Since we’re deep into the Christmas buying season – the season when long ago three wise men were wending their way to Bethlehem – it seemed appropriate that on Facebook recently, a shopper begged for sage advice.
A vintage bamboo fly-fishing rod and reel had captured his fancy in an antiques shop, but before committing himself to making an offer he snapped a photo and posted it with a question:
“What’s it worth?”
This produced a gamut of answers that figuratively took the thing apart inch by inch and calculated a broad spectrum of value.
Said one responder: “I might give 2K in awesome condition.”
Said another: “The rod looks like it is bamboo. Nice and clean at a good sale may get $300 to $500.”
And still another: “I’d give you two $100 bills for it if there’s nothing wrong with it.”
One post waxed thusly: Value is affected by its condition, brand, length, and line weight. The shorter and lighter it is, the more valuable it is…What is its length? Weight in ounces? Take measurements with a caliper or micrometer.”
I saw no response from one who might have added a different substance to the conversation – business and investment magnate Warren Buffett. He once noted, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
Buffett makes a point that’s appropriate during the Christmas season and wasn’t lost on a number of people who responded to the fly rod post.
One put it succinctly: “Enjoy it and fish it. That will let you know how much it was worth.”
Another agreed, saying the rod is a value-added item because “A man gets no time taken off his life when he’s fishing.”
Still another promised, “It will become priceless when you catch a fish with it. The memories and the story of how you found it will be priceless.”
In the holiday spirit, one post advised, “Give it to a youngster whose parents can’t afford to buy him one. It could start a pastime that will last a lifetime.”
There was truth in that, according to another respondent who offered this fly rod reminiscence:
“I have a well used one of my dad’s. He said the curve in the top is from catching so many fish. Maybe it was already that way when I was a boy, and I’m 79. Nice memories fishing with Dad…he took me as a boy, and I was taking him in his 90s.”
With the spirit of Christmas drawing ever closer, where’s the caliper or micrometer that can measure the value of that?
Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnlst.