medal lip prices
 

seen needles going for 30 and dannys 35...wow...great plugs and a great place that sells them...but holy cow 3 plugs for a 100 plus where do we go from here half a hundred:shocked:I thought fly fishing was expensive..nothing against anyone but I won't be buying any of these at those prices, lots of great plugs in the 20-25 dollar range. to me its getting nuts...at what price don't you fish a lure...to lose a 20 dollar plug so what... but a forty...I'm still fishing Mac's plugs...I'm not a collector...I can't see myself droping 35 beans..I'm just shocked:shocked:

I don't know why
 

don't know why this is got my goat...maybe because I allways liked them and wanted them and couldn't find them when I wanted to. and now there past my price

the 30 for needles came from BM directly. some shops didn't order any because of the cost.

the 35 dannys were bought from a collector which is why the price was so high

Two Words
 

Supply & demand
Some of the reasons:
-More collectors looking for every paint scheme (some of which get better and better :bl:) put out by a plug maker
-Ease of use of fleabay and buy/sell forums
-Zeno's book :kewl:, which demystified the use of plugs
-The boutique nature of the plug making business (lots of hand crafting)
Anything you plug makers want to add?

The collector market is nuts. I saw on another site 60 BM plugs for $2500. That's over $41.50 per plug in bulk. Absolutely crazy but it's an investment for the future. I guess they will be worth $100 each in a few years.

Plugs have turned into baseball cards..

Thankfully I am into hello kitty

Making my Lathe Investment look better and better.

http://www.saltwateredge.com/miva/gr...ins/bone_g.jpg

Its not that crazy to pay 40 bucks for a plug when you have the money or if you're really into it. You get what you pay for. Look at a plug from wal-mart for 8 bucks and then take a look at the finish of a Gary Soldarti plug. The GRS big water lures definitiely has the best paintjob i've seen so far.

Ain't that the truth. The only plugs that I use that I don't make are bombers and superstrikes.

Maybe the best paint job, but my $7 Mambo Minnow has clocked a few 36+" stripers this year.

even gibbs are expensive!

Plug kits are a GREAT option! My winter project is to pick up some plug kits and have fun with the kids.

Good idea - crank out some plug kits with my son !

:agree: My all time favorite plug is only $15 and regularly catches more and bigger fish than the more expensive stuff out there.Live and Learn

PeteG;
Yup!

Remember, $35.00 buys a lot of eels!

I loaded up years ago , about when Gibbs was to change hands for the first time. I bought many different styles and large quantities. I paid about $7.50 each (average).

I figured it was a lifetime supply. I ended up parting with about half to make up a new surf bag for smokey when his was stolen the night his girlfriends son was paralized (talk about bad luck , he gets ripped off while he's taking his girlfriend to the hospital. Anyway , that cost me about half my stockpile.

When my stockpile is empty , I may never fish a plug again. I will not pay $30 or more for plugs. Who knows , maybe we'll start making our own like we did with jigs , teasers etc. but no $30 plugs for me.

I have been to "Mecca". I have see the master's handy work.
Scottt, thanks for the tour. You have the most impressive shop I have see and I have been to Gibb, John's old shop and a few others.

Congratulations on a shop anyone would be proud of.

And you do make some of the most affordable wooden "gems" on the market!

Here's a little story about how bad ridiculous metal lip prices are.

Last winter I was able to get my hands on a bunch of Beachmasters, bout 30 of them. I gave the guy around 350 bucks I think for them, and he knew how much they were going for on ebay.

This Spring was my last semester in college and I was student teaching and couldn't work. So, I sold about 20+ of them and kept a few for myself and was able to pay my bills while I was student teaching.

The prices for plugs is crazy.

who buys them ? the same people who sit in there cars with the binoculars on you, when u catch a fish they run over or turn there headlights on you,one guy on the beach showed me this beautiful plug, not 1 scratch on it???? u get what u pay for , no u get one guy that loves the plug and it spreads.....what about dommsson .....or bob hahn gibbs ,,,theres a %$%$%$%$ load of plug makers that swim just as good,but i guess if u have the money to spend on binoculars ...40,50 dollarplugs arent a big deal

Scotty - got many of those kits you were selling at MSBA plug nite???:bgi: Aren't they on your Web site?

Wow, you're really painting with a broad brush. I own plenty of $30 plugs and they are all used for catching fish, not being put on display. I also own plenty less expensive plugs made by guys who are sponsors here and they catch just as well and have just as good of finishes as more expensive plugs.

I use different plugs for different conditions and would rather fish with plugs I have confidence in. Sometimes it's a BM Danny, sometimes it's a Gibbs Polaris popper, sometimes it's a Hab's needle. Heck, I even use rubber storm shads if the conditions call for it.

As for Bob Hahn plugs, they are cheaper because they aren't as well made. I have a couple and the finishes aren't as durable and they come with crappy hooks.

By the way, I don't sit in my car looking through binoculars. My binoculars usually stay on the boat. They wouldn't work well for me when fishing the surf anyways because I can't see much through them when it's dark out.

I dunno, Nebe - Hello Kitty this week....seems like only yesterday you were into My Little Pony or whatever the hell those homoerotic horses were...

Kids today....I can't understand them....they grow up so fast....:smokin:

I've never realy paid attention to the "market".. I'm not your average plug junkie, I dont collect or fish anyone elses plug.. my own creations catch enough fish to keep me happy.... back in the day, when I had 4 mouths to feed, I couldnt justify spending $10 on goo-goo eyes .. that drove me to make my own...How things have changed...

bottom line is, an artificial of any type is made to fool a fat lazy bass into thinking that ,that, hunk of wood is the next meal, so, I'll keep fishing my own stuff and admire the work/ctaftsman ship of the greats from afar....and let the "investors" create the market...

I agree with the prices being rediculous.......but, dabbling in plug building mysef I know how hard it is to prefect the art with the small set-up I have. Each plug is unique and different in one way or another......If I were to calculate my time and money I spent on everything I bought for the dam hobby, I'd have to charge $100+ a plug to break even!!!!! I don't sell nor ever wish to sell.....seeing my plug hanging out of a fishes mouth is all the satisfaction I need.
As for the Non-hobbyists who do it for a living, all the power to ya...I can't say a handmade plug is not worth $30 though....as I think for the most part they are. I just can't afford a plug bags worth.

$30 - $40 is not that much money to a lot of people.

thats goign to change VERY quickly

True. No more orders from guys who work for Lehman Brothers and don't care what the total is.

You sound like my Kids....

"That's not that bad"

Hey,

It seems the plugs are being made to "catch" the angler and not the fish.
My feeling is you could fish with a 6 inch piece of broom stick if it has the correct action combined with the right retrieve. Fish don't care if it has blue paint with scales and sparkles and you can see your reflection on the side of it. A few times in the rocks and that shine is gone.

My current plugging bag is mostly home made, poppers and dannys. I have several metal lip swimmers from the mid 70's and they still catch fish. Here is a bunch I made and I used this year...nothing fancy.

The prices for some of those plugs are just too much. I can appreciate the hand made craftsmanship (also made here in US is good) but the prices are just too much for me.

Tight lines
Magpie

Yeah, it's getting ridiculous. I don't care if Jesus himself made them $35.00 for a Beachmaster is out of bounds. Cms in New Bedford told me of this a month or so ago and he isn't carrying them anymore. It was a hassle just to get them into the shop the way you have to do business..

To bad, I thought Bobby was a great guy and had many great phone conversations with him, don't know what could account for this.