What you generally find when you progress deeper into the techniques of specimen carp fishing is that you want to be continually trying out new rigs and techniques. It can be quite expensive buying all the modern lines, links, shock absorbers, swivels, feeders and weights needed to make the various different winning terminal patterns. However, eBay can be a fantastic source of cheap but good quality carp tackle to add to your dedicated carp tackle box for use in your experiments.
With eBay you must exercise patience and caution. It is very easy to get carried away with the bidding and end up buying something you did not really want or paying too much. Countless times I have browsed through second hand fishing tackle items for sale by auction and seen the current bid at more than I could pay for the same brand new item from a tackle shop. On the other hand, careful inspection of the items on sale can reveal badly advertised gear that is worth much more than it seems.
Careful searching does pay dividends. For example I recently decided to upgrade my old plastic ‘bits’ box that sits in my tackle bag with a New Fox Box. A search on eBay revealed a number of shops and private sales for a all the different model variations - so I could choose exactly what I wanted from the Fox tackle catalog first. Choosing a medium double box I found two eBay sellers offering this item – both wanting instant sales of around £2 less than the normal retail price. With postage there was no saving to be made. I held back for a while and a few days later an advert for a ‘plastic tackle box’ was posted on a short three day auction ending on a Thursday morning. The poor photo did not look appealing – but I read the details because I was in the market for a plastic tackle box!
It was described in full detail as a brand new double medium Fox tackle box, with several small insert boxes – an unwanted present – starting bid £5. I watched the item over the next couple of days and on Thursday morning could see that a couple or people had raise the bid to around £8. About a minute or so before the auction was due to end I placed my maximum bid of £20 and waited. My action took the price to £10 and there it stuck – mine!
I was lucky, most people can’t take time to monitor eBay during a working day and so miss out on bids that end then. This is why it is not a good idea to have auctions ending at inconvenient times. By being in the position that I could take five minutes out to check eBay I was able to grab myself a bargain. It helped that the item had been badly described and photographed in the title space.
Bits and pieces come along all the time like this, and it pays if you are looking for something specific not to rush straight in. I enjoy buying used carp fishing tackle and new carp fishing tackle for that matter, to build up my carp tackle supplies. Remember, anything that you buy that turns out to be not exactly what you want can be simply re-listed and sold on – just remember to describe your item accurately!