
If you hop onto any of the fishing forums, you’ll find Shimano reels in hot demand and anglers often trade and sell their gear to access discounted top range reel models like the Stella.


Abu Garcia vs Shimano reels on Resale ValueĪccording to lots of anglers online who have owned Shimano reels in the past, the more expensive models tend to hold their value very well when reselling as a second-hand reel.īecause they are built so well and the brand carries with it a lot of equity from the manufacturing of some of the top reels in the industry, second hand Shimano reels go like hotcakes. The general advice is if you are looking for a decent reel and are fairly serious about actually wanting to land some good fish, then to spend anywhere over $100-150 on a new reel, and to push to $200 if opting for a Shimano reel. Generally, below $100 features begin to be stripped out and the build quality and durability deteriorate.

When shopping for a reel the common advice among anglers online is to watch out for the lower end of the price range with Shimano, but that Abu Garcia provides pretty good reels below $100. Shimano has fishing reels ranging from around $30/40, all the way up to $700+.Ību Garcia has fishing reels ranging from around $50 up to $500+. Shimano reels tend to be a higher price than Abu Garcia but many anglers attest to the brand’s superior design and build quality as the reason why Shimano is generally more expensive. Abu Garcia vs Shimano reels: The top advantages and disadvantages Abu Garcia vs Shimano reels on Price Over the years, Shimano developed its expertise in designing and innovating advanced gears, bearings, and shafts, and turned its attention to producing some of the best fishing reels in the world in 1970.Īgain, Shimano is a brand that delivers some of the highest-quality fishing gear out there at the moment, so you can be confident most of their products will stand up to the demands of use. Shimano has been producing some of the finest cycling components for a hundred years. Shimano was founded in Japan interestingly in the same year as Abu Garcia was, 1921, originally as a small ironworks which first put the talents of the Founder, Shozaburo Shimano, to work on producing the freewheel found in bicycles.Īt the time, freewheels were a complex piece to manufacture, and advanced technology for the times was needed to produce this detailed piece. So when you purchase an Abu Garcia reel, you know you are accessing a legacy of expert reel engineering and design. The quality of the reels was recognized with the honor of ‘”Purveyor To The Royal Swedish Court,” a distinction bestowed upon a select group of manufacturers for consistently exceeding its highest standards of quality and craftsmanship’, as the Abu Garcia website states. Carl August Borgström was a highly skilled engineer, and when WW2 disrupted his usual trade, he turned to making high-quality fishing reels. The company originally manufactured items like watches and other fine-engineered products.

