Use It or Loose It

     I haven’t been to a Nascar race in 3 years. I haven’t been to a sold out concert in even longer; and the last thing that I bought on ebay was done so because that was the only available avenue to get a hold of the product. In case you are wondering what that product was, it was tickets to the last Nascar race I went to. Scalpers and hoarders have plagued the entertainment industry for the past couple of years making it so that if you want to attend a marquis event, you have to pay their price, not the events asking price. Legalized scalping. That’s what I call it and I never really cared until it began to effect me and my fishing tackle. Fishing Tackle? Yes, that’s right. Fishing tackle! It seems that the scalpers and hoarders have sniffed out the fishing industry and taken advantage of the demand for hot item baits. The demand that we the anglers have placed on them. What’s worse is that many of the people doing this may very well be other anglers. I’m not here to give moral speeches and practices on what is right and what is wrong. I will say this however. Get lost! 

     Let me be clear. I have heard of anglers hoarding baits by going and purchasing all of a certain bait off of the local shelves in an attempt to keep it out of other anglers boats. No problem. You haven’t created a market in which I need to go to ebay. Maybe in some indirect way you have started the problem, but I do not place the blame on you. What I am against are the people  who intentionally buy baits at a fair suggested market price and then triple their profits. Case in point, Basstrix Paddle Tail tubes. I have been throwing these things for a while. The bait was behind the scene. Awesome bait. Now that they are getting publicity, good luck trying to purchase them from a retailer other than ebay. These baits market retail between $6-$10 bucks. Not bad for today’s market. Now after you try an order some, you’ll be placed on a 6-10,000 person waiting list to get them from a retailer. Now you are out of options and on ebay. I kid you not, you will see packs going for an upward of $60.00. Ridiculous.

     We the anglers are the ones who have control over this. Without our participation, the market would no longer be there. Ordering online was created and we were thrilled because we no longer had to wait “in line” all day. Now we have become so impatient that we can no longer stand to wait ”online”. Will it get better? Probably not. Maybe I am the boat in the photo above, going the other way all alone. What can we do but go fishing.