Van Staal [SIZE="1"]made in china[/SIZE]

[Adam_777]

If Pete says the thing is the same except the annodizing is better.Thats good news.Would have been worse if he said the new plastic handle and balsa drag knob wear out quick.Pete knows what he's talking about.He also said earlier in the year.So who knows how long they have been making them over there could date back 3 or 4 years.The whole Tulsa thing could have just been a front for Zebco.So it looked like it was made in the USA.Most likely a few illegals stuffed into a confined area tearing down and re-assembling for peacework.My only advice is if you want one buy it,if you have one keep it.Just learn how to do the maintenance on your own .Get a bunch of seals,o-rings and lube.After you tear it down yourself and put it back together the only thing you can blame reel failure on is yourself.Not the illegals in tulsa or the china men or women trying to survive on peanuts.Big Business's are always looking to cut corners and save a buck sad but true.

[HESH2]

sad to say everything today is made in china.there are no mfg in the states anymore,at least in ct.all popular auto's are foreign,the american big 3 auto co are all close to going under along with there dealers.if vs was to lower the price to reflect the savings they would increase their market share.i'm not convinced ct. vs'a-reel ventures vs-zebco vs's ever made a turn your head profit.check your vs serial ####### and figure in your mind what they made for profit after dealer mark up and expenses,i think very little per reel.how many zee bass reels out there at $1200 each,not many.

[Pete_G]

Originally Posted by Adam_777

If Pete says the thing is the same except the annodizing is better.Thats good news.

Just to be clear about the anodizing being "bettter" this isn't something anyone will really be able see even when looking for it. This was real nit-picking here.

On the Tulsa machined parts which were anodized silver you could often see slight trails or scratches where the machine cut the metal. Basically tiny irrelevent imperfections no one would notice unless you were REALLY hunting for them but at the same time you wouldn't see that sort of imprefection on a Abel or Tibor fly reel, a ZeeBaas, or other high end machined item so we had mentioned it to VS last year.

The silver reel we got early this year just didn't have any of that.

In hindsight, basically ignore that I even mentined it...

[maddog2020]

Ey Mike P, I don't agree w/ the folks that own VS that they won't lower the price what so ever. I don't like blue collar guys like myself losing jobs due to businesses closing because manufacturing was moved to China. Sad part is people will continue to buy VS reels regardless of where they are made and the cost.

I didn't doubt people destroy a VS reel at all, MikeP. None of my inner circle of friends have busted one (most don't fish the Canal either).The side plate coming off is due to poor engineering - it should have been threaded the opposite direction so if it did ever loosen up you would end up tightening it up from just cranking on the handle. Of course it confuses the service person working on it because people automatically think righty tighty and lefty loosey ..... LOL. The brainiac who came up with the non hex side plate deserves idiot award of the century - they did that to stop guys from self-servicing it essentially.

From a business stand point the only was VS was going to survive was for the production of it to go abroad otherwise they would have never taken on the endeaver IMHO. Would you rather pay a person $1/hr or $30/hr for the same job?

I had heard from a source that Van Staal use to get all of it's aluminum for free from some aerospace industry ( it was their scrap) and that eventually dried up when the person left.

So be sure now to advertise that your reel is USA made verses China & you can charge premium prices now..... LOL. Who wants to wager $$ that you WILL see this advertise on Ebay now and drive the prices up. Oh, America - ya gotta love the guy looking to make a buck on something. :P