Cal
In fairness, you recently had an attempted transaction with fast Lenny where you promised him payment twice (the 2nd promise in a thread) and then stiffed him twice. I'm not sure Mike can be blamed for not figuring he had a transaction with you until you actually paid him.
Rudy, lets assume for a moment that Mike didn't notice the dings (or maybe even dinged them when wrapping the cue for shipment or maybe they got dinged during shipment) and if you never mentioned them upon receipt of the cue, you really can't blame the man for not addressing a problem he didn't know about. You sent him the cue, he noticed it, and he mentioned it, as he always will. Your telling him "it was like that when you sold it to me" sounds a little lame. Who are you really mad at here, isn't it yourself? Sounds to me like you assumed Mike knew about the dings when he sent it to you and you have to admit there's a million other possibilities, none of which you can understand because you didn't mention your dissatisfaction. What is known for a fact is that you knew about the dings when you traded the cue to Mike. Did you disclose?
I've seen complaints about Mike being really picky about the cues he buys, way pickier than me, but I'm quite sure he's not buying cues with disclosed flaws and then complaining about them. He likes to represent his cues as a seller using quite glowing terms and he has a right to get what he pays for as a buyer. All that being said, I've never dealt with the man.
Thanks
Kevin