How to read a crankbait price band
Our crankbait sample has the narrowest price band in this catalogue, running US$0.30 to US$0.85 across three listings, and the narrowness is a property of a three-listing sample rather than a fact about the market.
- Our crankbait sample holds 3 listings from US$0.30 to US$0.85 at MOQ 200 to 500, the narrowest band in the catalogue.
- All three are unpainted or plainly finished ABS bodies from 42 mm to 100 mm, so the sample covers one construction, not the category.
- The three weights are 6 g, 13 g and 14 g; no deep-diving and no lipless crankbait appears in the sample.
This page is about a price band that does not mean what it looks like it means, including the one we publish ourselves.
The narrowest band in the catalogue
Our crankbait sample holds three listings, priced from US$0.30 to US$0.85 per piece, at MOQ 200 to 500. That is the narrowest spread of any type on this site.
It would be easy to present that as evidence of a stable, commoditised category. It is not. A narrow band across three listings is mostly a statement about the sample: all three are unpainted or plainly finished ABS bodies between 42 mm and 100 mm, so what we sampled is one construction rather than the category.
We publish the figure and the caveat together. A buyer who needs a deep-diving crankbait is not served by this sample at all, and the honest version of that is a sentence rather than a range.
What the sample does not contain
The three weights recorded are 6 g, 13 g and 14 g. There is no deep diver and no lipless crankbait in the sample, which is where a large part of US demand sits.
That matters because the two ends of the crankbait market are different products. A shallow square-bill deflects off cover and is fished around structure. A deep diver runs on a long bill and is fished on the bottom contour. A lipless bait has no lip at all and is fished on the fall. Three behaviours, three toolings.
The unit problem, again
One of the three listings prices per pack at MOQ 200 packs and does not state how many pieces a pack holds. That row cannot be compared with the per-piece quotations on the other two until the pack count is known.
It is the same failure we record in every type in this catalogue, and it is worth repeating in a page about narrow bands because a unit error in a three-listing sample can create or destroy the entire apparent spread.
Depth before size
A crankbait is specified by its diving depth class before its size. Length is the field listings lead with because it is easy to measure; depth is the field that decides what the bait is for.
Depth and deflection are set by the same part. The lip determines both, and it does so against the internal weighting rather than on its own. Change the lip or the ballast and both the running depth and the way the bait comes off cover change together. That is why depth is committed at tooling while a colour is not.
The field no listing names
Body material is stated as ABS across the sample. No listing names the hook hanger construction - moulded-in, through-wire or screw-eye - which is the field most likely to fail under load and the one a buyer is least likely to ask about.
It belongs in the order for the same reason it belongs in the hard-lure order: it is structural, invisible, and decided at tooling.
What the order has to state
- Diving depth class. Named before the size, because it determines the tooling.
- Lip geometry. Fixed with the mould and set against the weighting.
- Body length and internal weighting. The two together produce the depth and the attitude.
- Hook hanger construction. The field our own sample does not name.
- Finish. Two of our three listings quote a range rather than a figure, which normally indicates a colour or finish tier rather than a negotiable band.
Sources 3 cited
- The three-listing crankbait sample behind every figure on this page
- The companion guide on why hard lure is a category rather than a specification
- Our rule for separating a claim from its evidence
Every figure on this page traces to one of these. The same list is declared in the page structured data (schema.org citation) and in the Markdown twin.