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Is there any reason anyone can think of that we should be paying 20 cents apiece for Hooks?. am I missing somthing, All they are is a small piece of twisted wire, machine made and bulk shiped? I could understand if they were hand made or of rare material. Am I missing somthing here?
Eric
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Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau
Hey Eric,
The short answer would probably be :the reason they charge 20 cents per hook is that they can. Capitalism thrives on several factors. One of them is profit motive. If hooks were one cent apiece, there would be no/less incentive to produce them. On the other hand the 20 cent price has probably been tested over time by the demand factor. In fact, if you feel that at 20 cents, the manufacturer is profiting too much, perhaps you should consider getting into the business and share in the windfall profits http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
Mark
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Yes, I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa.
Eric
If you are paying 20 cents per hook I would suggest you do some comparison shopping as well as consider buying in bulk. Hook & Hackle, a FAOL sponsor offers reasonable (in my opinion) prices on Mustad hooks with a discount if purchased on line.
Tim Anderson
There are other brands of hooks available that do not cost that much.
You might look to another manufactuter to get your hooks.
Rick
Unless there's a reason to only buy 25 hooks of a specific type, I usually end up buying the package of 100 or 50. Yes, it does stack up on my bench and collects dust sometimes (there's one box of size 4 that is over a decade old), but it certainly cuts down the cost.
You probably are not paying enough. What custom, hand-mad hooks are you buying and what are you tying on them?
Learn how to make your own---
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Bill
I try to buy in town when I can. My local fly shop is usualy a little less expensive item for Item than the internet people and I don't have to pay shipping or wait for them to be delivered and they answer my stupid questions.
It is a small shop and he has a limited selection of large packs of hooks and has been out of 12's and 14's in the larger packs for a month.
H&H prices are excelent on Mustad I will have to look at puting in an order from them I ordered there catalog this morning.
Bill how would one go about making there own hooks? I would guess spring wire would be a good place to start.
Eric
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Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau
The cost of hooks?
$600 for a fly rod.
$60 for a line.
$150 for a reel.
And the only thing (well, almost only thing) that is THAT critical to the catching of the fish...
20 cents for the hook. I think we've got a heck of a deal!!
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Trouts don't live in ugly places
I would suggest that if you don't want to spend the money for the hooks that you don't. Tie the pattern directly on the end of your leader. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
donald
Eric, if you are paying 20 cents a piece for "typical" trout fly hooks then i strongly suggest you find a new supplier for your needs.
Depending on the hook type (dry,wet,nymph,streamer) you should be paying between 7 and 15 cents a piece when buying in boxes of 100.
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Jamie
[url=http://www.jamiescustomflies.com:e7184]Jamie's Fly & Tackle Shop[/url:e7184]
I would suggest that you do not take up saltwater fly fishing if you think .20 cents is a lot for a hook LOL.. I just finished some orders for flies tied on special hooks for a group going to South America for Peacock Bass. Each hook ran about $1.50 wholesale. LOL And I had to buy them by the hundred. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif Thank goodness they were all tied on one size of hook. Ron
Eric-WD Probably the same reason a steel, 3/4 inch washer cost 5 cents and I can drill out a copper penny and achieve the same result, and I don't have to tell you how much that cost.
At 20 cents for a hook you need to loose at least 30 each trip just to justify paying 3.00 a gal. for the gas! if you buy store bought you only need to loose 1
Rich
Jonezee
Pennys are not copper anymore, they're zink with a copper jackett. and by the way penny have not been copper for over a 100 year they have be a brass with a high copper content.
Ghost lol .
GrayGhost - I know what you mean, but even a copper coated zinc washer should be worth more than a penny as compared to a 5 cent steel one, and I'm not even considering the galvanized washers....but the plan old, rust in a year, washer. And speaking of hooks, I would lay in a good supply while the going is good. Maybe I'll reinvest some of my 401K in Wright & McGill........
I'm with Betty on this one, I can't believe someone worry's and even complains about 20 cents.
Eric,
I do most of my tying with Mustad and once in a while with Eagle Claw. Most of these hooks are between four and nine cents each. I've never had any problem with either brand. As someone suggested already, Hook and Hackle takes off another 20% on all their orders. 8T http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
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You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it's a real short camping season.
Your replys are wonderful, however none of you have stated a reason a 1/8th cent piece of bent wire should cost .20 buying top quality in packs of 25. perhaps this is where the profit is and they loose money on the rest.
Eric
OK the reason for the price is as follow's.
The hooks are made in Japan, Korea or England and then shipped to the USA. The company making the hooks make a profit the people importing the hooks to the US make a profit. There is duty on the hook's and the vinder's that sell the hook's have to make a profit on them.
Just to show how much import tax and profit there is on a hook. Some years ago I talked with a friend that had a fly tying operation in South America. He told me that he was buying Temico 100's for $1.54 a box of one hundred. Now remember this was some years ago. But at the time the same hooks were $3.00 for 25 here. Get the idea. Lot's of cuts out of that pie. I buy hooks wholesale and they cost me $4.00 a hundred but I have to buy 1,000 of one size and style to get that price. You want cheaper hooks buy them by the thousand of one size and style.
Just like gas in this country the government makes the most off of a gallon of gas. Thing called taxes. But everyone gripes at the oil company's Go figure http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif LOL Ron
Thanks for all the replys, this thread is an example of why I should not post while on graveyard shift. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
(way too much time to think)
What started this was I got to thinking about how much 22 ammo and other things which appear to be far more complicated cost and how simple hooks appear. and was wondering why hooks are so expensive. But then again we now pay a dollar or more for a small bottle of water.
Eric
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Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau
The funny thing is, even though I don't use many Mustad Classics anymore, they seem to almost the same price for 100 as they were when I started tying, about $5.
The premium moniker changed everything but then again, the same thing happened to hackle, materials, thread, tools, vices, rods, reels, lines, tippet, waders, vests, gadgets and worst of all...
...whiskey!
Eric,
Buying hooks in packs of 25 hooks is probably the most expensive way there is to buy the hooks. The plastic box that the 25 pack of hooks come in cost virtually the same as the box that the 100 packs come in. That alone would raise the packaging costs by a factor of 4, add in the fact that most hooks need to be shipped here from overseas and shipping rates are based on weight and your cost per hook in those little packs increases yet again.
There are a lot of hidden costs to the manufacturers/importers that the average consumer doesn't think about.
Before opening my shop i used to do purchasing for a Commercial Fishing Supply company, we used to import rope from India, wire from Italy, twine from China plus some other items from all corners of the globe. When containers come into ports you are given 3 days from the time the ship arrives in port until the conmtainer must be outside the ports gates and on the way to you. Now if the paperwork gets fouled up by the shipping company, the trucking company, customs or anybody else and the container gets delayed you the customer are on the hook for all of the associated demurrage charges. If your container is lucky enough to be chosen by customs to be x-rayed then you are charged to truck the container to the customs area, charged for the x-ray and charged to truck the container back to the regular area of the port. Now to add insult to injury if the customs inspection puts you over the three day allowance then you are charged demurrage fees as well.
We once had a container that when we finally got the container after everything was said and done the costs from the port and customs were over 25% of the value of the product. Considering the average container had a product value of about $45,000 USD, we probably averaged around 5% of container value in misc. fees.
I guess this is a long winded way of saying that you should buy your hooks in bigger packs to save yourself some money and also be glad that the darned things don't cost even more with all of the hidden costs.
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Jamie
[url=http://www.jamiescustomflies.com:0d784]Jamie's Fly & Tackle Shop[/url:0d784]
I was given some old fishing items from a neighbor who was cleaning his garage. A lot of it is for large bait, but there was a small plastic box of Mustad Aberdeen Hooks, 16 count, listed for 19c. I have no idea how old they are, but I instantly thought of this thread...
Yes, Diane those prices did exist...I still have Mepps spinners bought at the Army PX for 3 for 33 cents....of course I'm kind of long in the tooth...[G].
And ... to put this all in perspective:
http://www.kensawada.com/w/list.php?...0&mcat=600&l=e
That's $50 per hook