Profit margin on crankbaits

[Raul]

 

Or if that ain't nuff here's another 

 

 

Dang ! 'Traps are young as me.

[Team9nine]

49 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

However, I wouldn't place too much stock in anything Lenny Hartman said (He had 3 versions of everything).

Len Hartman's riches-to-rags story was among the saddest in the angling industry, he was a man

enshrouded in unethical behavior.  When Lenny finally confessed to a multitude of laws & rules

that he & Betts had broken, I literally threw his book in the trashcan ("Before I Forget").

 

Roger

 

Yep, well aware of his past. Really a shame, but the whole muskie world record quest seemed to have a bad effect on a lot of the players at the time. The issue (true WR muskie) still hasn't been resolved in most peoples minds, the the credibility of a lot of people and organizations have been called into question because of it. A very sordid story.

 

-T9

[RoLo]

17 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

Yep, well aware of his past. Really a shame, but the whole muskie world record quest seemed to have a bad effect on a lot of the players at the time. The issue (true WR muskie) still hasn't been resolved in most peoples minds, the the credibility of a lot of people and organizations have been called into question because of it. A very sordid story.

 

-T9

 

 

Precisely.

 

As a final insult, the slate was wiped entirely clean of all former musky records and was started anew.

The new program has the fandangled name “Modern Day Muskellunge World Record Program” (MDMWRP) 

The world-record went from Art Lawton's 69-15 to the modern world-record of 58-lb 0-oz (a 12-pound descent!).

 

Roger

[Jeff H]

Who was Betts?

[K_Mac]

GreenGhostMan this topic comes up from time to time. Whether a bait is worth the price is always going to be debated. At the end of the day it is always a personal choice. I fish on a real budget so I have to choose wisely. I will say that a $20 Lucky Craft jerkbait that catches fish is worth more to me than a box full of cheaper baits that don't.

 

The product you manufacture is worth a given price, based on demand and supply. That is the way the market works. Crankbaits are no different. When demand goes down they end up on the discount table, and one that is hot (like a red Wiggle Wart on Table Rock in the spring) will get a good price. God bless America!

[RoLo]

8 minutes ago, Jeff H said:

Who was Betts?

 

As written in his book, "Betts" was Lenny's pet name for his wife Betty Hartman

 

 

[Jeff H]

I'm not into the Musky scene at all, but was Hartman the guy that was catching all the big Musky in the St. Lawrence?

[RoLo]

 

13 hours ago, Jeff H said:

I'm not into the Musky scene at all, but was Hartman the guy that was catching all the big Musky in the St. Lawrence?

 

 

Yes, Jeff

 

Leonard & Betty Hartman were musky guides and a fabled husband & wife team out of Ogdensburg, NY

At that same time, Arthur & Ruth Lawton were musky guides and a fabled husband & wife team

out of Clayton, NJ. Both teams caught a horde of monster muskies on the Saint Lawrence River.

 

Like the Hatfields and McCoys, both families feuded for many years on the St. Lawrence River,

and the annual winner of the Field & Stream Contest shuttled back-and-forth between the dueling teams.

Both husband & wife teams were indeed legendary musky anglers, but sadly both fell victim to the profit motive.

Art Lawton allegedly boated a 69-lb 15-oz musky, later determined to be a forensic reject.

Ruth Lawton allegedly boated a 68-lb 5-oz musky, later determined to be a forensic reject.

Len Hartman allegedly boated a 67-lb 15-oz musky, which Len himself admitted to heavily weighting

Roger

 

 

 

 

[Deleted account]

I don't know how much those booths at ICast are, but the ones at InterBike are big $.

 

The cost of manufacturing a product is only one (and a small part) of sporting hard goods. Most companies or "brands" don't manufacture product, they hire it out, so their "cost" includes the manufacturer's mark up, we're just getting started, try to keep up.

So now you either pay USA manufacturing costs, or more often have to factor in shipping, customs, tariffs, taxes and warehousing. Ok, so now you have your KVD 1.0 in the states, pat yourself in the back, but make sure you have a big enough team (through a combination of employees, jobbers, independent distributors, and at least one hottie intern) to handle sales, promotions, warranties, support and the like (those free redeyes they ship the jokers who leave them in the car in the summer, or do other stupid crap don't grow on trees).

Ok so now all we gotta do is get this crank to the tackle shop, so we either make UPS, USPS, FedEx and some trucking companies some $, or we maintain a fleet of vehicles, or both. And now we gotta make sure KVD and all the other sponsored personnel have enough product, and know the company line forward and backwards, so that we can generate more sales. Oh darn, its time for that ICast thing again, now The venue, airlines, hotels, restaurants, display booth, and swag people get their piece. Add the mundane expenses like rent, utilities, insurance, and the like and you get to a good ball park number for the cost of that lure, Oh darn, time for a price increase.