[Robin Hickman]

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Hey, Coasterville !!!


FWIW : Have you tried calling Soren Dresch (the owner) directly @ Ruffin Flag company? You MIGHT be able to work out some kind of deal...

Of course, until you get ANY of their Flags into your very own hands, you won't really know what kind of "quality" you've paid for.

Incidently, I bought some "samples" from them a few years ago (2006, I think). The Jaycees' "Flags For Patriotism" program couldn't use them because the grommets were WAY too big (size 7 or 8) to mount them on the 8'x1,25" wood poles. HOWEVER, They gave me quite a deal on the sample pack AND they threw in a FREE nylon double-sided State of Oregon flag as well! And THAT, to this very day, is THE Oregon State Flag that I fly out in front of my house on Flag Holidays!!!

Also, the Ruffin Flag Company's website is where I first saw the now famous (infamous???) "Arizona BITE ME Flag". Forum thread elsewhere in these Forums.....

ADDITIONALLY: It is MY personal belief, which I can NOT back up with any "hard" evidence, that currently MOST, if not all, of the flags on the Ruffin Flag Company's website are of foreign origin (imported).

Just a thought (or two).....


BTW/FYI : When shopping for flags on eBay, or elsewhere on the internet, when the flag's manufacturer is NOT mentioned, it is probably a "Ruffin Flag" if the description mentions "Super Polyester" (Or "Super Poly") OR refers to the "Fly Side" (as in "four rows of stitching on the fly side").



Robin
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[coasterville]

Thanks,, I think I've cooled my heals on it for now. Those oversize grommets are a buzzkill on house poles aren't they, particularly if you use flag rings. The good news is cable ties are pretty cheap to come by,just make sure to cut off the tails to protect the flags.

[coasterville]

Didn't have time to finish my reply before.

Anyway, the listings on eBay showed the flag in package, and it looks very similar to the new header cards Ruffin uses.

And I would tend to agree, that maybe a lot of the virtual ebay flag shops do move his products, I mean when you can buy them from him for $2 or less with large quantity, then sell them for $5-$10 + shipping.

Super-Poly, I've seen that on the new packaging. Sort of misleading if you see that and think you are getting the heavy duty tough-tex type ploy. Then again, common sense and the low price should tell you a lot about what you are buying. That Ohio flag I got from them says its 600D which seems to be a lot heavier than most, and it does feel more like the tough-tex type poly.

[wolf]

[quote=Robin Hickman;27559].


Also, the Ruffin Flag Company's website is where I first saw the now famous (infamous???) "Arizona BITE ME Flag". Forum thread elsewhere in these Forums.....

Just FYI: Ruffin is still offering the counterfiet Arizona BITE ME flags knowing that the design is Trademarked.. Arizona Bite Me has taken some guff for the quality of the Ruffin version as to material used and poor graphics and Arizona Bite Me didn't make that flag, it's a bootleg of their graphic copied from old web page.
Heavier doubleknit poly flags with crisp graphics are available on the Arizona Bite Me web site.

[Robin Hickman]

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Hi, Wolf !!!


The USA-Flag-Site forums link to the "Arizona BITE ME Flag" thread is this one :

http://www.usa-flag-site.org/forum/arizona-bite-me-flag-7235.html


Incidently, the "Arizona BITE ME" flag now has its own website where people can order GENUINE "Arizona BITE ME" products, including AUTHORIZED flags :

http://ArizonaBiteMe.com/


The MAIN visual difference between the early "bootleg" graphic and the current (updated) one is the sunset's individual red and yellow rays are visible through the rattlesnake's coils in the "official" version.



BTW : I know it's a "subtle" sort of thing, but has anyone ever counted the number of rays in the sunset of the Arizona State flag? I absent-mindedly did it back when I first saw the "Arizona BITE ME" flag. It made me smile!



Robin Hickman
Eugene, Oregon, USA
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[Robin Hickman]

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And now..... back to the subject at hand.....

Back when I first ran across Ruffin Flag's old web site (I think it was called "Flag King" or "USA Flag King") I was looking for some printed polyester "replacement" flags. I checked out just about every single web page on their site.

One of the things I was initially curious about was the difference between their "standard" (or regular) polyester flags and their "Super Polyester" (or "Super Poly") flags. It mostly came down to the weight & thickness ("denier") of the flags. "Standard" was 70D (denier) and "Super Poly" was 150D.

Now the flag & banner industry's standard denier for nylon flags is usually around 200D. In my handling of similar sized nylon and polyester flags I'd estimate that polyester is approximately 50% less "dense" than nylon. Mainly due to the differences in the composition, construction, and "feel" of the material, MY personal "guess-timate" (not based on actual measurements) of the nylon-polyester equivalents is that nylon 200D = Polyester 300D.

My observations about the terms "Super Polyester" and "Fly Side" pertaining mainly to Ruffin Flag Company is based on my extensive browsing around the Ruffin's original website, AND all of the verbatim (directly from Ruffin) descriptions of the cheap flags on eBay, some of which I bought and had the familiar blue header card on the package.


Robin Hickman
Eugene, Oregon, USA
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