you get what you pay for

I wish I had gotten what I paid for.
Just a reasonable facsimile made from a piece of
wood with straight grain would have been acceptable.

I didn't pay for a piece of firewood that broke on
the first use.

Only just spotted this thread - I made the misatke of importing one of these bows to the UK from "Crystalcheeks" as you identifed below.  Bow arrive split through riser. Awarded refund through papyal - on condition I return bow registered post at my expense - utltimately more than bow cost - wrote it off.

QuoteOriginally posted by M_Kanzler:
I'm glad it worked out for you - and I mean that.

I ended up having to go through a long process to file a claim in order to get my money back.
The seller first promised a refund, then later would not answer email (sent to their company website, paypal address, fleabay seller email address, and through the fleabay message system), and they ignored my phone calls.

I ended up losing $12 to send back the broken bow (I did save some shipping by folding it in half at the break and just wrapping it in brown butcher paper)

I later found that this seller has at least ten fleabay ID's (5 current names which all had previous ID names). They keep rotating the 10 names to avoid negative feedback.       :confused:    

Here is a list... and these are just the ones I could find by searching for their product in auctions:
Coyote-Archery (was formerly wolf-tech11):

Wolf_Archery (was formerly wolftech_archery):

k_kraft_nickknacks (was formerly snugglebugandkids):

singingwolf_flutes (was formerly striped_wolf_bows)

crystalcheeks_auctions (was formerly flyingeagle_bows)

I would advise anyone thinking of buying from them to run away as fast as possible.

A few of the replies found on this post represent the very worst, most ignorant type of people any specialized subsection of an activity have to offer IE FLY fishing or TRADITIONAL archery.  I have owned and happily shot one of these Wolf bows for going on 7 years.  It is a 72", 55#@28" longbow and will fling a 600 grain 2117 arrow 160fps.  The limbs have developed a nice 2" string follow, giving some cushion to the long heavy limbs upon release.  When I am shooting well, I don't own a bow that I shoot better group with. The finish was poor and I refinished it. The design is simple and time tested.  How many glass laminated recurves have had poor quality materials slip through to the consumer and fail?  Many fly fisherman would refuse to fish with anything less than a Sage or Orvis and the traditional archery crowd has the capacity for the same mentality; if you can't afford a black widow you don't deserve to shoot a longbow.  BS.

I read that 2 different people had a major problem with these bow and 2 different people have defended them. Does my simple mind calculate correctly that it is safe to say that whomever is making/selling these bows has about a 50% success rate?

You know I think the bottom line here for me Mike is that anyone who's built a wood bow knows there is no way you could sell a properly made wood bow for $88 and make enough money to feed yourself.

It just takes too long to do all the work, you'd be lucky to make minimum wage before you even consider material costs, and tools, disposables like sandpaper.

I figure a properly finished bow, appropriate for a gift or for sale (I DO NOT sell wood bows) will probably take 20-30 hours plus days of finishing time ....

I concur with that 100% Ben. And not to mention all the hours added if you raise a splinter and have to repair,  or even worse, blow it up and have to start over!

QuoteOriginally posted by M_Kanzler:
An Update:

I had to file a claim with PayPal & fleabay.

The seller is no longer answering my phone calls.
I have emailed them (I got the "Bowyer's" wife the one time they answered - I should have tried it w/o caller I.D.). Anyway, I say "them" because I don't know if I'm dealing with him or his wife.

It's hard to tell, because they have about 4 or 5 fleabay I.D.'s - almost all of which are new names applied to old accounts. They keep changing the seller names and rotating accounts in order to evade their negative feedback.

Sooner or later someone is going to get injured by one of their shoddy bows.

It really bothers me that there are people with such low morals that they will sell products that they know they are not qualified to produce.

I might have to contact the Better Business Bureau to try to slow down the amount of defective bows that are going into the market - it gives honest people a bad name when people don't know who to trust.

Going back a few years I used Fleabay.  Never sold my wares, they were online for about 2 weeks. Cost me like $20.00.  I thought well if I ever post anything else and don't sell it,  then it don't make much economic sense to list on Fleabay. I will never buy or list anything on Fleabay ever again, don't care if its Golden Tiddly Winks selling for pennies. Craiglist in another site that Scammers use.

I only list and buy in local Classifieds now, that way I deal with people by email first, then phone, then in person.
I had sold 3-4 items back in March no problems.

Kinda tough deal to be slingin' remarks like that around BWallace.
i dont see any malice or elitism in any of the posts on this thread- i went back and re-read them all.
people are stating well founded opinions and facts.

read Bens post again- thats the answer right there!                  

a fact of life is that you usually get what you pay for, and i might hazard a guess to say a mass produced $88 bow is probably not as well made as a more purpose built bow. but then any bow can break at any point- look back thru the posts on here- lots of broken bows!!!!

i am really glad that M_Kanzler got it sorted out, and that it ended well--truly i am!!        

i think the real issue here was the apparent scamming attitude and business ethic of the selllers NOT  that the bow was a cheaper bow!!!!!
ps. sorry i missed the reference to the "black widow bow"