Dale Perry Galore
- Thread starter Leadcask
- Start date
Hello thanks for the heads up, but you also must understand that while Dales cues are OK for the low eBay prices, there is no collector demand what so ever. Dale sold out when he started selling his cues for such small amounts on ebay, and in the process he also screwed the people who were collecting and selling his cues. There was a time when Dale Perry was a respected cue maker who was selling cues in the $1000 plus price range, but when he started selling on ebay the price of every cue he ever made fell. Now people holding these cues are out some serious money, and they can't / never will recoup even what they paid for their cues.
In the end there are a lot of Bad feelings many people concerning Dale Perry's cues.
Take care
Perfect summary post. You summed it up right on. Yet the bad blood is absolutely ridiculous. The cue market is all about supply and demand. Once someone passes judgment on a cue for anything other than function (no cue hits $4K worth) they are adding value on non-intrinsic value- a dollar amount based on looks, effort, and collectability. When you make a judgment along those lines they were, even if passively, decided that supply and demand will either stay the same or the curve will move towards the favor. With dale Perry they were wrong. But I don’t see how an entire community can have so much ill will towards a cue maker for changing his business model. He went from using high-end materials and producing higher end and more expensive cues and less production to increasing his production and lowering his costs and passing the savings on to the consumer. In the technology age we are in he chose eBay as it preferred platform. Not an unwise choice. Yet, we flame him harshly for making those choices and because some were on the wrong side of an investment or supply demand curve. It is as if some took it personally.
His cues hit great “for the money”
His cues look great “for the money”
His service from what I have experienced has been great for any amount of money
And we trash him for that. Shame!
I ended up with a Dale Perry 1 and 1 from eBay. Total price after shipping was a little over 200 dollars. I remember way back a friend in Tallahassee had a Dale Perry he paid over 1200 hundred for. I played with his back then and from what I can remember they play and feel about the same. His had better inlay work due to Dale using CNC now, but this cue I have really is great quality for the price range. I agree though that it was kinda bad for Dale to lowball his own collectors like that. I have a feeling if Dale would have thought of his business plan that he has going now with eBay a long time ago (which he really couldn't because eBay wasn't here yet), he would have a lot better following than he does now.
Money wise though, it would be very hard to get the same quality in the same price range, imo.
Money wise though, it would be very hard to get the same quality in the same price range, imo.
HarleyKR07
New member
I agree with the whole lowballing dealers and collectors, but like everyone the man has to survive somehow. If he sells 10 cues a day at $200 a piece on Ebay then good for him. People who can't afford a big time custom cue can pick one of Dale's cues up for a reasonable price which I have seen plenty of his cues around.
I think it is relative to price.
i own 2 of dale's cues, and i love them, of course, im not a collector and only bought them because i PLAY with them. but they play great.
Yes it definately isn't the same. There are several players in my league playing with DP cues that were all bought within the last year or so. I owned a DP about 10 years ago and it was light years better in terms of fit and finish and quality of workmanship.
I will say that they are a great value for the money now although I think that many of the recent ones are not very pretty.
I have seen his cues on eBay and they look like a great cue for the money.
I may buy one and try it out.........or NOT!!
I may buy one and try it out.........or NOT!!
I agree. I'm not a collector either. I love my $150 DP. I break with it about a 100 times a day, and shoot with it. Funny how it hasn't flown apart like so many pissed off collectors say they do. Johnnyt
I bought a Dale Perry off of eBay a few months ago. I haven't played with it a huge amount, but it's pretty solid and many of my friends think it hits well. I liked the design and I'm not concerned about resale value, since at $300 or less I don't consider it an investment.
I bought a Dale Perry on E-bay because I liked the way it looked. I've been playing with it for about 2 months now and really like it. In my opinion it is extremely well built with an excellent finish and I play well with it. I've received many comments about the cue - all very positive. It's about time people judged a cue on quality, looks, and feel instead of price and cuemaker. I buy a cue to play with and not to put in a closet hoping to resell it at a profit in a year or two.
Joss east has done the same thing. At one time they were custom cues and now they are a production cue. It s just a business decision on the part of the cue maker. DP has taken his business in a direction that he feels is good for him and I bet money wise may cue makers envy. He is selling a lot of cues and providing a great cue for a great price for the pool playing public. I can't see much to knock about DP. I think a few cue makers can learn a thing or two from him. Building cues and then offering them up for sale is a pretty good way to do business. As opposed to taking orders, being a year behind, dealing with the aggravation and constant order changes of wacky customers who can drive you nuts. Then after they wait a year will not like the cue anyway because it didn't live up to their fantasy and sell it. DP has carved out a very nice place for himself with ebay as a very inexpensive marketing tool. He is a pretty smart guy and fortunately for him, not prone to managing his life based on the opinions of what are for the most part jealous detractors.
Present company excepted. I remember Tin Scruggs telling me he was going to quit cue making because of all the aggravation of dealing with the customers. Then he discovered selling finished cues through dealers and never having to deal directly with the customer anymore.
I need to add, DP has developed a following, people who are repeat customers. People who get a cue and maybe play on a league and others buy cues. Believe it of not, there is a whole pool playing world out there who have never heard of AZBilliards, like maybe 99.99999999999% and they like what DP is providing to them.
There's a few guys in my league who shoot with DP cues, some for years. They seem fine to me, and similar to any good production cue like a Mcdermott, although are usually a bit fancier than those. The hit's not quite stiff enough for me (and I don't like very stiff cues) but that's all completely personal preference.
I just keep my snickering to myself when the one guy talks about having some $1200 1of1 custom DP cue, even though he bought it for $300 and probably could sell it for at most $250. At least I usually don't say anything.
My DP SS collar and wood female thead in the shaft. I believe it is called a radial joint. I just shoot with them and put a tip on once in awhile. Johnnyt
As has already been stated earlier in this thread, people need to quit bashing DP for a business decision he made which has worked out quite well for him. It's not like he woke up one morning and decided he wanted to screw the customers of his older 1of1's. He was a high level accountant before he became a cuemaker so he's not exactly short on brains. I see a lot of his cues here because he's local and they're great looking cues. The few I've hit with were fine for the money.