Hey guys, I was referred to this site by someone, said that the people on this message board would be of help. I have an old deep sea fishing reel with the following markings:
Edward Hofe" "NY Pat May 20.02"
"Fulton St. NY"
"F309" "12-0" "722"
I'm hoping to find out about how much this thing is worth. I've seen one picture of one like this before but it didn't have the U shaped piece with the 2 rubber ends that goes around the rod which this one does have. Any help you guys can give will be especially appreciated.
Aaron, a lot more can be added to that $1k if your reel is in excellent condition. You can find a grading system that we use here http://orcaonline.org/grading.htm While not going into specifics, the newer your reel looks the more valuable it is. Photos of all the different views of your reel would really help in forming opinions on its value.
Although he missed the target with posting his reply to this (he meant it to appear here), Dean pointed out that books are a good place to get a general idea of relative values. I see it as meaning in general terms, how to determine if it's a reel that's worthless (is there such a thing to reel guys?), cheap, of some value (=popular), rare (always a chance there's someone looking for this reel and willing to pay more than you) to super or extremely rare ("Honey, I took out a second mortgage on our house today"). Figures listed in books are outdated for the most part, it seems to me, as more and more are entering the hobby and are willling to pay more. The online auction records are a good place to find current values for common reels but it will not help when a reel like yours has not been up for auction recently (hint, it's a kinda rare reel).
Gee, as a side note then, our collections (reels or lures) must be appreciating according to this approach to values, so why so much whining about "soft" prices and down markets?
This is a picture of the same model, it's the third picture down, then the reel in the middle http://www.antiquefishingreels.com/galleryReels.html I only put this up b/c I looked up the commander ross reel and it is a little different.
