I have a 35+ year old Players plain Jane cue, butt finished to look like ebony, cost me $40 when I bought it new. It was my player for almost 10 years. Butt is straighter now, after all these years, than my $1600 'custom' ebony cue player, with beautiful recon stone inlays, which is only about 10 years old. The Players cue became my break cue, when I started finishing CF blanks into completed shafts. It's now my 'house' break cue, and still almost dead straight in the butt. I liked it with the factory (no-tech) shaft when it was my player, but you can get used to just playing with just about anything. My next player after that was a Predator PJ cue, with the first gen 314 shafts. Bottom line for me: If Players and their 'PureX' line are still as good or better than they used to be years ago, in terms of QC, their sticks should last and stay straight for decades - IF you take proper care. That means never leaving them in the trunk of your car, and minding that they don't get beat up while in use. Haven't seen any real inlays in them yet, but some of the decal designs are so good that I WISH they were real inlays. Have had at least one cue maker eyeing one of mine to figure out if the design was 'overlay' or inlay. The finish on them is so good though, that they will look good for decades - again, if you take care. I have four different PureX designs on hand right now, just so I can offer a newbie a very good looking and good finish quality cue, with a LD CF shaft, for far less than they'd pay for a new Predator or Cuetec.
As for the HXT shafts: They aren't as low deflection as the best LD offerings from Predator, Cuetec, et al, but I'd say they are about 80-90% as good. Certainly way better than a NO-tech shaft but again, you can learn to shoot lights out pool even with a NO-tech shaft, as long as you've gotten used to how much that shaft deflects on various speed/spin shots and you adjust your aim accordingly.
