Just to keep this thread going, and not to disparage Sage too much since I own a few of their rods and reels, I'm curious how Sage's business model is legal. I mean, how is it different from price fixing? Sage sets the retail price, and no dealer may sell for any different price.
I thought all good American businessmen are capitalists. And one of the leading attributes of capitalism is competition, and may the better man, or company, win. Price fixing is anti-capitalist, or at least it seems that way to me.
And, not saying that they do, but if Sage, Loomis, Winston, T & T conspired to fix prices on high end rods, that sort of price fixing would violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Not that it matters since the government appears to allow that all the time any more.
And to Kent's earlier point about a $1,300 Sage rod, really, that's gotta' be all about product placement, image, or whatever, with next to nothing to do with the costs of manufacture, distribution, and sales. I recall what one industry insider told me when I bought my first Sage rod at a healthy discount that was legitimate at the time. The rod retailed for $315. I paid a total of $129 for the rod, sales tax, and shipping to my door, . . . and was told that both Sage and the shop made money on the transaction. If true, and I have no reason to think it isn't, then I'm left to believe that the value of a fly rod, plastic ones at least, is in perception, the eye of the beholder.
So if anyone wants to complain about something, maybe the appropriate target is price fixing by Sage?
Sg