Thanks for all the replys, this thread is an example of why I should not post while on graveyard shift.
(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
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…
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.
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…
