I bought a Dickson Fishing Reel #9520. On the box it says Level Wind, Salt Water and Trolling Reel. The box appears to be very old, but the reel has never once been used. It has the box and original papers for the reel. On ebay only a box sold for upwards of 50$. I have the reel with the box and the papers. Does anyone know if this model is valueable? Or what this reel actually is? Thank's

If you do a search for antique fishing tackle I suspect you'd find some sites devoted to the subject where you could get information.

I usually turn to O.R.C.A. (Old Reel Collectors Association) for such answers but there isn't much there on their web site.  L.M. Dickson was a trademark of the Taico Trading Co., a San Fran based importer that slapped the L.M. Dickson brand on a lot of different sporting goods.  I wouldn't use eBay as a reliable indicator of the value; my gut says that it's probably one of scads of Penn imitators and isn't worth a lot in the antique reel market.  I'd spool it up and see how she fishes!

Thank's for the advice! I bought it for 5$ so heck i'd see if it was worth something but because it's probably a knock off like i've read, i'll throw some trolling line on and go pike fishing!