As I remember it, rod warranties started with Orvis offering a 25 year warranty, I believe in the late '70s.
Perhaps they were tring to distinguish themselves as Roger says, but I think that they were just tring to match LL Bean's policy of standing behind eveything they sold.

From Orvis' 25 year warrenty, everything snowballed untill all major rod producers felt that they needed to warranty their rods just to stay compeditive.

The result was the dramatic jump in the price of a fishin' pole.

[This message has been edited by dudley (edited 31 October 2005).]

EDIT: I was way off on my time line here,
the Orvis garrantee started some 10 years later.

[This message has been edited by dudley (edited 01 November 2005).]

[This message has been edited by dudley (edited 01 November 2005).]