Orvis Warehouse Sale - Charlotte, NC

Today I "investigated" the Orvis Warehouse Sale that visited Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend. I thought you might be interested in what I observed:

1. Lots of clothes - 3/4ths of the sales floor was devoted to clothes and pet care items. I didn't spend much time looking at clothes as I was mainly interested in fly fishing gear.

2. A few reels - The selection of fly reels was pretty slim with more low end reels than high end ones. They had good prices on Rim Fly reels and Scientific Angler Reels ($30-40). They were selling a few of the higher end reels and I did see one CFO for about $150-$200 (not a big discount from the web) if I remember correctly. The local shop here in Charlotte had a separate booth set up with good prices on some of the reels they had used in their guide service. ($40). I was shopping for a reel but did not find one that struck my fancy.

3. Waders at 50% off - They had a good selection of waders (mostly their silver line) at 50% off and from some checking I did of their web site prices they were bargains. ($229 selling for $115)

4. Fly Lines for $5.00 - A great price for line but I couldn't find anything close to four or five weight line. If you need seven or ten you were in luck. I also picked up a couple of sink tip systems for $1 each. Each pack contained a class I and class III sink tip. I also got a spool of 6x tippet for $1.

5. Flies for $2 each - A good selection of both fresh and salt water flies. I passed on these since I order most of my flies online. They did have some $10 assortment packs that had a dozen flies.

6. Fly tying materials galore - They had two tables full of fly tying materials. Necks were around $15 and hooks were $2.00 a pack. Digging through the bins was rewarded with some nice finds (I got some 20 and 22 dry fly hooks). The best deal was a dozen tungsten beads for $1.00. Needless to say I picked up about 20 packs of these. I also got some wire in various colors for $1 a spool. I felt like a kid in the candy store when I started digging through the bins on these tables. My poor wife was loaded down with my haul while I dug for more treasure.

7. Rods - They had about 3 large boxes with rods and tubes etc. Larger could be had at decent prices. I didn't see any mega deals here but I was not shopping for a rod.

8. Other Stuff - A guy was putting together a back packer type pontoon boat that had a sticker price of $395 and when I asked the price he said that he would knock 60% off. It looks like the same boat on their site is on clearance sale for $269 so it was a better deal at the warehouse sale.

Conclusion: Well worth the trip, but do your research ahead of time so that you know what kind of deal you are getting. After all it is a warehouse sale, so if you are looking for something that is less popular or last year's model you can do very well. I spent $36 on fly tying and fishing gear that would probably have been 3-4x that much at a retail store. Admission was free and there was no charge for parking at the venue. Most of all, I had a great time digging through bins and finding things that caught my eye. Here is a link to the page that shows the schedule for these sales. The next one is in Charleston, South Carolina.