Agreed, bought a 2 year old bear arena 30 that just sat on the shelf and was never shot. Their top of the line bow that has a 345 ibo for 1/2 the price of new. Deer don't care if you shoot them with the latest carbon bowThe costs of everything in the last 8-10 have gone through the roof. Everyone wants a raise each year, business costs have gone through the roof. I just listened to Big GP, he does a good job of breaking down business costs.
I work in an industry that traditionally has a price increase every year. The educated customer wants a price increase, as they will pass it along. (Now this is business to business.). The problem is wages for the most people who hunt have not kept up with the prices of goods. Since the 70’s there has been an overall decline in working class wages, benefits etc. The overall inflationary rate has outpaced the wages.
A good point that BIG GP makes is that only about 2% of the products in archery are truly the elite/upscale products. The problem I see is that a $600.00 - $1000.00 system to hunt, is a lot of money for the average guy.
There are less hunters today than there were 25 years ago, so moving a lot of inventory by the manufacturer to cover fixed costs & variable costs are not as appealing to the accountants. A lot of companies would figure a percentage of the year to figure costs. Some companies would sell products as a loss leader, just to get there products into a market or market segment. With the costs of manufacturing now, they cannot afford to do this.
My attitude on buying a compound bow is to buy a leftover. Last years or several years old. Now that being said, I have not bought a new-leftover bow since I got my Helium. I have not found any bows that are that much more to drop the kind of $$ to justify buying one.
I bought an Excalibur 330 Blackout last year because I got a deal that I could not refuse.
I walked into an archery shop and 1800 dollars later I walked out with a Mathews Vertix with all the bells and whistles. I must have been high that day lol. I really like it. Fast, smooth snd quiet....I have no regrets
Yup, those bear single cams are easy to tune and shoot great. They do shoot like 15 fps slower... We can't have thatI paid $1,200 for tricked out Elite five years ago (still shooting it today and for the foreseeable next decade or so). I love that bow, but three weeks after I bought it my friend bought a $300 Bear setup at Cabela's. I shot his bow and wondered what the heck was wrong with me. Either bow no deer would have been safe within 35 yards, ever.
I bought a used bowtech rpm 360 last year off of archery talk. I took a chance that it would be fine and it was. A good bow and I really like it. Since I am married with kids, I don't spend the $ I use to when I was single. At some point I wouldn't mind looking into a carbon riser due to all the cold weather hunting I do... Aluminum just gets cold.The costs of everything in the last 8-10 have gone through the roof. Everyone wants a raise each year, business costs have gone through the roof. I just listened to Big GP, he does a good job of breaking down business costs.
I work in an industry that traditionally has a price increase every year. The educated customer wants a price increase, as they will pass it along. (Now this is business to business.). The problem is wages for the most people who hunt have not kept up with the prices of goods. Since the 70’s there has been an overall decline in working class wages, benefits etc. The overall inflationary rate has outpaced the wages.
A good point that BIG GP makes is that only about 2% of the products in archery are truly the elite/upscale products. The problem I see is that a $600.00 - $1000.00 system to hunt, is a lot of money for the average guy.
There are less hunters today than there were 25 years ago, so moving a lot of inventory by the manufacturer to cover fixed costs & variable costs are not as appealing to the accountants. A lot of companies would figure a percentage of the year to figure costs. Some companies would sell products as a loss leader, just to get there products into a market or market segment. With the costs of manufacturing now, they cannot afford to do this.
My attitude on buying a compound bow is to buy a leftover. Last years or several years old. Now that being said, I have not bought a new-leftover bow since I got my Helium. I have not found any bows that are that much more to drop the kind of $$ to justify buying one.
I bought an Excalibur 330 Blackout last year because I got a deal that I could not refuse.
I may seem like a cheapo here but my Diamond i bought new cost me 399 at academy. Killed 2 good bucks with it this year and will use for years to come. You can get good equip cheaper if you look around and read alot of reviews. I just think bows have gotten out of hand for what the offer over the base model stuff.
I went through the same as you. I ended up getting a bowtech boss set on the comfort setting. Smooth as butter and easy on the shoulders.In 2012 I bought a new Bowtech Insanity CX and paid dearly for it. I've got bad shoulders and not getting any younger, so last year based on the hype of several high-end bows I was thinking about getting a new bow to maybe shoot a lighter draw weight with same speed etc., but I couldn't find one that was better than mine to draw. I was in the bow shop for over three hours and shot seven different bows that I couldn't justify buying. So sometimes good is good enough.