The mother of all estate sale finds?!

[D Bulla 0]

Hello everyone.

 

Very first post here and hopefully the first of many. I suppose I'll throw in a little background intro then get to my point.

 

I haven't tied a fly since I was about 17 years old and that was 30 years ago... Used to tie a lot of 'em as a kid simply because I couldn't afford to buy 'em and of course because I thought it was fun. I don't know that I was ever what you'd call good at but I caught plenty of fish on my flies. At least in the farm pond We had a trout stream that went under our driveway back home in PA so fishing was always about a 75 yard walk away. Had 7 ponds on the farm too with sunfish, bass and what we called "shiners" that look like a type of shad. I've got a lot of fond memories of fishing as a kid on that little creek. It was full of "native" browns as we called them. Yea, I know browns aren't native anywhere in the US but they were self sustaining and the creek was never stocked. I used to use an old Eagle Claw 9' fiberglass rod that was supposedly "custom made" locally from a factory blank and then a friend of the family gave me an old 3 piece bamboo rod and I used it too. Still have both of them and also a pretty nice Fenwick graphite 6 wt. Haven't used them in years but that's probably about to change... Yesterday I went to an estate sale at a 1.2 million $ house and got lucky.

 

This house was WAAAY out of my price range but the wife and I love garage and estate sales and it's sort of our hobby on weekends. We don't buy to sell, just for ourselves. I think 99% of the stuff in our house came from garage sales. Anyway, there were some guns and stuff that I was really looking over hard but all the ones in my price range were marked sold already. Then I looked on a table and there was a bunch of fly fishing stuff for sale. A couple fly boxes from "Richard Wheatly" in England. Some with flies, most empty but priced in the $30 range for empties and the ones with flies were I think $80. Not anything I'd jump on. Lots of spools of fly line, backing and leader materials. Lines ranged from 4wt to 13 wt tarpon lines. Mostly Orvis brand. Marked $18 a spool but again, not anything I needed. I don't fly fish anymore...

 

As I browsed around, I saw a big cardboard box on the floor that has all fly tying stuff in it. On the flap is written "All prices half of original marked price". So I'm looking and there's bags of marabou, bags of hackles, capes, deer tails, belly strips thread etc. Also in it were a bunch of tools. Lots of scissors, hackle pliers, whip finishers, a couple fly boxes and stuff I'd never seen. Only problem was, most of it didn't have a price of any kind on it. Oh well, probably out of my price range too. I picked up 6 fly tying/fishing books that were basically brand new for $5 each (I'm a sucker for hunting and fishing books) and a rosewood shotgun cleaning rod kit by Crane & Crane (?) brand new in the walnut display box and figured I was done.

 

When I went up to pay I happened to mention about the box of fly tying supplies and how almost none of it had prices on it. The guy running the sale said "Well, lets go look." Off we went... We're sitting there rooting in the box and he just says "Wanna make me an offer on the whole box?" So I thought a bit and said "Would you be offended if I said fifty bucks?" He came back with "I was thinking more like $100." I didn't have that much and said so but he said they took plastic or checks and walked away. Now, I'm not poor but I'm far from "having money", I've got a family of 5 to take care of and it's almost Christmas and things are tight but I'm looking in this box and I'm just not seeing things clearly at first. Then I start counting items and thinking about how expensive everything "fly tying/fishing" usually is. I'm seeing multiple full capes, spools of line, lots of tools and "Orvis" labels everywhere. I picked up the danged box and took it upstairs, bummed $40 from my wife and bought it for the $100 price. She thought I was nuts but I told her there was a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff in "my" box. Little did I know...

 

I spent all day yesterday going through it, looking stuff up on line to figure out just what the heck some of it was and what it was worth. The first thing I happened to grab was a spool of the Orvis wonderline (I think that was what it was called) and it had a $65 price tag on it from the store. Brand new, never used. Cool. As I got digging, there's a couple more of 'em, then some more etc. I think there were 11 in all. GULP! that's over $600 worth of line dear! Then my son says "Hey dad, these fly boxes are made in England." Off to google land we go... Yup, Richard Wheatly #1408 and #4604. Dang, they're not very cheap. I start getting into gallon zip lock bags of tools and finding all sorts of tools where I have to look up the name. Names like Moodus, Griffin, Miltex, Renzetti, Tiemco and of course Orvis. There's pairs and pairs of scissors, bobbins and snips. Deer hair stackers and wing burners, lead wire, chenille, pipe cleaners, spectra glittery stuff and "fuzzy lead". There's a bunch of already tied flies that I think are saltwater bugs. They've got bead eyes and look a little "shrimpy" to my eye. Tied in Kenya for Orvis. There's also boxes of hooks. Quite a few hooks are saltwater hooks. Nearly everything was brand new in the plastic. Man I had so much fun sorting all this stuff out! Guess I'll have to go back to fly tying again. Cool thing is, unlike 30 years ago, now I've got two boys and the oldest for sure will be interested. Went back to the sale today and nearly everything was gone but I just happened to see a small white box on the table that was marked $40 on the lid. Inside was a Renzetti "traveler series" vice still in the factory sealed bag. I figured that would be a perfect Christmas gift for my son and grabbed it up. Lucky me, I got upstairs to pay and found out that since today was the last day of the sale, everything was half price. $20 for a brand new vice? Yea, I'll do that.

 

Oh yea, final tally after looking everything up that was in the $100 box? $2,400.93! I've never sold an tem on ebay in my life but there are lots of duplicates in this stuff so I might have to start. Either that or put it all away for the kids.

[JSzymczyk 0]

I'll give you $40 for the Renzetti Traveler, and I'll pay postage!! Double your money in an instant! How can you refuse?

[D Bulla 0]

Now now... that ones a gift.

 

I haven't looked that up yet. What's it worth? Aw heck, I don't care what it's worth, I'm happy. Matter of fact, I don't care much what any of the stuff I bought is worth. Only reason I tallied it up was to prove a point to my wife. She bought a solid oak dining room table set at a yard sale for $175. It's worth about $4,000. I figure dollar for dollar, my box of fly tying stuff has her table beat. But I suppose I'll never be able to prove THAT point.

[JSzymczyk 0]

It retails for anywhere from about $165 to $195 depending on exact model. $20 is a stupendous deal.

 

Add that to the long and growing list of "Stuff that will never happen to me."

[D Bulla 0]

Thanks JSzymczyk for the info. I went ahead and looked it up and came up with pretty much the same. I'm not sure which model this one is but it doesn't have the flat base, it's got a table clamp. How does that brand compare with others? My personal vice that I got as a kid is an old Thompson's model A and is the only thing I have to compare to. This new one looks light years ahead of mine.

 

Also, would you all mind if I post some pic's of the stuff I got just for input on how good it is and what some of the items are. I've got some little parts that I believe are replacement stones for a hook sharpener but I don't have the holder part. Each one is about 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" long, is mounted in black plastic and there are two plastic "tits" that stick off the back which I assume snap into whatever type handle it goes on. There's a white "V" groove stone, a white "V" male stone (I can only guess it's for sharpening the back of the barb?) a reddish brown flat one and one that has a small white round rod shaped stone.

[KHoss 0]

good find!

 

not trying to be a buzzkill, but that $2,400 original retail price, is not market value today

 

10 or 20 for the lines

30 AND 70 for the wheatlys (depending on condition)

120-140 for the vise

 

 

$120- yeah you got a GREAT deal

but re-selling (based on what you posted) will get you about 500 at most

unlike your friends wood table you mentioned, a lot of this stuff doesn't hold its value

and "used" will really cut the value

 

You mentioned your kids.

sounds like a great starting point to get them into fly tying/fishing

[Phish 0]

Sweet find!!

[Markbob 0]

Post pics of anything you have questions about, we'll be happy to help you out.

[novabass 0]

Great story and I wish I would find a box like that. Sounds like you got a fantastic deal!

Congrats and enjoy!

[D Bulla 0]

What's the best way to post pic's here? On the other forums I go to I usually use photobucket. I have not looked into posting pic's here.

 

By the way, KHoss, I appreciate the input on prices. I doubt I'll sell much other than maybe some of the bobbins or hackle pliers and scissors that have multiple duplicates. As near as I can tell, nearly every item is new and unused. The fly lines are also new, unused. I got almost all my prices from the computer looking in various on line stores and I'm seeing these lines in the $50 to $60 range. Is there something I'm missing where they might only be worth ten to twenty?

 

When I get a chance, I'll look at the lines and see exactly which ones are there. I recall one or two labeled "trout", I think there was "spring creek", not sure the others. Most are 5wt, wt fwd or rocket taper. I've got a 6 wt rod but not a 5. Think they'll work in my 6 wt?

[D Bulla 0]

Just a quick list since I found the paper I wrote some of the items down on:

 

6 Orvis tapered leaders

3 spools cortland backing

1 Moodus fishermans tool.

1 Streamlife wing burner set (3 different sizes)

1 orvis black snip

2 orvis silver snips

1 orvis black snip with zinger

3 orvis pin on zingers

1 Griffin ceramic scissors

1 Miltex iris scissors, surgical, Germany

1 orvis "bent" scissors

3 orvis super smooth supreme bobbins (black holders)

3 orvis super smooth supreme bobbins (brass holders)

3 renzetti ht106 bobbins, ruby tip.

7 tiemco ceramic bobbinsm black tip (heavy duty?)

2 griffin rotating hackle pliers

1 renzetti ht202 standard hair stacker

1 renzetti std ht 204 double ended stacker

1 renzetti midge ht205 double ended stacker

6 various make bodkin needles

6 spools orvis lead wire ranging from .015 to .035

7 spools orvis thread, various colors

9 pkgs dyed marabou

12 pkgs dyed hackles

6 pkgs undyed hackles

3 grizzly capes

1 Metz half grizzly cape

misc yarn spools

orvis chenile and spectra spools

3 dyed bucktails

1 undyed bucktail

a bunch of dyed deer hair belly strips

 

Which leaves the things that I have no idea what they are and the spools of line which I didn't write down on the list.

 

Hmmm, just looked over the list and it looks like some things are not on it. I know there were two whip finishing tools in two different sizes and a couple other things.

[KHoss 0]

Photobucket will work here

 

 

 

the wonderline is discontinued... and has never been touted as "good performers"

bad loops, non durable coating, and the floating line sinks

 

orvis has it for 39 on their sale site... and there are always 10 or 15% cupons floating around

i've bought multiple wonderlines for 10 on ebay for building lines and have even had a shop just give them away

 

sounds like the lines are fairly old (10+yrs)

not saying they won't work

but there are a lot of new lines out there... tapers, coatings, construction

 

just my honest opinion

 

 

 

I'd be interested in the marabou + dyed and undyed hackles if you have some pictures and are looking to sell