So I am moving over to the dark side and have sold a couple of Curado's tn hopes of getting a couple more Pro's. I noticed a guy on Ebay selling "refurbished" TPs. I asked him for a price on 3 and he told me $300 for the 3 of them + $10 shipping!!! I was a bit shocked at the price so I asked him how scratched up they were before I committed to buy them and was told they were in good condition. I paid for them at around noon on Monday and had them by 2pm Tuesday!!!!!!!
I anxiously opened the box and to my surprise The first one I pulled out was in New condition with only a small scuff on the word SPEED (top left reel). BTW they did not come in the factory boxes.
The second and third looked good with what may be new side covers on them but the frames show some scuffs.
I am pretty sure They had all 3 been totally disassembled and cleaned and re lubed and oddly enough they weren't as over lubed as the Pro's I've bought new and I think they used different grease. I'm not sure but the bearings may have been replaced on them as they were super slow like the ones in a brand new reel. They will only freespool for a few seconds so They will need a good flushing. (maybe they re greased them?)
Now for the kicker ............. One of the drags did not work! I took the handle side cover off to see what the problem was .
The sleeve (part 50 if you have a parts diagram) was not in far enough this made the star drag hit the handle before the drag was fully released. This reel had 2 sleeve washers (part 49). This is an optional part that is a spacer. After removing both of them everything works fine.
The 3 carbon drag washers on that reel had been replaced and I'm thinking they may have been thicker than the others making the spacers unnecessary?
Oddly enough the drag washers are dry, I will probably put some drag grease on them that's how I have my others and they still have plenty of drag and I think it makes it smoother. Next I'll flush the bearings and spool them up so I can go toss some lead and report back on how they work. I'm curious to see if they are as smooth as my others.
Over all I'm happy with my purchase but I can see how others would be bent out of shape to say the least.
I just thought I'd give some incite to others on buying a used reel off Ebay. If your looking for a smoking deal on a great reel you may want to check Ebay for a refurbished Lew's it looked like they had several other Lew's reels besides the TP.