When you think I am sure most of us started with very cheap rods plus everything else and we learned to fish with it well. In fact it is probably an advantage in some ways, we learn to make up for any disadvantage in the gear by fishing it better with technique. I can remember getting the most out of poor gear by lots of practice and innovating how I used it. Its a good grounding and I don't think I improved a lot once I moved onto better gear; it is just nice to own it sometimes, that can give the feeling of your fishing better but unless it is for match fishing or something I don't think I would pay more than a £100 for a rod. It is usually a lot less, there must be thousands of rods out there for less than a £100 that will do a perfectly good job of any sort of fishing. However, I am not knocking anyone that pays £500 for a rod, if they want it and it is their money then why not. If someone showed me a rod of that expense on the bank I would be interested to see what it was that made it that expensive but past that I wouldn't care much. I would still be far more interested in what he caught and how he caught it and bait etc. etc., the rod he was using wouldn't interest me much, in fact in such encounters I never look or ask what rod and reel they are using; I cant think I have ever thought of doing so.