On 4 May 2006 21:05:45 -0700, "George Adams"
wrote:



The replacement tip cost me $65. Believe it or not, I bought the entire
Battenkill outfit in 1974 for $212. That included the two tip rod, CFO
III reel with spare spool, and floating and sinking line. Thirty odd
years later that'll buy you a couple of tanks of gas and a carton of
smokes.

Pretty cool. It's amazing what 'boo has been through with the FFing
community. I look at old bamboo rod invoices, notes, catalogs, etc.,
and it fascinates me as to what 'boo has been through. From, basically,
the only material for rods with prices probably on relative par with
rods today, to a "yesterday's technology" with giveaway prices, to a
return-to-favor and prices in the stratosphere. When looked at from an
economic standpoint, it is an interesting, at least to me, slideshow on
the changes in what others will trade monetarily for the labor of others
and what people feel they can demand for that labor, and when you
consider what a labor of love it is to build even a merely-decent
one...to digress, that is one of the things I always thought George
forgot when he started down the "mass-produced" road...anyway...at what
price art?

TC,
R
and BTW, any idea, for both Opie's info and my own, what Orvis charged
for a refinish circa 1970?