I'm new here. Great site...Recently on ebay I have seen a few far east dealers selling remade version of the superb Cardinal 3 in Tan and black. These come in a light beige box, an abu garcia reel bag and are marked "Abu Garcia" on bottom of reel seat next to "Made in Sweden". No serial number like on the original reels. I am guessing these are a similar deal to the Cardinal 33's they remade in the early 90's. Just wondering if anyone has any leads on anywhere in North America where it may be possible to track down one of these remakes. The ones on Ebay are all going pretty high in price. The fact the sellers are advertising as "original 1980's reel" probably has something to do with this. It was the same deal when the remade 33's came out and many dealers were selling as "new old stock" instead of "new remade reel".
I would like to get my hands on a couple of these and maybe the beige 4's also if they are being remade. I still love these old reels compared with anything else around these days. But price should be in the $150 - $200 range and not the $350 and up that the rip off artists are selling for on Ebay...
Thanks anyone for any leads. Anyone have any other Cardinal questions I can probably help out...
Cheers,
Woodsie.
Using business connections in Japan I have followed up on the remade black and tan Cardinal 3. I have seen a couple of these (advertised as 80's original) go on Ebay last few weeks for $400 plus. The fact is they are widely distributed in Japan and retail for $170 - $230. The remade Cardinal 33's are available in Japan for as low as $120 retail. Why can't Abu Garcia distribute some of these in North America? Surely they could sell decent numbers and it would make up for the nasty low end stuff they are knocking out presently... Then again bear in mind that the reason they stopped making these reels was because "they last too long..." 