My next Palmer would come to me in 2007, here is my PB-8, it has an early style butt cap and bumper, I think it was made before the models pictured in the catalog. I purchased the cue for $300 not knowing exactly what it was, I liked the way it played and looked so I posted up an I.D. this cue thread back in April of 2007, turned out it was a Plamer, and after that I realized I could have I.D. it myself, as I had a 1987 Palmer catalog.
The story behind the cue came to me a few weeks after I bought it, as the story goes; When Katrina was heading towards New Orleans, Freddy "Kreole" Yates who was still in prison at the time, had is ex-wife ship
all his cues to a friend of his in Tampa, Buddy Halls old steakhorse.
The cue made it's way to an old friend and owner of the Flamingo bar where I play, Yates was getting out of prison and selling some of his old stuff off to get some cash to get started in his new life here in Tampa.
When I met Yates a few weeks after I purchased the cue, he informed me the cue was a very old Plamer made in the shop in NJ, not overseas, and it belonged to an old friend of his who had passed away, Don "Portland" Watson" Yates had shot clear coat over the cue to preserve the original wrap complete with tobacco stains.
I have no documentation to prove this, just a great old story to go with the cue.