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.

[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....FRs5gwodZUOQjQ

http://www.feathergoddess.com/?gclid...FQcBbAodQkLngg

http://www.amazon.com/Sexy-Extension.../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?