I had an email exchange

with one MB yesterday.   He starts off with:

Chris, I remember talking to you about the fly boxes that you make. I think I remember you saying that you had to buy the inserts (foam) in a very large quantity. If that is right do you have some of them for sale. I have been thinking about making a few boxes just to try it but I cant seem to find the inserts. Can you let me know if you still have some of them and how much they would cost me to buy if you want to sell any.

That seems benign enough, and it really is.  MB is a local who, like so many others, survives on the edge of things.  He is small, about Lora's height, and wears a long thin beard that reminds me of beards in the paintings of Chinese sages.   His primary source of income is derived from a disability check (though his disability is not particularly apparent) with another source derived from picking furniture and "up-grading" what he picks.  He does have some imagination, and Lora even commented once on one of his pieces -- a bathroom vanity top that he placed on top of an old sewing machine stand.

I responded:

I do.  They're 1.75 a set for the cheap ones.  Full disclosure though, the hinges and the magnets are the expensive part.  If a fly Fisher is going to use it, he would not want hinges on the outside of the box that can catch in a vest pocket, ditto a latch.   A friction fit lid won't work either because he'll need to hold it in one hand while he takes the fly out with the other.  Also, just so you know, I haven't sold one yet in the shop.  People admire them, but don't buy them.  My last batch sold on eBay for 12.95, which with fees is about breakeven.  If you use exotics, not even close.  I might try again at Xmas ...

All of which is true.  When I first started making them, I priced them very low, at eBay's suggestion, on the assumption that they would bid up.  I was pretty naive at the time.  Though I'd remembered to include additional costs for postage, I didn't include eBay's final value fees (10 % of the final sale price) so when they sold at $9.95, I came close to losing money on them.  A set of 10 hinges cost about $10 with taxes, the two magnets are about 50 cents apiece, so about $3.00 in hardware alone.  I paid full freight on the inserts at $1.75, so now the cost is up to $4.75.  The cost of the epoxy for finish is a bit difficult to estimate, but it's about $1.00 per ounce, and it takes about an ounce, so now the cost of making it is up to $5.75.    I lost a dollar on postage and the final value, so the cost creeps up to $7.75.  I didn't include the cost of the wood because they were made from scraps and left-overs from past projects.  So I made about $2 each on something that took me about 5 hours of direct labor to make.  At the time, that was OK, because I enjoyed making them and sold them, not to make money, but to avoid having them pile up around the house and garage.

Here's what they look like:

At $9.95 they sold out.  When I listed them at $12.95, they sold sporadically, and some I had to re-list a couple of times before they sold.  So, $12.95 is about what the market would bear.  Here's why:

It's made in China, and sells on eBay for $9.61.  Shipping is less as well.  While we all decry the influx of cheap manufactured goods from China, those same cheap manufactured goods, it seems, place an upper limit on what most people are willing to pay.  Some are willing to go the extra few bucks for the cache of "handcrafted in Amuricah," or because mine are better (I think), but as my one customer would put it, "I don't have a problem paying less."

The real kicker, however, came in MB's response to me:

Hey, thanks for the info. I totally understand. Are you using barrel hinges or regular ones? I would probably do the magnets rather than a latch as well. I have done some jewelry boxes and used magnets for the latches. Do you use a router to cut out the insides or do you actually make tops, bottoms, and sides separately? I saw some plans on making them using a router and templates that looked like it isnt too hard. Using a router though with exotics would be a lot of waste of costly wood. I am sorry to hear that you havent sold any in the store yet. I think everything is hard in this little town especially when trying to make any money. You would think with all the fishing around here that there would be more call for stuff like yours.

He wants me to tell him how to make the boxes?  OK, so I can do that, but why would I allow him to encroach on my territory?   He has already told me, "I cant seem to find the inserts."   That tells me, of course, that he has already looked for them elsewhere, and is coming to me as a last resort or as a convenience.  I want to tell him, "figure it out," but what the hell.  I can tell him.  I'm the one after all who opened the door by talking about the costs of hardware and the like.  So I responded:

Yes, we’ve got the inserts in the shop, and yes 5 mm barrel hinges from Woodcraft.  They’re the only one’s that I’ve found with small enough hinges.  If the sides are more than 1/4 wide, the boxes start to look really really clunky.  The magnets are 5 mm as well, from a different source.  My boxes are multi step.  The sides are mitered separately and glued up — then routed to fit the foam inserts and reduce the width (itself a three step process) — then tops and bottoms attached — then routed for the edge banding and banded and sometimes inlaid (just like purfling and rosette on a guitar) — then cut apart — then finished and fitted.  I don’t route it out of a solid chunk of wood, but my way is pretty labor intensive and if you finish the way I do, with a clear epoxy on the face, it’s about a weeklong process and with so many steps, a few fails.

The sympathy, the "I am sorry to hear ..." is a bit cloying, however, because of what follows:

Hey, while I am thinking of it did you ever get some fly tying classes going yet? I think I want to try tying some for myself. I dont have any of the equiptment or supplies for it yet but my birthday is coming up towards the end of Sept and my wife knows I would like to get some stuff to do it. Do you carry any of the starter tying kits? I got a few pink albert flies from Zac at the farmers market a couple weeks ago. They worked great at crane falls lake and at little roaring river lake at trinity lakes. (that is where there are 4 little lakes you can drive right up too about 18 miles up from featherville idaho. I went to the south fork yesterday but the pink alberts were not working there. I still have to figure out how to match the hatch better. ( I really dont know how to do that very well yet). As far as the inserts for the fly boxes goes do you have them in the store? I may come in next week and get some from you and maybe I can admire your boxes like everyone else does.

This bit about the tying lessons too is cloying for a whole host of reasons, but mostly the line "I got a few pink albert flies from Zac at the farmers market a couple weeks ago."  He's talking to me like I'm his fishing buddy, but I'm not.  I'm the guy with the fly shop, and he has never been in the shop, not once, when he didn't have some piece of yard sale junk that he wanted to sell to me.  He has exhausted his search for the inserts, and now wants them from me as a convenient last resort, but buys the few things he does buy from Zac at the farmer's market.  OK, but really dude?

This is a kick in the shins for a couple of reasons.  Zac owned the previous fly shop that we replaced.  I reached out to Zac several times, inviting him to help supply the shop with inventory, and I would have paid him for it, but he never really responded.  Zac  (this might be a bit unfair because I've never met him) is one of the fly fishing snobs who could have helped, but didn't.  I could understand why he didn't.  I could understand some resentment on his part of the "who do they think they are" sort, and I could understand why he would sell at the farmer's market, and I can even understand why MB might buy some flies from him, but what I can't understand is why MB would tell me that he bought flies from him when he has (or ought to) know that I'm in the business of selling flies.  Really dude, is your sympathy just so much polite crap or are you really that dense?

I spent a whole academic career pretending that I hadn't suffered an insult, and they were clearly intentional and biting and as personal as they could make them.  I really can't tell if MB is coding a message a not.  Probably not.  He probably really is that irony deficient, but either way, intentional or not, I'm also sick unto death of pretending that I haven't suffered an insult.  My response to this part of the message is perhaps a bit petty:

Glad Zac’s flies worked for you, but that might help explain something.  So far as lessons are concerned, we’re debating starting in September, but don’t want to make a firm commitment at this time.  May just go fishing instead.  Zac (or someone) might be offering some through the Rec Center.  Go or no go, however, I do have starter kits ... 

which I will likely sell at a discount on eBay when we close the shop.  To be frank, I really don't care one way or the other if I see him in the shop, and actually hope my response is politely off-putting enough to keep him out.  Really dude, f-off, you're not my buddy and you haven't even been a customer.  Go find your inserts the same way I did from Cabelas, from Idaho Angler, from Zac for all I care.  It's not rocket science.