Bobco - In Administration

[Martin Jarvis]

I’ve had many a purchase from BobCo, this is a sad state of affairs in my opinion and the loss of another independent is not a good thing. We are seeing it all too often lately. We seem to be in a situation that is governed by a large national with buying power and on the other hand a massive market and demand in 2nd hand gear that’s available online in a couple of clicks.

 

[Alec Hague]

Back in the day if you wanted some, say, swivels, you would have no option other than to visit your local tackle shop and hope that they had your favourite make in stock (and what a nightmare for tackle shop owners; they can't stock every brand or swivel or hook, etc) so you hoped for the best) and while you were in there buying your swivels you then made a load of impulse purchases at the same time.

Now, why drive for half an hour or more to your favourite tackle shop to buy your swivels not knowing if they will have the right brand when you can go online and in less than a minute have them winging their way to your front door?

Less footfall for the tackle shops means less business means less profit. I think anyone that actually wants to own a tackle shop must be clinically inane anyway but the way things are they have no choice

One of my local shops decided to close its doors a couple of years ago. It wasn’t because they were broke, but because after 25yrs or so they were sick and tired of anglers’ attitude. I mean I know it’s Yorkshire and all that, but they’d drive half an hour from York to buy worms at BobCo to save 10p a kilo

I’ve had many a purchase from BobCo, this is a sad state of affairs in my opinion and the loss of another independent is not a good thing. We are seeing it all too often lately. We seem to be in a situation that is governed by a large national with buying power and on the other hand a massive market and demand in 2nd hand gear that’s available online in a couple of clicks.

I'm truth too ebay has not helped the tackle trade. Having said that it has been of tremendous benefit for my retirement years .

 

[Martin Jarvis]

I'm truth too ebay has not helped the tackle trade. Having said that it has been of tremendous benefit for my retirement years .

Oh definitely, and I’m as guilty for buying 2nd hand as anyone (most of my baitrunners are 2nd hand). Now if I go back 48yrs ago when I started out then my tackle was mostly bought new or on rare occasions handed down and the handed downs were either glass fibre or split canes ( I was young I wouldn’t use the split canes).

Tackle has moved on a lot since then and so has the depths of peoples pockets, that said though the majority of us have had a rough 4 years or so financially and want bang for the buck and 2nd hand is filling that requirement for many. Lots of older gear is still in high demand (Bowler rods, Fox extreme, Shimano reels etc). It must be a living nightmare to be an independent tackle dealer these days.

 

[Wayne Botley]

I'm truth too ebay has not helped the tackle trade. Having said that it has been of tremendous benefit for my retirement years .

Bobco had an eBay shop, I spent enough on there . Quite a lot of shops use it.

 

[Martin Jarvis]

Bobco had an eBay shop, I spent enough on there . Quite a lot of shops use it.

They do, but the seller has to pay eBay to list, then PayPal (if the item is bought via PayPal) take a fee from the seller too, it used to be around 11% for a business but that was years ago so it may have changed.