I have been asked to build a rod for a silent @#$%&. Has anybody had any sales generated by participating in similar events?

What have your experiences been, good/bad?

Thanks,
Chad Huderle

Huderle Custom Rods
Prior Lake, MN



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2011 11:03PM by Chad Huderle.

I built my first fly rod for a charity live @#$%& for the Boy Scouts. It was a fund raising event held at a sporting clays facility so the target audience were sportsmen. I think the target audience is important for two reasons. You get people that fish and you get people who know sports equipment. I wanted to help raise money for the organization which meant I wanted people there who would not necessarily be bargain hunting. I have received two calls since the @#$%& for a bait casting rod and a fly rod. I am building both but they are not going to be big money makers. I am just getting started at this and I think this is a pretty good start. I had my time and $150 in materials on the line and got my name in front of over 100 people. Donating was a part of the plan and I will do it again.

Bryce Abbott
Go & Do Likewise

Great Bryce. That's the kind of response I'm hoping to hear about.

Thanks,
Chad Huderle

Huderle Custom Rods
Prior Lake, MN

I've donated a few rods to various benefits and have gotten quite a few repairs and new builds based on getting my work in front of 150-200 people for each donation. If it's a cause you can get behind then the work that comes out of it is just gravy.

Funny you asked this question, I did the same thing as Bryce A. It was for a charity event to help raise money for a family in dire need after a death in the family. It even had some G. Loomis family there and a personally autographed rod he denoted for the event. It was my first Salmon/Steelhead build and it @#$%& for $300.00. It was my first Rod and first sell in a way. It helped with advertisement and getting my name out there. Great way to start off in my opinion, I didn't expect the rod to go for that much and it said allot for me inspirationaly, there were many custom rods @#$%& and mine made the highest out of them all that night. Made me feel good to help some friends out in such a way! The best thing about it really You all here on RB.ORG had a hand in making that possible!

Thanks again to everyone here !

Rick H.

rwheil@msn.com

Website
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Fund raising donation rods are a blast to build. Use the opportunity to make a theme rod complete with the organizations logo on a decal, organization's colors in the thread wraps, it is a lot of fun. For those of us that build custom rods for the public the "donation rod" gives us a great excuse to try new grip styles, grip inlays, decorative wraps etc that most customers don't want or don't want to pay for.

The satisfaction that you get from providing funding for a worthy cause from a craft that you love to do is really a rush. The only thing to keep in mind is once the quality of your rods are known to the public you will get more requests for donation rods than you have time for or can afford. I try to limit myself to "X" amount of total donation rods for one year and if there are additional requests I charge the organization wholesale cost for the parts and donate my labor.

Very satisfying, go for it.

Buzz

Have built several (5-6)for donations for good causes. and have had a couple builds come my way

Well everyone, thanks for all the positive comments. This afternoon I agreed to go ahead with it even though it's a tight deadline...Sept. 17th.

The silent @#$%& is for the local high school girls varsity fastpitch softall team. They're raising money for a trip to Florida next winter/spring to get in some playing time before their season starts up here in the cold northlands, MN.

I decided to build it on a Batson ISB722. I'll turn the handle from oak and it'll have the shape of a softball bat, similar to several other rods I've done (see my gallery). It'll also have the team logo and school colors for the guide wraps.

This will be fun!

Thanks,
Chad Huderle

Huderle Custom Rods
Prior Lake, MN

Chad please post pics of that rod when done. Sounds great.