Question for the board.. subject of conversation over beers tonight: ;D
What's the TOP SELLING fishing reel of all time?
Barring Spinning reels
not anybody's favorite reel , but "Top Selling" meaning most units sold...
That's the burning question in the kitchen tonight...
cotton reel :D
It's gotta be the penn 114h. But how do ya prove it??
I mean the 113h. May be the 114h is number two.
I was told some time ago that the Penn 320 was the highest selling eel in the world.
Spinning: Mitchell 300
Spincast: Zebco 202
Conventional: ABU Ambassadeur. Model not specified, but likely 5000.
Bear in mind that appreciation is not the same as popularity, and that there is a large influence of simple demographics involved. Inexpensive reels sell more than expensive ones for the simple reason of affordability. Inshore / freshwater reels sell more than saltwater reels, because more people fish inland than in an ocean. Small reels sell more than large reels because more people fish for smaller species than large ones. And so on.
Longevity has a lot to do with it too. Avet for example may well be a nice reel, but they haven't been alive long enough to have had time to sell as many reels as on old company like Shakespeare. Or the Shimano TLD may well have been an important economic development, but sales figures are nowhere near that of the Ambassadeur. Not even close.
Penn had a model that was quite high on the list, but i don't recall exactly which one... it was one of the smaller inexpensive ones.. Seaboy, or Jigmaster... Steve Carsons is very good at this sort of thing; perhaps this will catch his eye and remind me.
.
Quote from: akfish on October 05, 2013, 10:07:55 AM
I was told some time ago that the Penn 320 was the highest selling eel in the world.
I don't believe it. The 320 is a nice fishing reel, but lousy to maintain. It had a bad reputation and still does.
If I had to guess, I would say the 113H.
According to a Tiburon Rep, the Jigmaster is the most famous of all Penn. :-\
I gotta say it's the Jigmaster in all it's variations (500,501,505,506). I got eight of those things.
I would have to say Jigmaster too.
I would say the Penn 60 there are still a ton of these around.
Mike
I say jig master everyone has had an experience with one or atleast heard of them I mean there in a insurance commercial!
I say 114H. There are so many of these available, its ridiculous.
I know the Abus are popular, but I've never seen a party boat fish them. The West Coast party boats fished so many Long Beaches for so Long that I'd think they have to be in the running. Alan wrote in his tutorial that the 320 was the most popular reel in the world at that time but I don't know about total sales ever.
Ron
Robert has a good point... that's the kind of answer we were looking for...
Consider Abu pretty much would have cornered the entire Euro market before Penn ever entered... the european population far exceeds and always has the US population...
and from a practical side...almost every fisherman I've ever known owns at least one Abu... (except fot me ;D...but I want one!)
If there's any possibility of Penn holding the title, i would have to guess jigmaster though. But I think Ron made a good point too.
We spent 2 hours searching online for sales figures or numbers of any kind last night and couldn't find squat....
113
Erik has a good point abot almost everyone owning abu
Most common reel in Jamaica seems to be the Penn 114h. It is what I see most often on the boats and in the service shop. It is also very common, from what I have seen and heard, in many other markets where serviceability and spare parts are critical to less wealthy anglers far away from formal service centres.
i think the ambassadeur series of reels but then again i may be wrong. now i wrote series but if it's just one model it has to be a penn. don't know which one though... :-[ :-[ :-[
I service several hundred Penn 320s a year up here in Alaska. It is, by far, the most popular salmon trolling reel. Now that it's been discontinued I'm anxious to see what takes its place.
That's a lot of reels Bill. When the bearings go bad on those, do you replace just the bearings or toss the complete bridge and plate?
Some time back, when Alan did his tutorial for the Penn 320 reels, he noted that it was the most sold reel. It's a moving target, but they were low cost and were around for a long time. I see a lot of them, both for fresh and saltwater use.
Maybe the 114h or 115. At least where I am they're everywhere.
Quote
We spent 2 hours searching online for sales figures or numbers of any kind last night and couldn't find squat....
Well, there is some info out there. The hard part is weeding out good info from bad.
Quote
Some time back, when Alan did his tutorial for the Penn 320 reels, he noted that it was the most sold reel. It's a moving target, but they were low cost and were around for a long time...
This is becoming an interesting question, after some thought.
Alan might remember who told him that, but i'm almost ready to dismiss that claim outright, especially without further qualification- best selling at that time? best selling in that category?
ABU are quite proud of having established a very expansive market network very early on, with dealers and distributors of their products on essentially every continent. They are quick to point out that in the 1970s, a whopping 70% of all fishing gear sold in the world came from ABU.*
They are also proud of the Ambassadeur's heritage, and themselves purport to have manufactured approximately twenty million Ambassadeurs to date.
Penn has always done well for themselves, primarily in the USA, which is in itself a very large market. But as previously noted, there is a lot of water between the coasts, and even more between the coasts of Europe and Asia, which is Abu territory. (Shimano is also an enormous global marketing machine which reaches to every corner of the world, but they just haven't been around long enough to make enough reels, i think, as well as steadily revamping product lines.)
It appears through a quick look that the Penn 320 was in production for roughly fourteen years, or a few more years for related models. This is just not enough time to manufacture enough reels, or to catch up with ABUs forty year headstart.
This factoid of the 320 being the most sold reel would also entail that they sold more 320s in roughly fifteen years, than they sold 113s or 114s in seventy years. And that is why i consider that claim to be highly unlikely.
As a comparative note, the Mitchell 300 and Zebco 33 are purported by various sources to have sold in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty million units over their sixty-odd year lifespan. Each.
In closing, I'm sure this question has been asked and answered before, but without that suffice to say that both the Ambassadeurs and the Senators as well as the smaller Penns have been very successful, but it would be difficult to nail down which model exactly. I really cannot think of any other reel as a serious contender.
*a claim which i imagine includes reels, rods, lines and everything else. How much of this came from Svängsta or was in cooperation with other companies is not clear.
.
If you take away all of the suffixes and slight variations, my guess would be a near tie between Abu's 6500 series and Penn's jigmasters (500/501/505/506).
Quote from: Alto Mare on October 08, 2013, 10:06:14 PM
That's a lot of reels Bill. When the bearings go bad on those, do you replace just the bearings or toss the complete bridge and plate?
If the gear sleeve is still tight to the bridge, I pop out the bearing and replace it. And I have quite a few of those bearings from 320 and 330 bridges that have gotten sloppy.
I see that many reels because I service reels for many if not most of the lodges and charter operators in SE Alaska. Reel repair is my full time job, quite an upgrade from my former life as a college professor...
Did you ever Damage any pulling them out? That's one crazy design
Quote from: akfish on October 09, 2013, 03:58:54 PM
I see that many reels because I service reels for many if not most of the lodges and charter operators in SE Alaska. Reel repair is my full time job, quite an upgrade from my former life as a college professor...
;D ;D I love it!...Good choice Bill.
That bearing is not that hard to remove, I find a 1/4 drive socket that will fit through the back side and a larger socket that will fit over the boss on the spool side and press the bearing out in a vice or drill press or c-clamp or whatever.
The Newell Nut even has a 113, long beach 60 and an a couple of extremely special one of kind Penn reels.
Seriously though here in Florida the party boats have been loaded with Long beach 60s and 65s for many years. I recently bought 40 nearly new replacements off of ebay for the boat that I fish regularly.
My gut instinct is that the 113/114 and all variations lumped together would win the prize, but that is based on a bit of an egocentric (American) point of view. I would agree that the ABUs (if similar models and variations are lumped) were by far the most sold reel for well over a decade, and has a far-reaching world-wide market. I think given the market/distribution and time of production the ABUs might well have been the most. If we limit the contenders to spinning reels my gut says the Mitchel would 'take the cake' for most units sold. I have no hard data to substantiate my thoughts.
For guys my age (baby boomers), I think everyone I knew had at least one Mitchell spinner.
I agree that the case for the Abu is pretty strong when it comes to conventional reels.
I still have my 306 works great to this day.
Mike
Doc Janssen, that's why I look forward to your postings. Top notch intel.
and Bryan i think you whittled it right down to the two contenders for the benchmark..imho
i wonder whose ear you'd need at Abu or Penn to get reliable figures for # of units sold for each series..accurate ones.. do you think they could really tell you ..old school bookkeeping considered... ?? ???
I cant see a Penn holding this honor. Best selling or most popular reel of all time? Off shore boat and surf fishing is only one nitch in the fishing world. You forget every other type of fishing. All combined they swallow up the fishing style a Penn reel is for. Abu 5000, Zebco 33, Mitchell 300 or perhaps some disposable cheap Shimano spinner for sure.
Yes 0119, but Erik specified the exclusion of such reels in his original post. I just added them for comparison and completion of info. But yes, those are by far the most sold reels ever, with official recognition towards the Mitchell, closely followed by Zebco.
Anyway Erik, yes- there are some folks around at both Penn and Abu who should know that. The sales and market manager at Abu is a really nice guy, and so is the former CEO at Penn. Really though, they often refer to some of the well recognized collectors, who after all are the ones who a)really are interested, and b)have the time and energy to compile such things.
And yes of course, one could contact them and see what they have to say. At least just generally. I feel bad about putting people to work just for the hell of it.
.
Just as a "this is kind of interesting" thing. Top 3 sellers since I've had Carbontex, drag set for Abu C3's C4's etc, Trinidad 16/20/30, Calcutta 200 and other reels that use that drag, which are several.
Penn probably does have it, just with them coming with carbon fiber I just don't sell as many drags.
Dawn
Dawn,
I want to say this in the kindest way possible, so please do not get offended.
I think you could sell a whole lot more penn drags if they were easier to find on your website.
Scotts sells complete kits with the washers and drags. The get a lot of business from me on the larger senator drags that you do not carry.
I think if you sold the HT-100's in kits more easily found on your site for the smaller senators, mainly the 113h and 114h you would be surprised.
Please consider this constructive criticism. That's just the way I see it. ;D
No problem Shark hunter, however I think mostly the problem is price regarding Penn, I just can't sell at the price they do.
They apparently pay a lot less for carbon fiber than I do.
Either that or they make no money on drags, which I'm pretty sure isn't the case ;D
I am trying to improve the website, slow going.
Dawn
Whew!
I'm glad you took that well. I know you are well respected around here and did not want to make any waves. I just received an order from scotts I paid almost $300 for. It consisted of a 12/0 aluminum spool and a small bag full of drag kits from 114 to 116 and a few other goodies. I hope we can keep this in the loop. I wonder if they make these custom kits in house? I just want to see you do good Dawn.
You put up with us, that deserves a Medal all by itself! ;D
Penn have decent reels but they're not as popular outside the US and most US people think.......Here in Australia we rarely see Penn conventional reels, we see the odd Penn threadline (Spinfishers) but nothing of significance.
My vote would have to be the Abu Ambassador.
Penn is a us company mainly it seems to me. The Australian shark guys seem to like tiagras
tld20/25 (33917 views :)) been arround for over 20 years
cant get on a fishing boat without falling over a few (I cant even open a drawer at home without one falling out) must be millions of them all over the world
(having said that every grown up angler in the uk had a mitchell 300 as soon as they could afford one when I started fishing 50 years ago and there were 3 million anglers in the UK at that time or was it 6 million?)
Regards Gary
Quote from: Bunnlevel Sharker on October 14, 2013, 03:26:09 AM
Penn is a us company mainly it seems to me. The Australian shark guys seem to like tiagras
We are a small market, but maybe there are similarities with Australia, Penn lost lots of market share many years ago (possibly due to sanctions but maybe also because of not bringing in new models). Abu followed a similar route, but was more likely due to a lack of availability and price. Shimano is now extremely popular here and Daiwa is probably not far behind. Take into consideration that there is no "patriotic" brand loyalty, all our reels are imported, so people use what gets the job done and what is available. We also do not have any after market pimping parts available for Penn and those would in any case not make any financial sense from a pure fishing application perspective.
Quote from: CapeFish on October 17, 2013, 06:55:56 AM
Quote from: Bunnlevel Sharker on October 14, 2013, 03:26:09 AM
Penn is a us company mainly it seems to me. The Australian shark guys seem to like tiagras
We are a small market, but maybe there are similarities with Australia, Penn lost lots of market share many years ago (possibly due to sanctions but maybe also because of not bringing in new models). Abu followed a similar route, but was more likely due to a lack of availability and price. Shimano is now extremely popular here and Daiwa is probably not far behind. Take into consideration that there is no "patriotic" brand loyalty, all our reels are imported, so people use what gets the job done and what is available. We also do not have any after market pimping parts available for Penn and those would in any case not make any financial sense from a pure fishing application perspective.
Having parts availability on a 60+ year old reel that has proven itself year after year, is not a bad thing.
This isn't just about surf fishing.
From reading some of your past posts, I have a good idea of the gear that you use, those could be used for both, send those babies over and lets put them on a charter for the season, next to my old penns and see how far they get :-\.
For that type of fishing here in the NE I have no doubts that the older penns will shine ;). Btw, I can build you a tank for around $200, your cheapest is probably $350. let me know if you're ever going to get on a boat one day and I'll send one over.
As for bringing in more models, Penn is up there, maybe more than others lately, but that doesn't excite me much.
I'll keep playing with my older reels.
Cheers!
Sal
Quote from: Alto Mare on October 17, 2013, 09:39:41 AM
Quote from: CapeFish on October 17, 2013, 06:55:56 AM
Quote from: Bunnlevel Sharker on October 14, 2013, 03:26:09 AM
Penn is a us company mainly it seems to me. The Australian shark guys seem to like tiagras
We are a small market, but maybe there are similarities with Australia, Penn lost lots of market share many years ago (possibly due to sanctions but maybe also because of not bringing in new models). Abu followed a similar route, but was more likely due to a lack of availability and price. Shimano is now extremely popular here and Daiwa is probably not far behind. Take into consideration that there is no "patriotic" brand loyalty, all our reels are imported, so people use what gets the job done and what is available. We also do not have any after market pimping parts available for Penn and those would in any case not make any financial sense from a pure fishing application perspective.
Having parts availability on a 60+ year old reel that has proven itself year after year, is not a bad thing.
This isn't just about surf fishing.
From reading some of your past posts, I have a good idea of the gear that you use, those could be used for both, send those babies over and lets put them on a charter for the season, next to my old penns and see how far they get :-\.
For that type of fishing here in the NE I have no doubts that the older penns will shine ;). Btw, I can build you a tank for around $200, your cheapest is probably $350. let me know if you're ever going to get on a boat one day and I'll send one over.
As for bringing in more models, Penn is up there, maybe more than others lately, but that doesn't excite me much.
I'll keep playing with my older reels.
Cheers!
Sal
Sal,
My post has nothing to do with surf casting. What happened with Penn in our country was across all fishing sectors. There simply was not a good enough agent (plus no new models introduced at a time when Shimano and Daiwa were pushing out new metal and graphite framed reels) and this may have been due to sanctions, but the situation did persist until very recently, which does seem to indicate that we just never had a decent agent. For many years they simply ruled the saltwater sector, it changed though in probably the '80s. It is great to have parts available for old reels and even greater to have those older reels still available. It means the basic design of the star drag multiplier is solid and has not changed much bar some tweaks (often more cosmetic than anything else). I am in no doubt whatsoever that any of your converted reels will perform exceptionally and many of the old Penns will do so in standard form. If I had to choose between a standard jigmaster and a standard 20/40 for the fishing I do, unfortunately I will take the 20/40 every time.
There is a large enough number of anglers in the US that love old model Penn reels and this thus means that there will be enough buyers for after market frames and other spares. We simply do not have that hobbyist culture on a large enough scale, hence we do not get any of the stuff you guys have.
But getting back to the best selling reel, surely there must be a figure somewhere?
I would say the Some of Penns would be fare contenders, as some of them were made from the the late 1930's all the way to early 2000's. A 60 year run on a given model is hard to beat. Europenas tend to be very national, and when I was stationed there, I was a ton of Diawa's and DAM's (or something like that), and little else. But that was all freshwater stuff. As long as parts are around, old Penns will live forever, can't say the same for other brands.
Y'know, I'm still thinking about this from time to time.
I was stricken by a thought just yesterday, that perhaps there is a stone unturned- that we may be focusing on the wrong era.
What about the small levelwind baitcasters made by the likes of Pflueger and Shakespeare for forty or fifty years in the first half of the twentieth century, the ones that made these companies into two of the largest and most long-lived of all?
And, also worthy of thought, is that they, and another manufacturer of their time, were huge OEM manufacturers, supplying essentially the same reel with a dozen brand names.
How do we feel about that? Does that still qualify? As in, the world's most sold reel may not be an ABU or a Penn, but rather a maker seldom heard of but perhaps selling many many more?
I think I'll mosey on over to the collector's forum soon, and pose this question to some of the tremendously knowledgeable gentlemen and scholars there. This is very interesting.
.
Quote from: Robert Janssen on December 10, 2013, 02:27:33 PM
Y'know, I'm still thinking about this from time to time.
I was stricken by a thought just yesterday, that perhaps there is a stone unturned- that we may be focusing on the wrong era.
What about the small levelwind baitcasters made by the likes of Pflueger and Shakespeare for forty or fifty years in the first half of the twentieth century, the ones that made these companies into two of the largest and most long-lived of all?
And, also worthy of thought, is that they, and another manufacturer of their time, were huge OEM manufacturers, supplying essentially the same reel with a dozen brand names.
How do we feel about that? Does that still qualify? As in, the world's most sold reel may not be an ABU or a Penn, but rather a maker seldom heard of but perhaps selling many many more?
I think I'll mosey on over to the collector's forum soon, and pose this question to some of the tremendously knowledgeable gentlemen and scholars there. This is very interesting.
.
Hi Robert,
You mean like these, I have quite a few more that need a clean and polish to add to the display.
(http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae216/jerseymic/Baitcasters/Baitcasters1_zps75b915c5.jpg) (http://s973.photobucket.com/user/jerseymic/media/Baitcasters/Baitcasters1_zps75b915c5.jpg.html)
Mike.
Hi Robert,
By all means I think the new angle would qualify. That's an interesting take on the question at hand.
Could a comparatively somewhat obscure wallflower overthrow one of the obvious choices? Hmmmm
Maybe between all you gentlemen and scholars, that collector forum could shed some real numbers... the kind guys with extra times on their hands can dig up!
And Mike, those are some gorgeous reels... I'd like to see more!
Quote from: erikpowell on December 10, 2013, 07:47:13 PM
Hi Robert,
By all means I think the new angle would qualify. That's an interesting take on the question at hand.
Could a comparatively somewhat obscure wallflower overthrow one of the obvious choices? Hmmmm
Maybe between all you gentlemen and scholars, that collector forum could shed some real numbers... the kind guys with extra times on their hands can dig up!
And Mike, those are some gorgeous reels... I'd like to see more!
Hi erikpowell,
I have about another dozen or so to clean up, when they are done I will post a photo of them all together.
Mike.
Quote from: Robert Janssen on December 10, 2013, 02:27:33 PM
And, also worthy of thought, is that they, and another manufacturer of their time, were huge OEM manufacturers, supplying essentially the same reel with a dozen brand names.
Robert, who would that other manufacturer be? Zebco?
Nice Mike, look forward to seeing the full collection!
Thanks !
No, not Zebco- even if they had a couple of tremendously successful spincast reels, as mentioned earlier in the thread. I was thinking of Montague and the Kalamazoo Tackle Co, who made reels similar to the ones in Jerseymic pic above.
Not sure if they come anywhere close to the numbers required to be considered as the top selling reel, but still worthy of thought.
.
Quote from: Bunnlevel Sharker on October 14, 2013, 03:26:09 AM
Penn is a us company mainly it seems to me. The Australian shark guys seem to like tiagras
That would probably be because Penn stopped bringing Senators into the country a long time ago and we've been stuck with Diawa's and Shimano's made in Malaysia, Korea or Thailand.
Its very hard to find Large Capacity Penn's in Australia. Even the International are hard to find.
Even Everolls are easier to find over here.
The Shimano Triton series in all it's forms, models & sizes from the TT to TLD also 6500B is listed as Triton baitrunner so collectively the numbers would have to be huge.
Rgds
Mark
Quote from: Robert Janssen on December 11, 2013, 06:56:17 AM
No, not Zebco- even if they had a couple of tremendously successful spincast reels, as mentioned earlier in the thread. I was thinking of Montague and the Kalamazoo Tackle Co, who made reels similar to the ones in Jerseymic pic above.
Not sure if they come anywhere close to the numbers required to be considered as the top selling reel, but still worthy of thought.
.
hmmm...
1) didn't Zebco start out as just one subdivision of Bronson, who sold under a slew of other brands for half a century;
2) in its heyday (actually, heyDECADES) Montague was the OEM for a ridiculous number of brands:
http://www.oldreels.com/generic.htm
...'til they were bought out by Ocean City -- that's almost a century of reel-making, in total;
3) wasn't a Shakespeare-Kalamazoo
Service reel stuffed into every GI's kit-n-caboodle, for a while?
...oh, just EXCLUDE the knuckle-busters from this discussion -- it's a can of worms ;D
Fascinating discussion you guys. I 've never been much of a reel historian, but this conversation is drumming up a lot
of interesting information I never knew... or even thought to think about ;D
Mike, I only recognize one Ocean City on your shelf so I am really looking forward to seeing and reading more about those reels you've got there..
Fascinating stuff... a guy in my hometown of Cincinnati even produced a reel!.... then he moved over to KY.....
where believe it or not, there were other guys making "Kentucky" style reels....
never even knew.... ;D ;D
wow... thanks ya'll !
I live 5 minutes from Cincy Erik! How did you end up in Fiji?
Quotedidn't Zebco start out as just one subdivision of Bronson?
No. It is an acronym for Zero Hour Bomb Company, until a guy named R.D. Hull suggested they try reels instead.
.
Quote from: erikpowell on December 11, 2013, 08:46:36 PM
Fascinating discussion you guys. I 've never been much of a reel historian, but this conversation is drumming up a lot of interesting information I never knew... or even thought to think about ;D
check out http://www.oldreels.com/ (http://www.oldreels.com/) -- VOLUMES of info w/ photos, from a very serious collector
Quote from: Shark Hunter on December 11, 2013, 09:04:31 PM
I live 5 minutes from Cincy Erik! How did you end up in Fiji?
haha, yeah I figured you were right across the river Daron... in a post awhile back I planted a skyline chili reference JUST to see if you'd
pick up on it ;D
a random 2 year job contract landed me here in 05. I spent the first year counting the days till my contract was up (no one had ever lasted their full contract here ;D)... Year two something clicked, and I spent the second year figuring a way to stay in Fiji after my time was up...and here I still am almost 9 years later!..... whew, what a ride :o
Quote from: philaroman on December 11, 2013, 11:35:46 PM
check out http://www.oldreels.com/ (http://www.oldreels.com/) -- VOLUMES of info w/ photos, from a very serious collector
Yep, i've been reading here most of the morning!... I should be getting back to work, but like you said... VOLUMES ! ;D ;D
Well, really little light has been shed on how many reels could have been sold by Pfleuger and others thus far. I've been fairly convinced all along that the Ambassadeurs 20+ million must be a milestone unsurpassed. I didn't bother to ask anyone at Abu about it, but coincidentally i did run into longtime Penn associate Steve Carsons yesterday. He was very hesitant to name any quotable numbers, but did mention that their 209 and Jigmaster have always been very high on the list. But, nowhere even near the vicinity of the small round baitcasters, with reference to the simplified demographic influence outlined earlier.
He also did mention that the Penn 320 was their bestseller for a time. (so, thats where that came from: it was Penn's best selling reel at that time, but not the best selling reel of all time. )
It would be interesting to hear how many Calcuttas are out there though, just for comparison. Or for that matter, if any Pfluegers come close.
.
I have no figures but I think it must be ABU. Even today they are immense popular in Europe for freshwater fishing and they are the the reel to go when tossing jerkbaits for pike etc. It seems almost every fisherman has at least one or several. If you look at the fisherman fora starters who want a round baitcaster reels are almost always advised to get an ABU C3 or jerkbait as they give the best run for the mony. Sure there are others but they comparibly seem to live in the margin in this segment which is the largest segment in Europe freshwater. They also are quite popular with their low profile baitcasters but have some more competition there.
Now saltwater might be a different thing. ABU was never really big for large saltwater reels. For long there largest reel(except some exotics) were the 10000 big game reels which are nowhere near big game in my opinion. Their 7000 model was popular for inshore saltwater though.
They were also already popular many decades ago. My oldest ABU 6000 must be over 35 years old (from my dad) and my newest (record 6501) ist a year old.
If there are nof figures available and I would have to make an educated gues than it would be ABU. I don't know how popular they have been in Asia though
Zebco had very good production numbers and from 1949-1999 their 1st 50yrs. across their entire line of reels, all models and types they produced some 220,000,000 million reels, the 33 in the 1st 33 yrs of production the total was 22,000,000 million. In 1962 when the 202 was introduced it became so popular that in the early 70's they were making 30,000 a day, 150,000 a week and if you take that out 50 weeks the total for just one year was 7,500,000 million. The 202 is still being made today.
Hi Dick & welcome to the forum!
That's awesome you chimed in here with some numbers. Did you work for Zebco at some point?
I wish we could find some figures like these to apply to Abu and Penn so we could whittle this one down some more.
Thanks for stopping in!
one big difference in the small Zebco reels vs. the Penn conventional reels is the fact that the cheaper reels could be considered disposable. It makes sense to fix a Squidder, Senator, etc. and the parts are available.
If your Zebco breaks throw it away and buy another one. Lots more get sold for that reason.
Hi Erik
No just most likely have the largest Zebco Collection in the country 13yrs of collecting the reels and knowledge about the company, known on ebay as that-zebco-guy, I belong to ORCA, FATC, NFLCC which are Old Reel Collector's Assoc., Floricda Antique Tackle Collectors, National Fishing Lure Collectors Club. I've written numerous articles for the different club magazine's. and you can find me on google : dick braun zebco, will bring up most of the articles that have been published. I joined your fine web site as your thread moved over to ORCA site under reel talk and there are 94 post. they did change the title a little to read: Top selling Conventional reel of all time. A little fight back, some of the cheaper are throw away reels but some of the other's are as bullet proof as many reels costing much more. A fun site to go to as far as value is: open a google window and just type the words, Inflation Calculator, up will come the U.S. Dept of Labor Inflation Calculator and you put in what your reel cost orig. and the year and the site will tell you what it would be in 2013 dollars. it will most likely shock you to find out the today's dollars. Back to: Top Selling Reel of all Time. Cost should not enter into the equation your talking about numbers not quality. I may be able to get you some ABU numbers and some Penn number's I'll see what I can do.
Regards
Dick
Dick, what great luck to have you join us here! I look forward to more of your comments.
Welcome!
Thanks for the reminder; i haven't updated this thread recently.
Yes, Dick has been very informative on the subject. Just as a matter of interest, that number is seriously worthy of thought- consider it a minute: 220 million is an enormous number. It is for example far more than all the AK-47s* and M16s ever made, more than all the Volkswagen Beetles and Ford Model T too. All of them together, in fact. It is approximately equal to the entire population of the USA in 1980, and comparable to the total number of registered motor vehicles in the entire country today. It is also twenty times the number of hits you get if you Google search Fishing Reel, and would have meant making a reel every three seconds. :-)
In the meantime, i got ahold of an acquaintance who was the CEO of Penn, and is very interested in reel history. He said that accurate records are hard to find, but he did know that for a time, the Penn 209 was a huge seller. During one period, they were making about half as many of those as Zebco was 202s- like, 4000 a day!
I did drop a line to an acquaintance at Abu, but they are very busy this time of year, and have far more important things to do for the future than ponder the reels of yesteryear, so i really don't expect an answer anytime soon.
I did find a few other sources that upped the number a bit, to north of twenty-five, even twenty-eight million Ambassadeurs. It is very hard to see any other reel that can claim such numbers. Now it remains to find out which model exactly, but it is easily speculated that something in the middle would be the one- 5000, 6000...
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*A lot of you guys are gun fans... sorry to say, Mr Kalashnikov died yesterday.
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A lot of you mentioned salt reels since thats what you are used to. I think that a reel that was popular in both salt and freshwater would have the highest chance of being the top all time seller. My guess would be an abu 5000, if you counted all versions of the 5000. my 2nd guess would be a zebco 33.