If you tie commercially
How can you amke any money at it, in the face of this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sealed-Box-1...#ht_3397wt_922
A doz umpqua stimis in a sealed box for 6.99 plus 1.95 shipping?
How can someone who ties commercially make a go of it? This same fly is 1.50+ in the fly shop.
no wonder I haven't seen anyone selling flies through the For Sale board for a long time...
"Trust, but verify" - Russian Proverb, as used by Ronald Reagan
Almost nobody makes a living tying production patterns commercially anymore. At most production patterns are "gravy" on steak & potatoes made doing something else (in my case, guiding and shop work). Doing specialty trout flies helps some too. The few full-time commercial tyers make their living doing custom steelhead and saltwater flies. Most of the rest make maybe half their money tying flies and the rest "expertizing" ala AK Best, aka the money is in writing about fly tying and giving talks. There's some money in royalties if you are a contract designer, but not a lot unless you're Mike Mercer or John Barr. My royalties from MFC last year on about a dozen patterns amounted to one month of rent & utilities.
Also, I suspect those Umpqua flies must be overstock they got from Umpqua for pennies. I'd need to check our wholesale cost, but on most Umpqua flies it's more than twice that per dozen.
By not trying to compete with it!
Notice though that that is a starting bid. Not the final price. That can't be much different from the price that a shop would pay for those flies to be able to sell them at $1.50 each.
Personally I haven't tied an order of Stimulator's for about 10 years, the last ones I tied were for a customer going to fish one of the Irish Loughs at mayfly time. He couldn't get them elsewhere in the colours he wanted. The likes of Umpqua wouldn't be interested in an order of 3 dozen. Thats where being able to talk to your tier comes in.
Some years ago I was demonstrating a fly at the Chatsworth Angling Show. Two men watched the demonstration: which took me about 20 minutes to tie and explain the fly. At the end one of them asked if he could have the fly. I said if you see the lady there she has a box of them for sale. He asked me how much they were, I replied,
"One pound fifty each." To which he said,
"I can get a fly over there for fifteen pence."
"Well," I said, "You should go over there and see if you can get one like this." He huffed, and stomped off. The other man asked me how many were in the box. I told him about two dozen. He asked if he bought them all could he also buy the one I had just tied.
"Of course." I said, "Just one question though, sir. You tie flies, don't you?"
"Yes," He said, "But I know I could never tie that."
In all my years tying commercially, I've probably sold more flies to other tiers than non tiers.
Often I get asked, usually by someone trying to be cleaver, "Do you tie flies to catch fish or fishermen?" On one occasion the perfect answer occurred to me, and I've used it ever since.
"I've never had a fish pay me for a fly."
It isn't easy to make any money at the tying game, especially when there are reasonable tiers doing it to cover their materials cost. Thats why I will not try to sell through eBay any more. Also the flies imported from Kenya by one UK company, have a unit cost when they arrive in the UK of less than I can buy a hook for.
Fortunately for me I do not subscribe to modern society's belief that "ambition" is just another way of spelling "greed". If I turn round from my tying bench I can see the sea, I can walk to the local loch to fish, I can get by working part time in a local store, and tying orders of flies. It's not high living, but I'm happier than I have been in years. My ambition for the next couple of years is to start doing some guiding, enough to give up the job in the local store.
Cheers,
C
I have had people say "Why don't you sell some flies on ebay?" Well because I see flies listed at $6/doz. on there, that aren't even selling at that price.
I think the short answer is "you can't make money tying flies."
Not unless you are a media figure who could charge ten bucks a fly.
"I've never had a fish pay me for a fly."
Great quote AlanB!
There are completed auctions on fleabay for less than the starting price of that one.
"Trust, but verify" - Russian Proverb, as used by Ronald Reagan
I have to say I've seen AlanB's work and you don't get that knid of "quality" for 50 cent's a fly on e-bay. If your buying on a budget then I can see buying the import flies but if you want true custom quality from the hand's of a craftsman your going to have to pay a little more.
I sell a few here and there... mostly to folks I fish with. All I ask for them is about what it costs to replace materials, plus a little extra. I would never try to tie for a living.... I'd be out of house and home in a hurry.
The Green Hornet strikes again!!!
As Alan pointed out, you can't 'compete' on Ebay with flies. The customer cant' 'see' or handle the fly there, and so they have no clue as to the quality of the flies. You can't get custom colors, choose sizes, or get flies that aren't known standards. Just because they are for sale, doesn't mean they are well tied.
Luckily, for some fly fishermen, flies from Ebay are not an option. There are lots of fly fishermen out there that prefer to have custom tied flies that suit their waters, fishing styles, personal preferences, etc. A comercial fly tyer who caters to this market can make some money doing so.
For many shops, 'local' patterns far outsell the mass market flies. It's pretty common for a traveling fly fisherman to walk into a shop, strike up a conversation about the local waters, try to get some information on what's working where. If the shop owner shows some local favorite patterns, the traveling angler will often buy a few, either to fish with or just to spend a bit of money supporting the shop. You won't find many of these flies in catalogs or on Ebay. A commercial fly tyer who has a few shops that need such flies can make money filling that need.
There are women tying flies in s/e asia that can tie faster and better than the vast majority of fly tyers who also fish. If you tied several hundred identical flies every day for several years, you'd get good at it too (the first fifty thousand of a particualr pattern are the hard ones, after that it's just practice). We can't compete with them on a cost per fly basis, simply because they are faster and can live on much less income than we can. Umpqua gets their materials at about 1/50 of what we have to pay at normal 'wholesale', due to the economies of scale involved (if you need sixty thousand grizzly saddles they are quite a bit cheaper than buying five of them). So you don't try to compete selling mass market Adams and Gold Ribbed Hares Ears.
You find a niche, fill it, and expand your business through satisfied customers and word of mouth. Still works. It does take hard work and dedication, just like ANY successful endeavor.
Buddy
It Just Doesn't Matter....
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