I used to work with a guy who would buy ex rental cars from a lot one of the big rental companies had. He always said he paid less and had good luck with them. I think he got them when they were a year or so old.
I was practicing casting on my front lawn with a rubber weight a while back, and while goofing around accidentially caught the weight on my neighbors truck while he was pulling away. My Abu 6500 with 15 lb line got spooled real quick. When I took it apart there was no damage or melting of any parts / gears.
I haven't done taxes in years, but the rules to write off home loan interest used to be that you must be legally liable for the debt, secured by a home in which you have an ownership interest.
Pro Gear had just started making those reels when they had problems and shut down. Looks like their website is back up and working, so maybe they got the problems straightened out?? Anyway, I seem to remember an issue with reels with real low serial numbers. They had to be sent back to the factory to get fixed.
Fishing off a boat out here in So Cal we do alot of "flylining" bait - casting a live bait without any weight to get it far enough away from the boat that it will swim away on its own. Sometimes the only bait available are small anchovies that weigh under an ounce. IMHO the Avets were designed for this and are very good at it. I don't think they were designed to cast heavy weights a long distance using just the "cast control" position of the lever drag.
I'm not a collector, but I think they were one of the least expensive reels in the Penn line (I saved up and bought one when I was a kid in the 1960's). Those look older than the one I had.
Thank you very much - I didn't remember seeing that post. Since the reel is already being sold on their "outlet" site for a reduced price I'm thinking it didn't go over very well. As far as I can see the site doesn't mention where the reel is made.
I noticed the Abu outlet site has the Abu 6600 BCX on sale for $38. It says it has 4 stainless bearings. I've never heard of this model - is anyone familiar with it and why it would be so cheap? It does say "factory reconditioned".
If I remember right when I took mine apart it had one large drag disk that looked like it was carbon fiber. Unless someone else started making them recently, you need to order a replacement from Avet (or am Avet dealer).