Ok, I'm ready to try CP, which one and I have looked at the sponsors on the left.
American Tackle Color Preserver
Gudebrod Color Preserver
Flexcoat Color Preserver
U-40 Color Lock

Some of them are eliminated just on the shipping alone. I will not pay as much to ship as to buy 4oz. CP. IMO shipping cost of $6.00 for a 4oz bottle of CP is out of line, Yes I under stand that someone has to do it, and I do understand that they have to pay someone to do shipping, BUT.

We use Gudebrod and FlexCote. They both work fine provided:

1) Store them at "normal" room temp
2) Use at least two coats. Let them saturate your threads.
3) If you use underwraps, cover the underwrap with at least one full coat of CP. Then place and wrap the guides, and put at least two coats of CP on the guide wraps and of course the part of the underwrap that remains exposed.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Shipping charges are a fact of life unless you live near a supplier.
Get use to them! Try not to order just 1 bottle of CP. Order more
things together and only pay one shipping charge.

@#$%& on the left has the BEST shipping rates. They only
charge you what it costs them and has NO handling charges.

Oh, I like the Gudebrod 811 but plan to try the U-40 color lock
one of these days just for kicks. They make permagloss and
Rodbond both GREAT products so the "color lock" is worth a try!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2006 02:47AM by Raymond_Adams.

Tim for CP try some local tackle shops, alot of them carry epoxies and CP.

Rod Bond, Color Lock, Ferrule Lube, Permagloss, Supreme, Cork Seal and brush cleaner all from the same place, U-40. That's a nice little package for the shipping charges.

That's the price you pay for ordering one item at a time. You can probably order a bunch more stuff in the same package for the same shipping costs

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

I use Gudebrod 811 on my own stuff, but stock Flex Coat, U-40 and Diamondite CP's as well.

My Wife and Kids are chained to the shipping bench and don't get paid, so any of the above 4oz. bottles ship for $2 or less. You could probably get a 1oz. bottle of each of the four mentioned above for the same $2 shipping if you wanted to experiment with different brands.

Shipping's tough to deal with. As I've explained before, many vendors simply have "blanket" shipping costs to allow their check out process to be automated. In other words, orders between $1 & $50 cost $6 to ship, $51 - $100 cost $10 to ship, etc... That saves them from having to weight everything up to come up with a shipping price and covers their postage costs most of the time.

The problem is when you static test your new blank and realize that you need one more #8 guide, you're faced with $6 to ship it AGAIN. We don't automate our shipping at check-out for that very reason. That guide will cost about 60 cents to ship. The computer/software won't calculate "combined" shipping costs correctly, so even if we tied a 60 cent shipping cost to that #8 guide in the computer, if you ordered two of them, it would charge you $1.20 for shipping when in fact two #8's could probably STILL ship for 60 cents. I've yet to find software that will calculate combined shipping without gouging the Consumer in the process.

That's why MOST have blanket shipping charges. I say MOST. Some actually use their shipping departments as profit centers PERIOD. Their selling price on an item is "the lowest on the internet", but then charge you handling, inflated shipping fee's etc... on the back end, so your "deal" is no deal at all.

If I walk into a store and see a price on something, I don't expect to get to the register and have to pay for the Stock Boy, the Cashier, the rent, etc... as a separate charge, ya know? I expect that to be factored into the selling price, which is what WE do. While our online prices may not always be the lowest (at face value), what you see is what you get. We don't inflate our shipping, charge for labor, boxes, rent or any of that other stuff on the backside of the sale. I don’t like when it happens to me, so I have to assume that other consumers don’t appreciate it either.


Mark Griffin
[]
C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California

Tim,
Mike Barkley and others are right. Always buy enough stuff to spread the shipping charges over your entire order. Another thing you can do is to actually drive to a source if it near you. Since I live about four hours east of Portland, I can time my buying from Angler's Workshop to those times I'm in Portalnd for other reasons. My wife likes to spend a weekend in Portland to visit Powell's Bookstore as well as have a nice weekend in the "big" city and I make four trips to the coast for fishing trips, it is possible to make the short trip to Angler's Workshop to do my buying.

I know this is not possible for all, but look at the various sponsors and see if any of them are near to where you fish or visit for other reasons. One thing I know is that shipping charges are far far more likely to increase than to go down. I know that Ron at Hook and Hackle told me he was going to have to increase his charges (Hook and Hackle has had the lowest shipping charges). I also deal with Bob and Custom Tackle Supply. They are great people and I know they try to keep their charges down as well. I know the idea of driving for four hours to shop sounds idiotic, but if you have reasons to go anyway (anniversary, romantic weekend, holiday shopping, fishing trips), you are going to spend the money anyway so why not combne it with a buying trip for rod building materials.

Mike Blomme

It is like I have said before I know that shipping charges have to be but when it cost as much as the product then I look else where.

Mark, Mark@@#$%& C&M Custom Tackle I have dealt with you and Colleen before have never been DISAPPOINTED. I just emailed Colleen asking for shipping cost for a couple of items.

To all thank you for all your comments, they are welcomed.

If you have an Academy Sports big box store nearby give them a look. All of them around here carry the flex coat 12cc finish/cup/brush package, color preserver, and tip glue, an assortment of thread, and individually packaged Fuji guides in several styles and sizes.

I'll do the stupid thing first, then you shy people can follow. -FZ-