Antique Fishing Lures: Show Me The Money

Collecting antique fishing lures has grown to very large proportions in recent times. The collectible market for these lures is an estimated $1 billion. Ain’t it funny how times change. In the beginning, these lures were mainly swapped and traded by their collector’s, now it’s strictly a cash business for the most part with the occasional trade amongst friends.

“It’s like a commodity market with the peaks and values,” said Dudley Murphy, a founding member of the National Fishing Lures Collectors Club. “The money has been creeping down recently, so now would be a good time for new collectors to get started because the prices are right. The money always goes up and down, but I think it won’t be long before it goes back up again.”

You’ll most definitely find people in this hobby that specialize in one form of it or another. Some will just collect certain brands, others will collect only wooden, still others will collect just certain styles, and so on and so on. Even though these people go down this path, it’s not to say that this is all they will have in their collection, but still it’s good to find and search out these people for friendly advice and such on particular lures you may have or be going to to acquire. Comes down to that ol’ saying “knowledge is king” and holds true in this hobby as well.

“Anything related to fishing, someone collects it,” Joe Courcelle said. “You have your lure guys, your reel guys, your rod guys. Some guys just collect old outboard motors. Sometimes the cardboard boxes the lures come in are worth as much or more than the lures if they’re in good condition. The Japanese (buyers) are really into Ambassador reels. They have women rolling suitcases full of cash up and down the aisles. They’ll buy a reel that cost you $20 over here for $100 or $200, and then take it back home and sell it for $400.”

Now Joe Courcelle has been in this hobby for quite sometime and has an extensive collection to boot. But you still have to be smart if you are in it to collect for the monetary returns as not every lure has that monetary value and most of these lures range in value between $10 and $50 dollars. Now that’s still nothing to sneeze at and is quite a good place to start from. Just remember, quality counts. That’s one of the many things that attracts me to this hobby. You don’t have to be an expert and good finds are everywhere and you don’t have to have a lot to get started. If you have a good eye and pick up on some of the signs of a good antique fishing lure, you can stand to build yourself quite a valuable collection with minimal monetary funding and a lot of elbow grease.

Courcelle “sometimes serves as a broker, like the time he sold a lure for $4,000 for a friend who’d bought it at a yard sale for $1. He recently bought some duck decoys from a Selma, Ala., antique dealer for $250 and sold them that same day for $2,500.”–Jeff Duncan in the article “Hooked By The Allure”

The absolute best thing about collecting antique fishing lures is it’s wide open. There is no age limit, ethnicity boundaries or demographic backgrounds. Simply a desire to obtain the items that you like. Who knows, you might be the next person to find the most sought after lure by collectors, the Haskell Minnow. A 10-inch copper fish replica (see picture below) that sold at auction back in 2003 for a whopping $101,200. Yep, that figure is correct. It’s not a typo. In fact, one of the more famous collector’s known throughout the industry was Clyde Harbin. Upon his death in 2004, his collection was sold to Bass Pro Shops for an estimated $2 million (oh the dream).

As stated earlier, most of these lures typically range in value from $10 to $50 so it’s good to familiarize yourself with this type of information and be sure you know what you are looking at while collecting. Knowledge is power, and it doesn’t matter how you get it, just as long as you gain it. All collectors have value and identification guides for their respective hobbies and antique fishing lures is no different. Know what you’re looking at, know it’s value, and if it’s a great buy, by all means, scoop it up. Happy collecting and until next time, keep your lines wet.

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