In article . umich.edu,
says...

Seriously though. Weren't the premium rods $500 before they instituted
these ridiculous warranties? The price didn;t go up did they? Or maybe
the cost of insurance amounted to only $10-$50 per rod.


Just looking at the Kauffmans website (http://www.kman.com/rods.htm) as
a typical example, the top end of price range for Sage, Winston, Powell,
and Hardy rods is around $750.

My guess is that the cost of the insurance, er, warranty, is fairly
negligible. There is a segment of the market which is willing to cough
up $700 bucks for a fly rod (and a fairly large segment, at that,
apparently) and if offering an extravagant warranty is what it takes
to get a share of that market, then that is what the rod companies
will offer.

Somewhere out there, there has to be somebody who would pay $100,000 for
a fly rod if a replacement rod could be hand delivered in under an hour
by Reese Witherspoon. Yo Bill, there is an under-served market segment
out there for you!

Kevin
Note to Mu: Off my case, toilet face!