He invested a fair amount of time looking at online sources of closeout goods (including eBay), and some of what he found was pretty surprising.

When the Creel fly shop in Knoxville closed its doors, we saw a lot of "what’s happening to the world’s fly shops" comments here on the Underground.

While a lot of those excellent comments focused on competition from big box stores, we also touched on the Internet’s use as a vehicle for manufacturer’s close outs:

For example, some manufacturers demand large pre-season orders from their dealers — the kind of order that’s harder for a small fly shop to absorb.

At the end of that season, a change is made to the product (even a small one), and the manufacturer’s entire remaining stock of old stuff goes into the sale bin (the Internet is dotted with closeout specialists) and suddenly, the small dealer is left with a pile of gear that’s selling — with the blessing of the manufacturer — at half the price written on the tag.

Are manufacturers stiffing fly shops by closing out "last year’s" goods at fire sale prices through online sources? Or is it simply the way it is?

Get on over to Singlebarbed, and add your thoughts to the conversation.