PD's suggestion that there are "good" ones and "average" ones is quite astute.

I have a "guy"...I use quotes because he's not just a guy but the fella who searches all of the yard and estate sales around here and has several "clients" like me who he knows are looking for certain specific items and from whom he can make a decent mark-up by finding these items for us and buying them up to re-sell them to us. I'm his "old camera client" but he knows that I fish and one day showed me some bamboo rods that he had put aside for his "old fishing gear client". He explained that these rods were just average production types and not handmade specials so while they looked impressive, he didn't expect to make much money on them.

Thus, it pays to research those rods so that you can get what they're worth. If they're the hand/custom made type, they're worth beaucoup bucks.

Best

AA