Hello,
I've been asked to help determine a value of some custom rods and accessories and my search has led me here. I know very little about any of this so please be patient with me. This ladies late husband was very much into building rods in the 80's and early 90's and she now has someone interested in purchasing everything from her but she isn't sure what would be a fair price for both parties. I have looked at everything she has and here is a short list of the bulk of it;

100 blanks ranging from 4' to 14' Fenwick & LCI
35 in varies stages of completion, most completed
box of fiji bait casting handles
box of cork handles, some turned some raw
2 tackle boxes of fuji guides and misc parts
large tote of thread (100+ spools)
Emco unimat 3 mini lathe
2 wooden adjustable rod wrapping tables/jigs
one tote of misc stuff

I told her that I ASSUMED most of the value would be in the blanks and guides. So where would I even start to look for values?
I'll be looking at it again this weekend so any help with what to look for would be appreciated.

You're correct, although technology moves so quickly these days that older Fenwick and LCI blanks aren't likely to be worth a ton of money - probably considerably less than what they sold for originally. I'm guessing that most of what she has there are from the 1980's. Guides more than 5 years old are likely to be somewhat obsolete for anyone building high end custom rods these days.

There may be certain blanks in the bunch that some folks will pay a premium for, however, but you'd have to do a lot of work to reach the right people. My guess is that if the interested party has offered her $2500 to $3000, she should take it.

The Unimat Lathe could be sold separately for a decent sum. They are still in demand by many home hobby machinists. It's worth several hundred dollars.

..............

Thank you for the response.
The interested party was evidently a customer of his back in the day and hasn't seen what all there is yet.
I'll try to get a few pics to post.

I'm afraid I'll end up being more involved in this than I originally wanted.

For what it is worth One of those laths sold for $ 400.00 on that @#$%& site

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2012 07:31AM by bill boettcher.

I'd be interested in the Unimat if it's in good shape.

Dave Gilberg

river1444@verizon.net

Thank you for all the inquires but the lathe is spoken for.

pm sent about the thread
or you can email me at
mybigfish45@gmail.com