Vintage tackle

[rayner]

Over the years like I imagine other on here I've had more than my fair share of both rods and reels, some real garbage. Mixed with a few better items.
Even so they over time have all become old and well used, they aren't worth a penny now. I have a similar idea of what folk call vintage tackle now.
Just because a certain angler has had his mitts on a particular piece of kit to me is really nothing to me. OK they could have a name has a decent angler but their used gear is just that, used gear. Give me new any day.

 

[nottskev]

I'm in agreement with Rayner - used stuff is used stuff, and while I've plenty of stuff I've bought second-hand, most of it excellent, I really don't see what the previous owner has to do with it, as long as they looked after their gear as well as I do.

Wanting famous anglers' old gear seems a bit like those primitive magic rituals, where you gain power by getting your hands on someone else's possessions. Or bits of their body. I do get the point of having the same brand/model of rod, say, as a famous angler. If it's good enough for them etc etc. But wanting their actual personal example seems to go off into slightly weird territory. And does anyone think there's anything special about the footballs a Messi or Ronaldo uses? We all know it's what they can do with them that matters, and I think that applies to fishing gear.

When it gets to the point where old tackle is just an unused investment, it's got more to do with banking than fishing, for me. Although I would find it interesting to see a public museum-type display of old gear, and I do like it when people restore or recreate old gear with a view to using it.

 

[no-one in particular]

You must have had for better junk than I did. When I go round a auctions and see what I had on sale it's only worth a couple of ponds if that. It's normally in with a pile of mixed items sold to you for £5.

Not at all, with 8 kids everything got chucked or broken. If we had bought two of everything and kept one in a draw for 50 years they would be worth a lot of money today I imagine, comics, dinky toys, records etc; some it would be very rare and mint condition now. But of course, you just don’t think like that when you’re a kid. Hindsight as always is a wonderful thing.
But the fishing gear we had was bottom drawer, would not be the same with that unless there's a big collector of Winfield

 

[steve2]

Back in the mid to late 90s a lot of old and even relatively modern fishing books were fetching premium prices; anything by F J Taylor, Peter Stone, **** Walker, even Yates and plenty of others fetched very good prices and companies like Medlar brought out expensive reprints (typically £50). Yates Casting at the Sun was making over £200. One local angler to me said he regarded his substantial book collection as his additional pension but how prices have fallen. Very few want leather-bound books now and very few books realise the premium prices anymore. Sometimes a high price would flush out a load of books so the price would drop - this happened with Casting at the Sun which can be picked up for much less now (£30). Funnily enough Yates' Th
e Deepening Pool was remaindered off at about £8 then became scarce, fetching £60+, and now it's not hard to find a copy at a reasonable price again.

The books on my bookcase are worth far less now even the first editions then what I paid for them. But like the rest of my fishing tackle none were bought for investment just the pleasure of owning them. Buying for investment can be a good way of losing money.

 

[no-one in particular]

When it gets to the point where old tackle is just an unused investment, it's got more to do with banking than fishing, for me. Although I would find it interesting to see a public museum-type display of old gear, and I do like it when people restore or recreate old gear with a view to using it.

I once had half a hare-brained scheme of a travelling fishing museum. Put it all in the back of an articulated lorry and charge a fiver entrance or take it round schools. I was unemployed so I was under pressure to look like I was looking for work so it kept them happy for a while. Which reminds me of one of my favorite stories, a bloke on the dole in London decided to put down shepherd as his occupation thinking they would never find a job for him in the middle of London for a shepherd. They called him in one day as they had found a bloke who kept sheep around an old reservoir who advertised for a shepherd; would have loved to have seen his face, bet it was a picture..
I like the fact that people restore this stuff as well, I can’t do it. I sold a Sealy “the roach rod” recently to a bloke who was going to restore it, it was in poor condition so he got something cheap but I still made a little bit of money on it and I get the satisfaction of seeing it all restored once he has done it and I no doubt he will get a lot of pleasure or profit from it as well. It's better than proping up your beans with them. And I might add, I wouldn't want to fish for roach with anything other than this rod given the choice, absolute perfection.