You have to watch out for loomis blanks, they've been known to sell factory seconds with flaws, dont buy one with only a 1 year warrenty. fell into that trap a while back. Dont get me wrong I love loomis rods I have 5 of them, as well as 4 sages and 4 rainshadows, I'm a rod junkie. no lammies I always break them for some reason...