Adventures in shopping...

L, G,&M on life in a failed state, and the asshole of the day award goes to this jerk...

Every once in a while I find myself in absolute awe at the balls marine retailers must have to sell stuff with a near-criminal mark-up.

For instance; I have two indestructible canvas rigging bags that are excellent quality, have given me years of use, and are still going strong As it happens, the WoodenBoat store seems to have the exact same bag for sale at $21.95 which a tad more than the $9.99 Harbor Freight (who I bought mine from) sells it.

So here's the WoodenBoat bag...

...and here's the Harbor Freight bag.

A tool that belongs in just about anyone's rigging bag and lives in mine is a "Speedy Stitcher" awl.

West Marine sells its Speedy Stitcher for $29.99 while Harbor Freight sells their identical "Quick Stitch" for $6.49.

As it happens, while I was on the WEST Marine site, I checked up on their lure prices of the Cedar plug sort. West sells its rigged 6" plug for $18.59. Looking around for pricing on the Sea Striker plugs I found the street price to be somewhere between $10-$13 dollars

Sea Striker plug from West Marine

That said, Tail Chaser Lures (my go-to place for Cedar plugs) sells their rigged painted six-inch plug for $7.95.

Tail Chaser Cedar Plug

I'm pretty sure you can do the math but I'll point out a few dollars here and there really do add up where budgets are concerned.

Listening to Noel Redding & Friends

So it goes...