 ext. 102
Web: www.stcroixrods.com

I hope this helps.

rhr

Actually, they did receive an invoice, three to be exact (one was sent to Jeff, one to David and one to Jason, just to be sure someone there saw it). I'm careful to let every sponsor know, 30 days in advance, that it's time for them to renew. It must have slipped through the cracks at their end. It happens sometimes when companies are busy and have a lot going on.

Most sponsors do, in fact, notice a big difference within 48 hours of their link going up on this site. No other rod building site generates more than a fraction of the inquiries and responses that this one does for its sponsors. It's not even close. It would be rare, indeed, for any sponsor here to say that their link does not make a noticeable difference in their business.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2005 04:32PM by Tom Kirkman.

Jeff called me just a bit ago and informed me that they do intend to remain a sponsor here. With all the new product coming out up there the paperwork just got lost in the shuffle.

He also informed me that St. Croix would definitely be in Charlotte for the big National Rod Building Show in February. Jason Brunner will again be on tap to answer your questions about the St. Croix blanks and other rod building products.


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Okay, that's all I wanted to know. I just knew it would have been screwy for them not to participate here. At least they got some good brand recognition out of this thread. With 500 views up there now it has sure been one popular topic!!

PS - What I posted was not my opinion, it was a possible "flip side" perspective from a "marketting Guru".

A company that's not in the habit of paying their invoices in 30 days, huh? I'll be darned!
(meant to be dripping with sarcasm, and without an emoticon)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2005 04:14PM by John McDaniel.

It just got pushed aside and I don't really have time to call and ask around - I wouldn't want anyone to think that St. Croix doesn't pay bills on time (and they didn't "owe" this bill unless they wanted to renew - it's a prepaid sponsoship). I know you're kidding but I don't want anyone thinking that St. Croix is hard to do business with. They're a pleasure.

I understand Billy's scenario was just that, a scenario and it's certainly true in many cases. In this one, however, Jeff said that he recognized what a great value being a sponsor here is. Again, it just got overlooked. No big deal, they'll be back on board in a day or so.

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Tom,

Sorry if my post could have been misunderstood. I just meant to convey that this all seemed tempest in a teapot stuff. St. Croix is a fine company, but fine companies lose track of invoices/payables all the time. For your part, although I'm sure you'll eventually buy your own island from the proceeds of the magazine and this website (yeah, uh-huh!), I can't imagine you have time to send "last warning" letters, etc. to sponsors all the time.

No, I don't. Wish I could, but I don't even have a secretary. I sort of figured you were making a tongue in cheek statement, but you never know how people will take things like that.

If I make enough money off the magazine and this site to buy a bottle of beer once a week, I'll be doing great. None of these things are really operated at a profit. I woldn't apologize if I ever did make a few dollars, but I doubt that will happen anytime in the near future.

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