Mitchell Reel Forum

piscesman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 11:44 am Welcome to the site harvey... As I understand it left-hand reels, right-hand crank were made around 10% of the "right-hand" reels. Here is an example. Full bail 300 production from approx. 1951-1986 was 13,128,960. Whereas the 301 for same years was 1,335,253. As you can see much lower numbers made. Now remember these are approx., but you get the picture. Your reel in the red box were made in less quantities. They are harder to acquire and do command higher prices than the 300 in blue boxes. Mike DiMattio produced an invaluable book on Mitchell boxes through the years. The blue and red full bail boxes were made from 1953-1959. Relatively a short time span but Mitchell was kicking into high gear as their reels were becoming more popular. Since the red boxes were 10% of blue boxes, they are much scarcer. Now condition plays a huge factor in value if you are considering selling it. If you could post pictures here 700-800 pixels we could help you even further. Hope this helps and congratulations on your find. I have several and the red box is very striking.

On a side note, you never mentioned if your reel is full or 1/2 bail. That changes some things a little.

Kim

piscesman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 1:19 am There may be other ways to identify boxes. If you look at the front of the boxes in the pictures, they are not all the same. Different printing blotched out letters or numbers mean different years of release. For instance, the 1st pictures here has a price on the box of $32.50. My picture has it at $29.75, a price drop. Surely not made the same year. Like anything else, manufactures will try and improve their "stuff" for better or worst throughout the year.
Kim

Bailarm wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 8:53 am Like you John, I associate the 'upside down' Mitchell 301 with an earlier year and the yellow and black 'rocker' Garcia sticker with 1955 and a 6 digit serial number.