I thought I'd ask this question out of curiosity.

I've got a couple cheap, old, production bamboo rods that I picked up on Ebay to play around with refinishing. I don't feel they're worth the price for the "high-end" parts.

I can find cheaper alternatives for cork, reel seats, snake guides, etc. which for these rods would be fine but I'm wondering about ferrules. Looking at some of the sites, I find that these suckers are expensive. I'm not questioning the expense but I can't justify $50-$80 for a ferrule set on these rods.

So what options are there? Are there cheaper alternatives? If I were to put them on an old 9' SB or HI would they hold up or would they loosen quickly? What would they be made of and what would I look for? Where would I find them?