glass Heddon fly rod

Question
Mr. Douglas, I have come across a Heddon 8389 in beautiful condition, except the butt cap and lower reel retaining ring are missing. Since I do not fly fish, my intention is to sell. My question is this...should I make repairs, then sell, or sell it as-is? If this rod is considered collectible, would repairs lessen its value? Would this be a rod that someone would value for rebuilding? I only have $10 invested in it now, so I'm wondering which way to handle this.
Thank you for any guidance. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Steve

Answer
Hi Steve,

Thank you for the kind comments.  Guidance may be too strong a word for my posts, but I do hope they are helpful to some degree.

This is a good fly rod, but not a highly collectible rod.  It is from the 1960s and there are plenty of people who like to fish with the older heddon glass rods.  This is an 8wt rod and is better suited for bass fishing than for trout.  If it were repaired, assuming it is in Very Good to Excellent condition, it would probably sell in the $40-$70 range depending on actual condition and how badly the potential buyer wants it.  As a personal example, I sold a similar rod about a year ago for $50 that was in mint condition.

It will be hard to find the butt cap and retaining ring.  You might find a rod builder with some spare parts salvaged from old rods that will work.  If so, it is quick and easy to install the ring and glue the butt cap in place.

Most likely, you will need to replace the reel seat.  A replacement reel seat (all metal) is probably going to cost around $20 plus the cost of labor to remove the old seat and install the new one.  If you can do the work yourself, the labor is free.

There are a couple of ways to remove the old seat.  Applying heat to soften the glue and then sliding the seat off may work...low heat and take your time.  I think the best way is to use a dremel tool with cutting wheel and cut a grove along the seat, then pry it away from the butt of the rod.  You need to make the rod butt outside diameter almost the same as the inside daimeter of the reel seat so the new seat fits very snug.  This may require removing or adding some shim material.  Once you have a snug fit, apply glue and slide the reel seat onto the rod...orient the reel seat so the reel will be in the proper position when fishing...this is kind of important.  Any good two part 5 or 15 minute epoxy glue will work; and will give you a little time to make sure the seat is properly oriented.

I would say that unless you can find a really good deal on a reel seat and do the work yourself, you may have as much or more invested in the rod as you can get out of it when done.  If you have a friend that buids rods, maybe you can get this done for less.  Rod builders always like to tinker with stuff and make it work again.

Selling it as a fixer-upper is not likely to bring you more than $10-$15 as the new owner will have the same issues to face to make the rod fishable again.

Thanks,  Joe