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No need to go risking your life just yet Paul

Tell you what ..... I'll offer my Hot Torpedo Competition 9ft 5wt serial number one ( in excellent condition ) for £750 plus postage at cost. That's a great price for a special piece of Sexyloops history!

Best wishes
Mike

retailers will want to mark up 100% or more on rods. They are a relatively slow moving item.

Chairman Mao said, "No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat." Smart man this Mao dude.

There many excellent fly rods made in Korea. There were well designed, came with good quality, good customer service, good product information. I love Korean made rod. If they fail, I'll hate them.

There was a trip in Maldives, three bloody expensive Abel reels that were fully anodised to the core failed. And one while spooling in line on the boat deck. I'll never touch an Abel reel from now on. It was proudly made in the USA.

Over here in Asia we don't really care where a rod should be made. I'll know quality when I see one. If they make good rod with low cost that means they are very hard working and probably deserved the better margin. If it is a premium rod, I expect them to honour their warranty without hassles, short lead time in delivery and came with good packaging.

There's one rod I owned has this marketing tag line.

Made in the USA
Made in Australia
Made in the UK
Made in Sweeden
Not Made in China

Fuck dude, the largest bulk fly rod makers are in Korea but the Chinese gets the blame. You know Korea, the Gangnam people. The Chinese are too busy making fake eggs man, they are not interested in fly rod.

But if I am a Chinese fly rod manufacturer I'll come up with this tag line.

Made In China
Not made by assholes
Not made by lazy people who got drunk all the time

Seriously during my MBA study the Scots told me mass production is the way to go. Blame the Scots too...

Paul you'll better of tell people how your brand can do magic and deliver as promised. I won't pay very good margin for you to be drunk all the time. :-)

Paul Arden wrote:I don't agree. I think Korean made rods are massively overpriced.

i have only a couple of Korean made hardy rods , but i got them at half a retail price, so i cant say they are overpriced esp. comparing to what was offered back in 2004. i'm familiar with a few Korean rods mostly by hardy and loop, so i can only say some of the rods were average, othes were good, some were even very good and even the entry level components on the hardy rods were excellent. none of these rods were equal in my experiance to the england made hardy rods from the mid '90s that are my benchmark when compare fly rods even sage rods arent that impressive to these hardys. i still fish both korean and england made hardy rods and its Ok, since there is no perfect rod.

Mid 90s. Hardy Sovereign? I had a couple of those. Bruce and Walker Hexagraphs too. Or would that be late 80s?

Sovereigns, ULltralites, Elites, Marquise, Deluxe classics... yep, some may be end '80s to mid 90s, the last Ultralite was in catalogues in 2003 and i bought one new in 2004 and still the price was less than some current Korean hardy rod if that is what you mean by overpriced.

I don't think anything is over-priced unless no one buys it for that reason

All I'm saying is that the markup on production costs and the margins involved are proportionally greater for Korean manufactured rods. Of course that's how a) they are sold so cheaply and b) why some think that western manufactured rods are overpriced. If the quality was the same, and in some cases it is close, it could kill manufacturing in the West.

Certainly if I ever produced a starter rod/budget outfit it would be manufactured in Korea. It's not something that I currently plan.

Cheers, Paul

I've never fished Korea. I will! It's not a long stone's throw away. Although I hear by all accounts it's quite expensive to travel. So it must be one of these countries with very rich and very poor in order to have such a cheap workforce.

Are any fly rods made in China? I don't know. It seems that everything else is! I like Chinese. All the ones I meet are smart, hard-working, interesting people - even Ti. Hey my girlfriend in Chinese!

Here is an example however of quality. I need to bore some holes to plant enormous posts for my vine trellis two years ago. I look at a Stihl hole borer. 600 pounds. I then see a Chinese copy - 200 pounds. I think to myself, "well I only need to dig 60 holes! I'll buy the cheap one naturally". 20 holes in it breaks. It turns out that the shaft has been connected to the cog by heat only. This on a hole boring machine! I take it back to the shop. 3 weeks later nothing has happened. My mate Peter picks it up, delivers it to a mate who bores out both the cog and the shaft to accept a locking pin. Costs me two euros. But I ask myself why didn't they do this in China?

Maybe they would if we weren't so tough on negotiating prices. I mean it's not exactly rocket science to make something durable and fit for purpose.

I personally don't believe in buying cheap throwaway crap. I want boots that last ten years. A rod that lasts twenty, a reel that lasts several lifetimes, a house that my great grandchildren - erm which Ti's great grandchildren can enjoy. The world is full of rubbish tips full of crap that was manufactured to be thrown away.

Cheers, Paul

Paul Arden wrote:I've never fished Korea. I will!



I personally don't believe in buying cheap throwaway crap. I want boots that last ten years. A rod that lasts twenty, a reel that lasts several lifetimes, a house that my great grandchildren - erm which Ti's great grandchildren can enjoy. The world is full of rubbish tips full of crap that was manufactured to be thrown away.

there is no trout in Korea Paul

yep, to sustain the curent level of our industrial or postindutsrial society it seems we need to continue to produce all type of cheap throwaway crap so everyone to have a job and get paid. problem is that we soon will be in deep cheap throwaway crap shit up to our ears.

Interesting ...... I thought I would have a few PMs about the rod today.

Cheers
Mike