why are saddle prices going thru the roof ?

[Brian Shaffer]

What in the world.. I just read about this hair extension fad...
I hope this kind of thing doesn't hurt the market.

Brian

[Mike R]

Featherheads.

[590Mike]

This happened during the cigar boom a few years back. Once they fell out of fashion prices took a major dump and good cigars were fairly reasonable. Now cigar prices are back up and so is the quality. Hackle appears to be going through something similar.

[Icastnblast]

I was getting my annual hair cut yesturday and The gal noticed all the flies on my hat. She asked me if it was true that the feathers are getting harder to find. I responded with a statement about prissy new wave fashion boutiques are making feather head stuff that is destroying the typical market base. Then she handed me a box of them that they are starting to offer their clients. ](*,)

Silly little hippy girls are always getting in my way. Its time to make sure my daughter gets comfy in jeans and t-shirts to avoid these trends.

[Dean Y.]

I've seen several women weave hackle into their hair. Perhaps, if it is casually mentioned that little beasties "will hatch and lay eggs in their hair", it'll put a stop to the practice. :D

[FlyReelFisher]

Fly Shops should cancel their orders with Whiting and not help feather girls. Unfortunately(kind of?) they are businesses. They cannot. I do know some that have, good for them!

[aaron]

This fad is awesome. The farmers and shops are both making money and there are attractive young ladies constantly in the shop. What's not to like?

[FlyReelFisher]

....exactly my point. Businesses pimp for profit. Thats just a saying. I wonder if fly shop margins have actually increased as the dollar amount of the sale has?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Some facts:

Whiting Farms just doubled our cost on Euro Saddles.

A friend of mine took a $39.00 saddle patch and put it on eBay auction recently and got over $160 for it. If we were greedy we would never sell any in the shop, only on eBay auction.

The hairdressers get about $10 per feather, dyed and installed.

Others are buying up all the saddle patches they can find and then putting 12 in a pack and selling them on the Internet for lots of money. These are not fly shop or fly fishing folks....

The fly shops have little or nothing to do with this new trend.

Sadly no one can get any long thin saddles anymore because these hair dressers have bought them all and exhausted the yearly supply.

If we could get tons of them I could probably retire sooner.

We have had people coming in for decades to buy our feathers and other products for non-fly tying purposes.

If we get any saddles in, they are sold before we go home.

**We do get some lovely young ladies in the shop though.

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

Don't buy your hackle from these people, it's ten times higher than in a fly shop.

http://www.donnabellahairextensions.com/feather-hair-extensions.html?gclid=CKXVy8WY0agCFRs5gwodZUOQjQ

http://www.feathergoddess.com/?gclid=CPaHx-iY0agCFQcBbAodQkLngg

http://www.amazon.com/Sexy-Extensions-For-You-Inc/dp/B004QJF8GW

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________

Wait till fly prices double next year........

[FlyReelFisher]

Thanks for a great summary Bill. The margin for most shops I have talked to has shrunk, unless they do as you said with split packaging and ebay.

Is there any way to shame the feather producers? Or do they just not care about alienating their historical primary customer base?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The chicken feather farmers are probably loving it.

I am sure that these non-fly fishing industry people in this on the Internet with cash money are buying it all up now.

[FlyReelFisher]

I still really think the way to do stop this whole thing is to test the feathers for fecal matter and fungal spores. Get those test results to the media to warn women about this, and they will have a hot story for the local news.

I know the feathers are dyed and sometimes salted, but they are still full of some nasty stuff I am sure.

[Darian]

In reading this thread, it seems that the primary customer base for feathers has always been hobby or beauty/glamour/entertainment users. Try as we might, fly fishers/tyers have just been secondary market all along. :-| :-|

[FISHEYE]

Darian- BINGO! If folks can make money selling feathers to pretty young things more power to them. I saw my first one at one of our local shops looking at feathers the other day. I could tell in an instant by looking at the tight pants, skinny top, and stilletto heals she was not looking for a new rod (ok, maybe she was). It's only feathers. WTF cares!

[FlyReelFisher]

Darian- BINGO! If folks can make money selling feathers to pretty young things more power to them. I saw my first one at one of our local shops looking at feathers the other day. I could tell in an instant by looking at the tight pants, skinny top, and stilletto heals she was not looking for a new rod (ok, maybe she was). It's only feathers. WTF cares!

Either you have enough money to buy me feathers, or don't tie?

[Darian]

Yep!!! Or, you can buy what's left of my feathers if there're any left.... :lol: This is not so much different than it was from the mid-60's thru the 70's until breeders began breeding chickens for genetically desirable traits. Almost no high quality necks were out there and if one arrived in a stores inventory it was cherry picked by shop tyers. Indian necks were the norm. Pro tyers tended to buy as much of the high quality stuff as possible and store it for future use. 8-)

So, IMO, this too shall pass.... :D

[jbird]

I was in the Cabelas in Lacey Washington today and their saddle rack is EMPTY

[aaron]

Keough sold their entire inventory to a fashion company for 150k a while back. Probably worth a whole lot more right now. Most of our suppliers are focusing on the fashion industry now as there are companies in LA, Seattle, NYC etc who will shell out 20k in cash upfront to get feathers.

[Darian]

Hmmm,.... Maybe I should consider becoming a chicken breeder.... :nod: I could get Scott V to come in with me since he's got deep pockets (according to Bill).... :p :lol:

[jbird]

Whats amazing is theyre just chickens! I almost hit a gorgeous "neck" driving by a little farm today. My aim was just a bit off ;-)

[aaron]

Metz has hired a Harvard geneticist full time to ramp up chicken production. With the kind of money in it now they're not just chickens lol.

[FlyReelFisher]

Got a list of those companies?

[loose_shoes]

Adding on to this thread so as not engage in any unnecessary necroequine sadism...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/sports/when-fashion-meets-fishing-the-feathers-fly.html?_r=1

[Jgoding]

I looked at my inventory today and I'm glad I bought them when I did years ago. Not much of a saddle person anyways. My gold grade grizzly was looking pretty tempting but what do I care if I turn a big profit, I would still have to replace it somehow and I haven't seen many gold grade saddles or necks around even before this fad started.

I can't blame the industry for jacking prices either, it's called supply and demand or in this case demand and supply.... Yeah, it kind of leaves a bitter taste in the mouth but that's why I always try to keep a big inventory of stuff and buy when the buyings good so I don't have to worry about running out.

I was at the reno cabelas and they had absolutely zero saddles as well, it was quite amusing to me as it was what I expected. I'm still kicking myself when one of the sac flyshops had all their whiting 50% off some years ago too and I was too dumb to realize why they were on sale. I did get two nice necks though but could've cleaned house on the saddles....

[Brian Shaffer]

I just now saw this little spot on my AM news here in Springfield,MO
I live in Branson, MO....

" Is the fashion market making a new trend towards the fly fishermen? "

ugh.. Brian

[J.E.M. Hull]

Personally I find it silly and by this time next year it wil have probably leveled out. The fashion industry is a fickle one.

The only good that has come from this is now I'm suddenly slot more interesting to my sisters girlfriends:o:o

[Jay Murakoshi]

Yep, I sold a Hoffman Super Saddle a couple months ago and made a big profit. Now I have a couple more gals who are in the market for my Hoffman super saddle #1 Barred Ginger - you don't/didn't see many of these in the old'n days, not even today
How does $425.00 sound "-)

Jay

Can't tie up any flies for those 60lb roosters or 200lb tuna

[Mike O]

The wheel is beginning to turn:

http://modesto.craigslist.org/hab/2481269625.html