Before buying the old fishing tackles you need to judge and evaluate the item. This is very important. We don’t want to waste our hard earn resources to some unuseable junks.

First and foremost the candidate need to fit your requirement. Stop for few moment. Is this what you want ? can it be repaired ? can it be used for spareparts ?

Buying from auction site like ebay can be tricky as only limited information is available. Do ask the owner about the items. Observe the photo carefully. In many cases, some of the shortcoming is not mentioned in the listing. Probably the owner is not knowledgeable enough or too busy. Ask for additional photo if required.

If you are collecting certain fishing reels, buying some junks reels can be a good idea. Parts collected can be used as spare parts. Finding a new sparepart is almost impossible, so buying the "used" part is the only way to go.