Thanks Dean. Appreciate that you left off the "I" prefix that sometimes preceeds Savant. A boyhood chum inherited a nice lot of Payne, Leonard and Gillum rods- from a bachelor uncle whose last name was Paine. Like many of us, he got into a financial bind (nasty divorce) and needed to "liquidate" some of those Steinway cane rods-told me later, re his dealings with the "gentleman" in FL who we will not name herein (Libel suits are nasty too) that until you have been "screwed" by --- you don't know what "screwed" really means. I have heard of "buy low" and sell higher- the principle that keeps Jack Puglisis, Herschell Chadick and Bill Jaqua (now Ret'd.) in "the game", but it is one thing to make a fair profit (cover your overhead and have a little "extra") and quite another to be rapacious in your dealings.
We had a gent at an area gun club- had the Clark Gable look and charmed the garters off the area widows and picked up some fine guns at about 10% of what they were worth-and then bragged about his "conquests" later-smooth talking snake oil salesman. Strange thing- you being in a car dealership, you must know what happens to a Cadillac DeVille when the brake lines develop a "sudden leak"- he lost control of his Caddy on his way to some "special deal" the story goes- sooner or later, the crooks get their "come-uppance" even Satan has a special place next to Cerberus I hope, awaiting Senor B. Madoff--Fortunately, most gun collectors "network" and the word of a bad apple gets out, ditto the cane rod market.
Friend Walt Carpenter once told me most of the Paynes and other quality rods (Walt worked for Payne even when Jim died in the 1960's I believe) that he had for sale, some years ago, were snapped up by Japanese collectors who wouldn't know a set of Super-Z ferrules from a stripper guide with a cracked red agate insert- Such is life my friend--
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 03/02/09 02:54 PM.
