EBay: The Largest Fly Shop on Earth

On SingleBarbed.com, Keith Barton reveals months’ worth of research into the discount selling of fly rods, noting that the resellers of fly rods on EBay are feeding the need for low-priced rods and in the process, he suggests, punishing those traditional fly shops who play by the rules. Still, without EBay, even small fly shops would lose a channel for growing revenues from discounted goods. Read Part I and Part II for some clever research into the phenomenon.
I find myself asking somewhat different questions after reading Barton’s data. If resellers can move so many discounted rods while manufacturers continue to sell a significant number of rods at full price, isn’t that the picture of a healthy industry? Indeed can any industry survive with a large interest in products that are not quite new?
(Thanks to reader Paul Bruun for this link.)