The Equipment Hamster returns .. and get a shock

Rabid Hamster

Well-known member
Ironman
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What with all the field party duty (and its associate down time) I thought I'd take a look our club kit. (15 training bows)

oh dear!

What a state it had got into. there were arrows that I had put aside for binning 3 YEARS AGO that were still in use, strings I made years ago were still in use (jeez what a mess) and hunter rests that were actually worn to the point they barely supported anything. There needed to be a equipment frenzy so time to get permission. Not my usual method, I always prefer to ask forgiveness than permission (that way you dont get turned down ;)) but finances dont allow it these days.

So ... roll forward a week. I made lists of things required, made the orders and I've got all the bits in from Alt sports and Merlin. It was when I tallied how much I'd spent (to submit the list to the club for refund) I got a shock ... and remember this is just to get the training kit back to a usable state and it all fits into a medium padded envelope ... ?110! Jeez, even the cheapest kit has got so expensive! And I'm still not done!!!! There needs to be a bunch of ground quivers bought as well but that can wait till the spring as we're about to head into the dry.

And this brings me to my point ... Are archers just like golfers in that we are a target market for aggressive marketing and predatory pricing? I know we are gullible ... just look at Hoyts policy of giving free kit to the best archers like Ellison so we think we'll shoot like Brady if we buy that kit. We cant help buying new bits for our beloved bows. ** admission below **

Have things gone too far for the good of this sport when an, admittedly, top of the range doinker long rod is being advertised on one site at ?650? I mean, you know the sheering clippers are being revved up somewhere!!!!!! Preparing some docs for newbies on kit, I'm finding that decent intermediary kit (serviceable and not likely to break in a week) is getting prohibitively expensive and at a time when we're facing a contraction in club numbers we have a price gatekeeper blocking access to the sport. How do we get people to part with a fair wedge of cash? When I started back into archery in 2008 what I dropped on a SF riser, limbs and all the other kit that I actually won comps with was much less that ?300. now a WNS riser will eat most of that budget. Even XX75's are ?80 a dozen. Just a ballpark figure (much "ish" I admit) in 10 years prices have gone up over 50% and thats just too much when you consider we are a niche sport.

Perhaps W&W and Hoyt and the others need to look at cutting their margins a bit on the entry level kit (cartel need to improve their kit quality for the same money) to encourage kit purchase and so increase the size of our at least medium term population ... ultimately they would gain from the whales as more folks make their way up the kit pyramid (although in archery when you use the term "whale" thats ultimately all of us.)



**Hell, I have 2 ?85 Gehmann iris sight pins (and I have no idea why I have 2!!!!!). Also 6 years ago I crashed my car (slid off a motorway slip road ... slip road hurhurhur ... on ice and into the back of an AA van ... irony alert = I'm with the RAC) and the insurance I got for my Focus was less than my bow is worth .... AND I'M DOWN RIGHT FRUGAL WITH SPENDING! (ok, I admit I have a CXT riser, Border Hex 5 limbs and a shibuya ultima II sight ... but they were special offers .. honest mister! :liar: )
 
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