Rod builder question(it happened to me)

[FishingBuds]

Do any of you guys buy alot thru Ebay?

any rod build stuff, from epoxy, tools, thread to rod blanks, all of it really.

Or do you deal with rod store's or split it up between the two.

I will have to order 75% of my stuff it looks like, only a few things locally.

[Red]

i have only just started out with rodbuilding.  i have ordered from fishsticks4u and acid rod.  other than cork i think acid rod has better prices and they only charge you what it costs them to ship.  most of my tools and "jigs" and such i have made myself

[ejtaylor822]

I deal primarily with Mudhole, Swampland and fishsticks4u. But, 80% of my business is with Mudhole.  Tremendous service and given that they are a few states away my orders are usually here in a couple of days.

I would encourage you, though, if this is something you are going to do seriously to get a relationship established with a vendor.  Know their products, selection, and the folks that work there and will make life easier on you.

Eddie

[I Love BassResource]

I've utilized a bunch of vendors, but my core purchases go to mudhole and swampland.  I'd purchase every single item I needed from swampland, but they specialize more in the blank arena and don't normally carry many components or tools.

 I'd agree with EJ 100%, find a vendor that carries your line of items and learn their blank characteristics.  It'll save you time/money when trying to accomplish a build to suit a specific task.

[flechero]

I don't buy anything rodbuilding related from ebay.  Never will, either.  The few things I've seen either appeared to be poor quality, knock offs or higher priced than my suppliers.

I agree with Eddie and Booten.  With a few, rare exceptions, I buy from mudhole and fishsticks.  I've gotten better service from them than I have any vendor in any business that I've dealt with.  There are many great vendors to choose from... once you find one, post about them here so we all have another trusted option to use if our's is out of something.  

My only complaint with mudhole is that they had free 2nd day shipping on Thursday and were out of the 5C70MHf blanks!    ...lol

[ernel]

EJ,

Now that Scott and his wife have bought Fishsticks, their store should just be "around the corner" from you. That could be dangerous to the wallet.    

Eric

[ejtaylor822]

EJ,

Now that Scott and his wife have bought Fishsticks, their store should just be "around the corner" from you. That could be dangerous to the wallet.

Eric

Yes. Very much so.....

I sent Scott and email last week talking about this with him and if we could can get an "arrangement". Told him I would be out next week or two and check out the new digs. Know I will be coming home with something.

I really like Mudhole though and the pricing and service is very good from them.  Regardless, its dangerous to have someone 30 mins away.....

Eddie

[FD.]

I only buy from Mudhole.  Their service is awesome and they are only 90 miles away so regular shipping is quick for me.

[FishingBuds]

Thanks, you guys gave me some good stuff.  I put together my last order so now I believe I have everything I need to start building my first rod  Oh, I ended up going with MudHole.

[FishingBuds]

Looking for another supplier on RainShadow rod blanks I came across these guys close to me, http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/ they were a buck or so cheaper on the blanks compared to Swampland but a buck higher or so on Guides compared to Mudhole

[bowtech_182]

Fishsticks4u, Acidrod.com and Utmost enterprises all have a good selection of Batson blanks.  I ordered my Batson blank from Fishsticks4u and everything went alright.

[MickD]

I have bought a lot of rodbuilding stuff through eBay, more in the past than now.  You can get guide sets rather reasonably there, and motors/bushings for rod drying are available inexpensively.  Since I am now using setups that require guides different than the "sets", I have been buying from regular suppliers.  I never did find the blanks I wanted there.  Selections tend to be limited on most all stuff.  I think exc for the motors, it makes more sense to buy from regular suppliers.

I have recently found some good reel buys on eBay.

In buying from eBay, just be sure the person you are buying from has a positive rating no lower than about 98%.  Sellers who do a good job have that high a rating, and I've never had  a problem with one.

[FishingBuds]

Well wouldn't you know it, it can happen to you :

So I pondered over who to buy from, and settled on someone due to a reputation, now first I'm by no way blaming anyone here that gave me advice on where to go, this I believe is just wrong timing on my part, but I at least gotta share my experience.

I customized what I wanted on my first rod building package, and the wife said that I could spend for it, we'd be between two checks and we'd have money left over by the time I got paid anyway, so I didn't argue.

I ordered on a thursday, next day they leave a message and I would have a back order on guides, so I corrected that by gettinig another kind(better actually), at that momment I find out my next day air isn't next day, > so I move on with lesson learned.

Sunday, the wife notices that I did two purchases on our bank account, NO way I say, it turns out they charged me twice

Monday morning we call to fix it, they appoligze and say it well be fixed. two hours later the dead line for my next day delivery package doesn't show up, I call about it, they can't find it

Tuesday this morning wife calls me and says they never fixed the double charge, and guess what-a check bounced :'(

we call bank plead with them and they understood and cut us a break no bouncy check, we call the dealer again to explain that a missy was suppose to fix said problem, manager ends up fixing problem and they took off the overnight charge as well, so cool I get back extra money

package shows up today finally and I get everything out to check. I get down to the new heat gun and the sucker quits worken, just quits worken so now I have to consider returning this crud of a heat gun back and look forward to all of what intels it

So there it is, yey what a great way to start my first rod build experience

sometimes stuff happens, neadless to say I can't buy from them for awhile untill the wife forgets about it ;D

well it lets me find someone closer anyway.

sure would have been better if they didn't double charge me

PS I forgot also, their site was down for routine maintenance so I couldn't find out the procedure to return the heat gun

[FishingBuds]

I got a phone call today from the lady that had been straighting out my issue, she seen my email and told me to return the heat gun and she would refund my money and the cost of shipping it back. She surely didn't have to do that but thats good service back at me

[flechero]

Dang, what a domino effect!  Have you considered changing your screen name to Murphy?   ;D