NFC Mystery Box

[willwork4fish]

Ended up pulling the trigger on an NFC Mystery Box (20 blanks for $500). Came on Saturday and actually really happy with it. Ended up with 8 IM, 9 HM and 3 Xrays. Outside of 2 UL trout blanks (FW562 and FW661) which I'll probably turn into panfish rods and a St7111 (95" UL trout and steelhead blank) which I actually think is going to make a great hair jig rod, all the others are good bass blanks (a variety of MB, SJ, DS and Flip).

If you just add up the prices (not retail but what they're going for right now) it comes to over $1600 worth of blanks. You can obviously get them cheaper during sales but definitely not as low as $25/blank.

[willwork4fish]

Because I usually can't wait to start building more rods that I don't need, I put together one of the HM Flip blanks and for a grand total of $63 (with Alconites) I've got a real nice jig rod for the next charity or raffle that comes along.

[apdriver]

Definitely a great value. Were all the blanks marked as to what they really were? Did you receive stickers for all of them?

[willwork4fish]

Definitely a great value. Were all the blanks marked as to what they really were? Did you receive stickers for all of them?

No labels, just the pattern number (the little tag on the butt end of all the NFCs) which you have to cross reference from the catalog. For instance, pattern 634 is a HM Flip 764 (this one was only 7'5" though), 853.90 is an Xray SJ765 etc.

I've got an LRT label maker so no big deal.

[apdriver]

I gotcha. It’s nice you were able to identify what they sent with their MFG number. I’ve done their pick ten before but not the mystery box.

[basscatlildave]

Nice

[Solitario Lupo]

I bought a couple last year when they were $75. Don’t really need that many blanks. They been having some great sales. Hope no one has to go threw what I did and have to wait 3months to just change colors and wait another month for one blank their customer support sucks.

[apdriver]

I bought a couple last year when they were $75. Don’t really need that many blanks. They been having some great sales. Hope no one has to go threw what I did and have to wait 3months to just change colors and wait another month for one blank their customer support sucks.

You just have to go into it knowing you get it when you get it. Sure not in a few days.

[willwork4fish]

I bought a couple last year when they were $75. Don’t really need that many blanks. They been having some great sales. Hope no one has to go threw what I did and have to wait 3months to just change colors and wait another month for one blank their customer support sucks.

I build so many raffle/appreciation/charity rods it's nice to have some cheaper blanks that are also decent on hand.

I never order from NFC for a particular build because no one wants to wait that long (unless it's an over the winter build). Like apdriver said you just have to know you're going to have to wait going in. I went through all of the blanks last night and given what I've received from NFC in the past there are surprisingly straight

[ECobb91]

I bought a couple last year when they were $75. Don’t really need that many blanks. They been having some great sales. Hope no one has to go through what I did and have to wait 3months to just change colors and wait another month for one blank their customer support sucks.

did you order an iconoglass fly rod? I think that’s the only colored blanks there is.

id say about 75% of my orders have been with NFC and I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them. Their shipping is normally 5-6 weeks so a month for a blank is about common. I don’t mind waiting.

the only blank manufacturer I’ve had an issue with was RodGeeks/St Croix. Sent a wrong blank once, had two of the same shipped and one was a lot stiffer/more powerful than the other. Didn’t put it into the next power rating but it was obvious. They forgot to ship an order last year and after a few weeks I contacted them and they said they weren’t sure why it was never shipped. I’ve also had unanswered emails/phone calls too which is odd for St Croix. still like them so I’ll keep ordering from them whenever I want a specific blank. Actually have one arriving tmrw from RodGeeks.

[Bassbme]

I've almost always had very fast responses from NFC when it comes to an order, or a question about one of the blanks I've received. In fact, of late I have had more than outstanding responses from the customer support staff, and even Alex Maslov himself. Recently they have gone far FAR beyond the call of duty in dealing with an issue I've had. And I am not a large volume customer. I've maybe ordered 20 or so blanks from them over the years.

They've treated me great.

Sure you sometimes have to wait to get a blank. The longest wait I've had is waiting for a new batch of their new MB 725 C6O2 blanks to get built. They told about how long before it would ship, and they hit that date a day early.

[JJohnSind]

I thought I saw somewhere where someone was told by NFC that the mystery box of blanks did not come with standard factory warranties. If so, it’d be a hard pass for me. As much as I like their blanks (I’ve yet to find many better, especially if you value sensitivity and weight), they do have a quality control issue and I’ve had to send my fair share of blanks back for replacement.

[willwork4fish]

I thought I saw somewhere where someone was told by NFC that the mystery box of blanks did not come with standard factory warranties. If so, it’d be a hard pass for me. As much as I like their blanks (I’ve yet to find many better, especially if you value sensitivity and weight), they do have a quality control issue and I’ve had to send my fair share of blanks back for replacement.

Yeah, it says on the page where you buy them "no refunds, warranties or exchanges, sold as is"...but also says that they're not seconds or blems...the $25/blank price washes the no warranty out for me. I think I've only ever returned 3 or 4 blanks in the past 20 years...two of them were NFCs though.

They're CS has definitely improved in the past couple of years, ever since Kelsey has been working there...she's been really good.

[JJohnSind]

Customer service is great (at least my personal experience), but quality control… well, you’d think it’d be cheaper for them to inspect before shipping as opposed shipping , then paying for return shipping, then shipping the replacement again. I factor n the possibility that I may have to return some blanks for exchange, but it sure would be nice, for a change, to not have to send one out of every 8 or 10 blanks back. They don’t bitch, dispute, charge return shipping, or make it difficult for an exchange, but, man, there are simple ways to avoid this.

[apdriver]

Customer service is great (at least my personal experience), but quality control… well, you’d think it’d be cheaper for them to inspect before shipping as opposed shipping , then paying for return shipping, then shipping the replacement again. I factor n the possibility that I may have to return some blanks for exchange, but it sure would be nice, for a change, to not have to send one out of every 8 or 10 blanks back. They don’t bitch, dispute, charge return shipping, or make it difficult for an exchange, but, man, there are simple ways to avoid this.

The one thing I would improve in their CS department is man the dang phones. I can never call and talk to anyone except an answering machine. I leave a message and it’s questionable whether they return your call or not. Dang frustrating!!!!!