How do you artificially control the price of your product? If Winston says you, as an authorized dealer, will retail a 5W BIIX for $XXX.XX how is that artificially controlling the price? Sage, T&T, Scott and others say the rods will sell for a certain price, then the dealers will sell them for that price. When a dealer becomes a Winston dealer, I'm sure they sign a paper that says they'll sell for retail. Nothing wrong with that. Same goes for Sage, or T&T or Scott or others.
It's a Winston built rod, if they only want certain dealers to sell their product, it's up to them. Not you or anyone else. If you don't want a Winston, don't buy one. I do have a BIIX that I bought from a buddy. I've had it for 3 years now. I don't have a warranty, and like Bamboozle said, it's just an insurance policy. If you are in the habit of breaking rods, then by all means make sure you buy one with a great warranty. Myself, I don't look at the warranty when buying a rod. If I were to come across another Winston I wanted, used or sold by an unauthorized dealer and it wouldn't stop me from buying it. I don't abuse my equipment, and if I ever did break a rod, well I'll guess I'd cowboy up and pay to get it fixed. It ain't that big of a deal. I broke it, it's my fault.