I purchased my first two custom rods in 1971. While I had expected to pay a hefty price, I was pleasantly surprised: The first was a 5 1/2' Fenwick (honey colored) rod with cork grips, stainless guides and a carbide top. I paid an extra dollar for the carbide top. Price: $21.
The 2nd was a 6 1/2' "all-purpose" freshwater spinning rod, built on a Lamiglas honey colored blank. Same guides, but Lami was less expensive than Fenwick, so the rod cost $17. The blanks were VERY inexpensive.
Anyhow, I have been seeing these same blanks for sale on that huge online @#$%& site. They are sold as "new old stock," and are usually listed as coming from the estate of a deceased rod crafter or from a closed shop. Price: they average $65 each, plus an additional $26 for shipping. I guess the rods Mr. Cassidy built for me have some "antique" value!

....... and in 1971 the average income was $10.500, cost of gas was $.40/gal and the average cost of a house was $25,500 .......... everything except income is up by a factor of 10 .......... based on that the blanks were pretty expensive in comparison ........ but if they have lasted that long ...... you got a great deal .......

When I bought those rods (completed, custom built rods) for $17 and $21, I had just paid $35 for a Garcia Conolon 6 1/2' rod. The custom rods were real bargains even then.

YOU NEED TO CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY BLANKS OFFERED LIKE THAT IF THEY HAVE THE WARRENTY CARD AND LABEL. IF NOT THEY ARE PROBABLY BLEMS AND NOT A BUNCH OF NUMBER 1 BLANKS SOMEBODY HAPPENED TO BUY AND LET THEM SIT ALL THOSE YEARS WITH OUT BEING MADE INTO A ROD.

Ahhhh...I think you misunderstand. I was simply reminiscing about my very first custom fiberglass rods and the amazing price I paid for them. Seeing the same blanks offered for 5X what I paid for the finished rods made me smile, and I thought it might bring back a few memories for some of the long-time builders here.
I am not going to pay close to $100 for a fiberglass blank when there are many, many far superior graphite blanks being offered for the same (or less) money. We have truly come a long way.

No, I did understand, I merely was pointing out how some get stung by suposidly Number one quality blanks that are blems that the seller got for very little then offered them as #1s.

Kerry,
Things like you mentioned DO happen. Just as things like New Old Stock blanks surface. As the blanks age, the tags and any "warranty cards" do disappear. I still have a stash of old Sabre blanks from California Tackle, Fenwick, and others I have yet to build. Does it make them worthless because I don't have a warranty card or poly bag with a header card? No. Many did not come to us that way, nor to the shops we bought them from. Does it mean they are automatically blems? No again. Tom Kirkman brought this to our attention several years back in Rodmaker. It is an unfortunate business practice by some people today. Fortunately, the old glass blanks were more easily identified by the pattern of the glass cloth used,as well as blank color.
I even had some old Fenwick 1 piece flyrod and steelhead blanks,bought from a reputable source. As it turned out, those 1 piece fly blanks from Fenwick sold for $250 each. Did the fact that they never actually marketed and sold one pc. blanks ever factor into it? Perhaps. Just because something came down the line doesn't mean they were never made,or sold by some companies. It makes them rather unique and scarce.
I believe that today, it pays to know who you are buying from. If someone is reputable enough, it may be easy to find out if they ever did any business with a legit distributor of a manufacturer, or even the manufacturer itself. Often times, they could have been bought in a closeout or going out of business fashion. Either from other shops, distributors or even the manufacturers, With that said, it does happen that someone has alot of NOS rodbuilding supplies. Blanks included.
When buying from online @#$%& sites...caveat emptor...let the buyer beware! It seems to be easier to disguise blanks today that are made of graphite. There is a thread out there on the net,claiming a seller on that widely popular @#$%& site has bogus Shikaris. I don't know if they are genuine or not. Either the claim or the blanks. Again...buyer beware. If it seems too good to be true...it probably is. Just not 100% of the time.
Chuck

Chuck

You are absolutely right. I was only referencing buying off @#$%& or some other place, buyer beware. Yes, I have misplaced the label and warrantee cards, which are the only thing a person would have to show it is a number 1. Other than that they would have to take, as you say, a reputable person's word for it such as yourself that it is indeed a #1. If anything happened to the blank/rod they would know they could come to you for resolution. Having said that, some manufacturers won't accept them for warrantee without their lable on it. I know this because a number of years ago I bought a sage fly rod blank and wanted to put a weave on the rod. It so happened the factory installed label was up close to the grip where I wanted to do the weave. I asked Sage if I could put the weave over the label and have them still cover the warrantee. They said no! I asked how come since they had a marker strip inside the rod blank that they could read the make/model to tell them it was one of their blanks. They said because some of those number 1's are donated to various organizations such as boys scouts and they were not going to also cover the warrantee on a freebee. You said "Fortunately, the old glass blanks were more easily identified by the pattern of the glass cloth used,as well as blank color. " This does not help if it was a blem made just like all the other blanks that made the cut.

Kerry,
All good points,given alot to consider. I too hate to see people get burned.
Chuck

Gary,

I remember a magazine article done in BASSMASTER around 1972. It detailed how to build your own custom bass casting rod. The parts utilized were an Eagle Claw fiberglass blank, Featherweight custom pistol grip handle and butt ferrule and a set of either Perfection or Mildrum SS guides. I think the total price for all the parts was under $20. This was the thing that got me thinking about building my own rod, at some point. As a guy just entering High School and making a dollar a week helping at a family business, $20 was a long time coming. But it put the idea in my mind and a few years later I took the plunge. By that time, however, the $100 graphite rods had hit the market and prices took a jump.


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