Vintage Swarovski spotting scope

[marlinman93]

Last weekend I bought up an entire estate of reloading, shooting, and fishing gear locally. After a cursory look around in drawers, cabinets, and bench tops I made a ballpark offer which the family gladly accepted.
My son in law and I spent 3 hrs. loading everything we could into my Suburban, and once done all I had was the driver's seat open to drive home! After getting home I began the long task of sorting through stuff to really get an idea of what I'd purchased, and opened two plastic tool boxes to discover a couple spotting scopes. One an inexpensive Simmons I gave to the son in law, but the 2nd box revealed a vintage Swarovski 20x-60x scope! Along with it was a very HD tripod with infinite adjustments and ability to raise it higher than a 7 foot man could ever need, and lower to 2ft. height.
I contacted Swarovski and got a quick reply telling me the scope was made from 1984-1996, and sold for $1200-$1500 during that time frame! A bit more than I paid for the entire room full of ammo, reloading gear, and components. I ended up with 20 bamboo fly rods also, and no idea what they're worth?





I was surprised to find out Swarovski Co. was founded in 1895 in Austria, as I knew the name only in maybe the last 30 years myself. Didn't realize it was such an old company.

[Rockingkj]

Great buy! Optically obsessed so the spotting scope is a prize. Have done some with fly rods. Value is like guns, maker and condition is key. Some minimal value to hundreds +.

[Sudsy]

Sounds like a nice score !

Handmade and signed bamboo fly rods can be worth into the thousands of $$.
However, the vast, I emphasize vast, number of them were factory line made. In very good, fishable condition those are worth in the $50 to $100 range (general rule, there are exceptions). Montague rods, are the most common that I see around here in the NE, with a common value up to $150 in excellent condition.

[wilecoyote]

Congrats !
take care of it, because extendable spotters, including Swaro, tend to collect dust from outside, sucking it in_

[marlinman93]

Have no idea if any of these rods were handmade, and maybe a half dozen had labels on them to indicate makers. One was an old South Bend that I was told is a $200 rod, and in excellent condition with a spare tip section. Actually they're all excellent condition, and most had an extra tip section, but one had two extra tips! There's one marked High Cascade, Utica, NY. and is in a wooden case.
I spent a lot of time yesterday investigating the rods, and most were in the $60-$80 estimate range, but the South Bend and High Cascade were in the $175-$225 range.
Marking all of them half price of estimates and taking to our gun show Sunday.