Yesterdays Fleamarket Shakespeares

[diemai]

G'day , people ,

On a Sunday fleamarket yesterday I was lucky once more to find a few older lures at a bargain price , payed only 6 Euros for these four , also including two brand name casting spoons , a vintage DAM "Effzett" and an "ABU Atom" !

The two "Mid S" and especiallly the "Big S" are already a bit beaten up , but I don't mind , as I'm going to cast them ,...... in particular the "Big S" has the reputation of a proven pike lure over here , and as far as I'm concerned , they used to fetch good prices on local Ebay .

The timber "Shakespeare Pup" is stamped "Hong Kong" and rather a collectible lure , ........though it won't be worth a lot , I guess , .........so I would not swim it , but maybe make a knock-off or two to see , how it's action would be .

Anyway , ...pretty happy about this find , ...haven't been that lucky on fleamarkets for a quite a while .

DSCI0013-1.JPG

DSCI0015-1.JPG

DSCI0017-1.JPG

greetz , diemai

[rivermandave]

Nice score Dieter

Notice that the Big S body shape is almost a carbon copy of a Cordell Big O. Lures named with letters like that have become known as "Alphabet lures". Bomber Model A's are part of that designation

I wish I had known about your like of the Pup...I sold 4-5 beaters last year in a group of wood lures for repaint / hardware

[MXB]

@Diemai . . .

The Shakespeare 'Pup' were made in Hong Kong and were a quality product that was marketed under Shakespeare by Paw Paw and came in a yellow and black box with plastic sleeve in the 1970's. Yes and collectable in that colour . . . I have the box catalogues and will look it up for you

MXB

[diemai]

Thanks a lot for sharing your valuable knowledge with me , friends , .........though I don't consider myself to be a real lure collector , I do appreciate any info about my occassional fleamarket finds very much , ...thanks again , Roger and Dave !

I had posted these pictures in a hardbait photo thread on a German site as well , ........got a PM by a regular user in there asking me , if I could swap one or more "Big S Vario" to him , .........and in my reply I had to admit , that I had never heard of that version of the biggest "Big S" sporting an adjustable bib obviously similar in construction to the "ABU Hi-Lo" bib .

Did some brief googling and came out with only a little picture of that particular "Vario" model , .........anyone in here heard of it before , .......or maybe it was only issued here in Europe , dunno ?

Please check picture on the upper right corner :

http://www.fishmania.de/Seiten/wobbler/wobbler_bigs.htm

Told you in my first post , that these "Big S" still enjoys a great reputation for pike fishing over here , ......look at the catch table on the left , .....though more than well over 20 years ago , since the pike catches occured , it speaks for itself(and for the "Big S" catching better pike("Hecht" in German)) !

greetz , Dieter

[RJFisher]

Do remember seeing them in a Shakespeare catalog available here in Oz back in 83/84 and vaguely remember seeing the odd one floating around tackle stores around Albury in N.S.W. as late as the early 90's. The various "S's" were very popular in the Murray River below the Hume dam, especially the smallest of the bunch, on huge trout and the fattest river yellowbelly you'd ever see! Don't remember the "Vario" name though, so perhaps they got another name here. But definitely not just a European thing!

[diemai]

Do remember seeing them in a Shakespeare catalog available here in Oz back in 83/84 and vaguely remember seeing the odd one floating around tackle stores around Albury in N.S.W. as late as the early 90's. The various "S's" were very popular in the Murray River below the Hume dam, especially the smallest of the bunch, on huge trout and the fattest river yellowbelly you'd ever see! Don't remember the "Vario" name though, so perhaps they got another name here. But definitely not just a European thing!

Thanks a lot for further info , mate , ........what I don't quite understand is , why manufacturers cease to produce such kinda legendary lures ?

I remember to have seen quite a few requests for these old goodies on local sites(to fish them , not just for collectors purposes) , and on Ebay they raised high prices time after time !

cheers , Dieter

[rivermandave]

Do remember seeing them in a Shakespeare catalog available here in Oz back in 83/84 and vaguely remember seeing the odd one floating around tackle stores around Albury in N.S.W. as late as the early 90's. The various "S's" were very popular in the Murray River below the Hume dam, especially the smallest of the bunch, on huge trout and the fattest river yellowbelly you'd ever see! Don't remember the "Vario" name though, so perhaps they got another name here. But definitely not just a European thing!

Thanks a lot for further info , mate , ........what I don't quite understand is , why manufacturers cease to produce such kinda legendary lures ?

I remember to have seen quite a few requests for these old goodies on local sites(to fish them , not just for collectors purposes) , and on Ebay they raised high prices time after time ! cheers , Dieter

Pure market manipulation Dieter

[diemai]

Do remember seeing them in a Shakespeare catalog available here in Oz back in 83/84 and vaguely remember seeing the odd one floating around tackle stores around Albury in N.S.W. as late as the early 90's. The various "S's" were very popular in the Murray River below the Hume dam, especially the smallest of the bunch, on huge trout and the fattest river yellowbelly you'd ever see! Don't remember the "Vario" name though, so perhaps they got another name here. But definitely not just a European thing!

Thanks a lot for further info , mate , ........what I don't quite understand is , why manufacturers cease to produce such kinda legendary lures ?

I remember to have seen quite a few requests for these old goodies on local sites(to fish them , not just for collectors purposes) , and on Ebay they raised high prices time after time ! cheers , Dieter

Pure market manipulation Dieter

................don't think so , Dave , ....over here in Germany we do not have a collector's scene like in the US or Australia , also compared to the general population a far smaller share of people is doing fishing at all !

The higher prices(I'm talking about double or even triple of the original sales prices art date of issue) were only caused by the great reputation of the "Big S" to be a superbe catcher for local pike , .........and since it can not be found in shops anymore , a higher demand occurs .

I remember , that same thing happened to the German early 1990's vintage "DAM Indian Wobbler" , back then it was discontinued after a few years , but head already earned the best reputation to have a very strong appeal on pike , ....so these lures fetched high prices on Ebay as well , ........UNTIL , .....the DAM had re-issued them in 2010 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FuZPTM0NJo

Sorry , only vid I could find !

greetz , Dieter

[rivermandave]

Don't under-estimate German / European collectors Dieter.

Case in point...Hitler & art during WWII

I'm about 3/8ths German....with family members who are close to full. SOME of them like to collect things...but don't brag about it...post on forums etc...they'd prefer to be "under the radar" LOL!

Another thing that happens when a lure is discontinued is that there are folks with FAT cash that will do their darndest to buy up ALL remaining stock once the lure has been discontinued.

Here's a good example.

Back in the early 2000's Storm discontinued a lure called the Lighning Shad. Cabelas had been selling them for $3.99 prior to this.

I bought a few for $2.99 each from an old website called gofishin.com....now called Fish And Save...but still with same web addy...

http://www.gofishin.com/

There were other colors and sizes I wanted...and I eventually ran across a website that listed them. I contacted the guy...and he claimed to have a warehouse FULL of them.

He was asking $6.99 each for them needless to say...I didn't buy any

I've met other folks that have done similar things...including a guy in Kansas that knew a Rapala rep...and got 1st wind of discontinuations...and bought up everything he could. The last I talked with him...he had +2000 Raps...but ended up having both feet amputated...got an infection...and I never heard from him again

[diemai]

@ rivermandave

I know , that there are a lot of guys and gal's around in my country collecting weird things , .......the other day I saw a TV program about one man collecting everyting about toilets , .......paper rolls , seats , the toilet basins itself and all related kinda stuff , ......all unused or at least thoroughly cleaned up , off course !

Another one plastered all of his garden ground with different types of old and replaced traffic lights , all working computer controlled !

But also I haven't heard much about lure-collecting , we do not have something like the NFLCC over here , I suppose , .....though there definately are people collecting lures , one only has to observe certain Ebay listings !


.....guess , you're right , that many collectors remain in their secret chambers with their goodies , so nothing comes up to the wide public .

But I've also haven't heard about lures being used as objects of speculation on monetary advantages , ....just like kinda company shares , ......interesting , ........don't think , it would work out over here , ...the national fishing tackle market is just too small compared to the US and Australia .

greetz , Dieter