adg fly rods and reels??

In article Pine.SOL.4.58.0312041611390.24827
@timepilot.gpcc.itd.umich.edu, says...
On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, steve sullivan wrote:

When one buys a rod that retails for $900 and it has a uncondtional
warranty, having to pay $100 if anything happens is insane.

Buying a rod for $900 is insane (BTW I might be insane).

The very idea of an unconditional warranty is insane (or more likely
economically untenable).

Paying $100 for the labor and material required to fix any high quality
rod is reasonable.


That's pretty much what you're doing though. The rod company is just
charging you up front for the cost of the replacement rod(s) that they
assume you will need someday.

For the math/statistics geeks in the audience, define a random variable
X = cost of servicing the warranty on a rod (which might involve some
complicated formulas to account for the time value of the money involved
and interest rates and such) and find the probability distribution for
X, which I will assume will be based on the Poisson distribution, and
then add the expected value E(X) onto the purchase price of the rod.

In other words, you aren't just paying for the rod, you are also paying
the premium on a lifetime insurance policy against breakage. It might
be nice if the rod companies would itemize the costs, and give the buyer
the option of not paying the insurance premium, or to pay a lower
premium in return for applying a deductible on any damage claims.

Kevin

Kevin Vang wrote:

In other words, you aren't just paying for the rod, you are also paying
the premium on a lifetime insurance policy against breakage. It might
be nice if the rod companies would itemize the costs, and give the buyer
the option of not paying the insurance premium, or to pay a lower
premium in return for applying a deductible on any damage claims.

This may be what the makers of high-end rods will do (offer the warranty
as a point-of-sale option), rather than drop the unconditional warranty
altogether. How much would you be willing to pay for a SAGE SLT or a
Winston LT with no warranty?

JR

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 17:42:39 +0100, JR wrote:

Kevin Vang wrote:

In other words, you aren't just paying for the rod, you are also paying
the premium on a lifetime insurance policy against breakage. It might
be nice if the rod companies would itemize the costs, and give the buyer
the option of not paying the insurance premium, or to pay a lower
premium in return for applying a deductible on any damage claims.

This may be what the makers of high-end rods will do (offer the warranty
as a point-of-sale option), rather than drop the unconditional warranty
altogether. How much would you be willing to pay for a SAGE SLT or a
Winston LT with no warranty?

This is an excellent question and cuts to the bone. I'd go $300 tops without a
warranty - and I have several rods that indeed were purchased over the years
at that price point and without any automagic repair/replacement coverage.

More than that and still without some form of coverage I'd first have to
seriously inflict damage on myownself.

/daytripper (can't have that. nope...)

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003, Kevin Vang wrote:

In other words, you aren't just paying for the rod, you are also paying
the premium on a lifetime insurance policy against breakage.

Yo, Professor V.

Up your nose widda rubber hose

Vinny Barbarino

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.

Mu

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!

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 14:06:21 -0600, Kevin Vang wrote:
[snipped]
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!

"Reese Witherspoon"?? Kinky - in a "lets pretend you're only 15" sort of way.

For that kind of money you could do WAY better, I'm sure.

/daytripper (I'm thinking Gwen Stefani. Mmmmmm. ;-)

And what can make you wonder is when you can get an outstanding, warantied,
top end blank, custom wrapped with the best components from a rod builder
like Dan Craft for less than those rods, much less. And this is a
presentation quality, can't find a fault even under magnification rod. Also
these rods and blanks have had nothing but good press. And you get to pick
exactly how you want to build it, or have it built.

"Mu Young Lee" wrote in message
. itd.umich.edu...

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.


You are correct, the year that Sage, Winston, T&T and Scott switched to
lifetime warranties, there was no "out of the ordinary" price increase (they
had been raising prices every year before).

Each handled it differently, sage retro'd many of their rods, Winston
offered you a chance to buy a warranty on certain rods, T&T and Scott only
applied it to rods purchased going forward.