Acctually I think Lucasi Cues are under priced. Their qulaity is fabulous as well as their hit and I do play with a Schon.
Over-priced Cues - your opinion please!
- Thread starter hdgis1
- Start date
Acctually I think Lucasi Cues are under priced. Their qulaity is fabulous as well as their hit and I do play with a Schon.
All sneeky pete cues or any cues for that matter are not built the same...to someone who doesn't know anything about cue it sure look the same but it's not. The construction process and wood selection for each builder/mass producer are different.
Why is one $400 and another $40? Basically the formula for calculating the worth of a cue (Quality of Material x Time x experience (skill and knowledge) x construction process, etc) will give you the value of the cue. It's important to note, Branding (rep, demand/supply) are earned/given by the players/buyer so it represent the quality of the builder.
Anyhow, so does a better cue make you a better player? Hell yeah!!
If I play with a better stick, my performance or confidence will improve as a better cue make the game easy for me. Price of cue generally dictate quality and performance but once you get over $500 plus they should all be good players. Now playability is subjective and personal to each players but still there a general understanding and consensus on what constitute as a good players.
Eg. A plain Mcdaniel merry widow will play just a good as his 3-4K cues because the base cue for 3-4K is the same. McDaniel are deadly players, a plain ebony cue run you about $750.00 plus and a fancy run you to 12K plus. You're paying for the extra work of art that still have the classic feel and hit that the builder perfected over the many years through trial and errors.
The goal of most custom cue builders is to build a cue that embody their concept of what constitute the best playing cue in the world. Of course that can be different from builder to builder. When their cues are unleash in the market place, the consumer feedback will either agree or disagree. The builder that get the most positive feedbacks and is able to achieve and meet the highest expectation from the most demanding players will get the most cheese for their cues. Eg. When you put the shaft of a Richard Harris together, the last couple of revolution to tighten the cue is very unique. It's these little attention to details that differentiate a good cue from a great cue. Again, it come down to you get what you pay for.
So when you're buying a cue, you should already know what to expect when you pay someone 4000.00 for a cue vs 400.00. If you don't know the difference then you should just buy a 40.00 cue from Walmart first because a 4K cue isn't going to mean anything to you but it will be to those that are searching for it.
Good Luck with searching for your holy grail. I've found mine for now but you never know...maybe one day I'll run into another cue that's the real Holy Grail. LOL. It's a damn cue play with it. You'll never know which is the most valuable to you until you play with it.
A friend was telling me that it's a darn shame that most of the expensive and beautiful cues in the world are stored in a safe and most of them are virgin. He said it like having the most beautiful women in world in your possession that wants to be played with instead it gets stored in a beautiful mason untouch. Go figure...LOL
Why is one $400 and another $40? Basically the formula for calculating the worth of a cue (Quality of Material x Time x experience (skill and knowledge) x construction process, etc) will give you the value of the cue. It's important to note, Branding (rep, demand/supply) are earned/given by the players/buyer so it represent the quality of the builder.
Anyhow, so does a better cue make you a better player? Hell yeah!!
If I play with a better stick, my performance or confidence will improve as a better cue make the game easy for me. Price of cue generally dictate quality and performance but once you get over $500 plus they should all be good players. Now playability is subjective and personal to each players but still there a general understanding and consensus on what constitute as a good players.
Eg. A plain Mcdaniel merry widow will play just a good as his 3-4K cues because the base cue for 3-4K is the same. McDaniel are deadly players, a plain ebony cue run you about $750.00 plus and a fancy run you to 12K plus. You're paying for the extra work of art that still have the classic feel and hit that the builder perfected over the many years through trial and errors.
The goal of most custom cue builders is to build a cue that embody their concept of what constitute the best playing cue in the world. Of course that can be different from builder to builder. When their cues are unleash in the market place, the consumer feedback will either agree or disagree. The builder that get the most positive feedbacks and is able to achieve and meet the highest expectation from the most demanding players will get the most cheese for their cues. Eg. When you put the shaft of a Richard Harris together, the last couple of revolution to tighten the cue is very unique. It's these little attention to details that differentiate a good cue from a great cue. Again, it come down to you get what you pay for.
So when you're buying a cue, you should already know what to expect when you pay someone 4000.00 for a cue vs 400.00. If you don't know the difference then you should just buy a 40.00 cue from Walmart first because a 4K cue isn't going to mean anything to you but it will be to those that are searching for it.
Good Luck with searching for your holy grail. I've found mine for now but you never know...maybe one day I'll run into another cue that's the real Holy Grail. LOL. It's a damn cue play with it. You'll never know which is the most valuable to you until you play with it.
A friend was telling me that it's a darn shame that most of the expensive and beautiful cues in the world are stored in a safe and most of them are virgin. He said it like having the most beautiful women in world in your possession that wants to be played with instead it gets stored in a beautiful mason untouch. Go figure...LOL
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Agreed. Another way to put it is that an overpriced cue is the cue you didn't buy because of price. The perfectly priced cue is the one you bought.
Everbody has their own perception...
I live or try to anyway within my means and sometimes splurge.
As far as I can see, even the customs starting out at the $500 range, I doubt the cue maker is getting overly rich when everything is considered.
Wood, material, and specially accounting for his time. One thing to consider is the cue makers machinery. If you want to invest upwards of $6000.00 for just a lathe not including tooling and all the extra mods and goodies. And this is just basic. Not including band saws, milling machines, pantographs or cnc. Then you can build your own cue. Until then, you are partly buying the cue makers knowledge and renting his equipment, so to speak.
As far as I can see, even the customs starting out at the $500 range, I doubt the cue maker is getting overly rich when everything is considered.
Wood, material, and specially accounting for his time. One thing to consider is the cue makers machinery. If you want to invest upwards of $6000.00 for just a lathe not including tooling and all the extra mods and goodies. And this is just basic. Not including band saws, milling machines, pantographs or cnc. Then you can build your own cue. Until then, you are partly buying the cue makers knowledge and renting his equipment, so to speak.
MAN!, this thread is like a volcano ready to go off!
as far as cues being overpriced?....yea, for me to wait 5 years and put 2 g's down is silly IMO....., but I had 4 Black Boars in my collection at one time and they ALL flew off the shelves at 100% markup.....this was 1990....gimmme a break!...I"m still looking for one of those cues!
Seems like the older I get.....the more I wait and buy the finer things in life.
My playing cue is a "Kaiser" with a 314-2....I LOVE it!
I have customs in the rack....and just sent a new custom off to Proficient billiards for some work......seems like the more $$$$ I have....
you need to impress me more...
anyone seen a 4 point rosewood Black Boar in the Philly area?
G.
as far as cues being overpriced?....yea, for me to wait 5 years and put 2 g's down is silly IMO....., but I had 4 Black Boars in my collection at one time and they ALL flew off the shelves at 100% markup.....this was 1990....gimmme a break!...I"m still looking for one of those cues!
Seems like the older I get.....the more I wait and buy the finer things in life.
My playing cue is a "Kaiser" with a 314-2....I LOVE it!
I have customs in the rack....and just sent a new custom off to Proficient billiards for some work......seems like the more $$$$ I have....
you need to impress me more...
anyone seen a 4 point rosewood Black Boar in the Philly area?
G.
MAN!, this thread is like a volcano ready to go off!
as far as cues being overpriced?....yea, for me to wait 5 years and put 2 g's down is silly IMO....., but I had 4 Black Boars in my collection at one time and they ALL flew off the shelves at 100% markup.....this was 1990....gimmme a break!...I"m still looking for one of those cues!
Seems like the older I get.....the more I wait and buy the finer things in life.
My playing cue is a "Kaiser" with a 314-2....I LOVE it!
I have customs in the rack....and just sent a new custom off to Proficient billiards for some work......seems like the more $$$$ I have....
you need to impress me more...
anyone seen a 4 point rosewood Black Boar in the Philly area?
G.
This is so stupid. Whatever people pay-that's what they are worth OR MORE. I mean any cuemaker with a 9 month waiting list or more is underpricing his cues, right? Wouldnt those people on the SW waiting list pay a couple hundred more to get delivery tomorrow rather than wait the 7years? Everybody but some kinda Cuckoo would im sure.
This is YOUR right. You shouldn't worry what someone else spends THEIR money on. The price of a cue does not make one a better player. People spend money on custom cues because it is THEIR right.
Maybe you should concern yourself with coherent thoughts instead of spewing nonsense about something you obviously have no desire in understanding.
Chris <---- spends his money on what he wants...
A better cue might make you a little better as opposed to a rat house cue but not much. I ran a 100 balls with a house cue when i was 16 years old and with all the good and fair cues i have had over the years i have only done that a hand full of times since 1963!!!!!
I think I just peed my pants laughing on this one Kevin :grin::grin:
I haven't read this whole thread but I can tell you this. I have owned alot of cues. Josey's and Schon. They are OK.. I've also owned two Herceks and a Searing. I can tell you when I passed those Hercek's and Searing around real players could see the difference. The Searing I owned was one of the best playing cues I've ever owned. It did what I wanted to do without effort. On top of that they are EXCELLENT investments. I never lost a dime on those cues in fact I made quite a bit of money on my Herceks. I wish I still had all three of those cues but I sold them cause I needed the money. that's just my two cents. I have a schon now but if business turns out good I'll be buying a TAD plain jane very soon.
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By saying "$2600 for a joint and a signature" means you do not understand what cue collecting truly means. It is alot more than a joint or a signature. It is WHO placed the joint and WHO'S signature it is. Just like many other people have said on this forum, the WHO part is what is important not the materials. Yes, the materials have some to do with the overall appearance of the cue but not everything. The reason why a plain jane or coversion would cost so much is that you (not literal) are paying for a cuemaker's experience. Many other criteria also has something to do with why a cuemaker can ask (note I used the word ask) for a certain price. These criteria are hit, appearance, wood combinations, difficulty of ringwork and veneer work if any and all apply.
There is only one original buyer of the cue. Everyone else dictates what the secondary market value is. Today a $2600 cue may sell quickly or not. This is where a cuemaker's "signature" comes into play. The more desirable the cuemaker, the closer to $2600 the seller will get.
I did not so much call you stupid but uneducated about cue collecting and what "value" truly means. By saying YOU would never spend $4000 on ANY cue shows you do not choose to collect cues. Let's put it this way, if an Original Gus Szamboti Hoppe cue was listed on this forum, it would not last two minutes. You are insulting many. many people on this forum by making a statement like that because it is their passion to collect.
You also stated that "Does the consumer have the right to be honked off when their expectations are not met?" Of course they do! But if you spend money without knowledge of a cue or cuemaker, that is called a learningexperience. I have lost thousands of dollars "investing" in the wrong cuemakers in my life. Now I consider myself a little more knowledgeable in which cues I buy. As you can from my signature line and avatar, I like Sugartrees and Black Boars. I purchased a Black Boar that I could afford because I thought the "joint and signature" were worth it.
If cue collecting is not how you choose to spend your money, that is fine. Like I said earlier it is your CHOICE.
Chris
all I'm trying to say is - a bunch of posters on here are going straight to the because someone can afford it card, and that is not always the case (like my Sam Walton reference, multi-billionaire driving an old Ford truck). If player A makes $100K a year and buys a completely loaded up Hercek, and player B makes $300K a year and buys a Schon STL1....it's pretty apparent that player A is willing to spend more on a cue. Doesn't mean player A spent too much on a cue, and it doesn't mean player B spent too little. So, once again...spend what you want on what you want. If owning a $7K cue is worth every penny to you, then it is definitely NOT overpriced, but it still may be to someone who has significantly more wealth than you (not just those who "can't" afford it)....
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if you can't afford it, then either work harder to afford it...or go shoot with a cuetek. Who cares what the cues cost, if you want it buy it, if you can't afford it then go afford something differient. All men might have been created equal, but not in drive or work ethic, or just got lucky and popped out of a rich woman, you take what you can get. Complaining about it is futile, lets just all be communists so we can all only play pool with a players sneaky pete. Just level off the playing feild ya know, apparantly all everyone wants is for life to be peachy and fair....keep dreaming...or maybe go work your a** off and go buy the Hercek you been having a hard on for 5 years.
Nuff said,
Grey Ghost
Nuff said,
Grey Ghost
Well, if anything, I'm going to add the saying: "Honked Off" to my repertoire
of colorful language.
At the very least, thanks for that.
of colorful language.
At the very least, thanks for that.
My Dad told me that during the depression (you know ) the big one, when he was a kid and school was an uphill walk both ways (in the snow), they had 3 cows out in the pasture.
One day the banker came out and asked my Grandpa "how much for that cow?"
To which grandpa replied $10,000.00!
Dad said he looked at grandpa and grandpa said "that way, I only got to sell One!"
Mark : )
One day the banker came out and asked my Grandpa "how much for that cow?"
To which grandpa replied $10,000.00!
Dad said he looked at grandpa and grandpa said "that way, I only got to sell One!"
Mark : )
To understand collectible pool cue pricing, a parallel can be drawn between cue makers and artists. Some artists will command huge dollars for even simple work, and some can't charge much for beautiful, complex art.
It really doesn't matter how good the art is either. When it comes to price, it's all about the artist who made it.
By the way, if I said I had 100 Barry Szamboti simple 4 point cues for sale for $2600, they would be gone sight unseen in an hour and I would not expect a single cue to be returned.
Chris
well if you are saying that, then I'll take the whole lot...I'll even throw in an extra thousand for being so generous. :grin:
hdgis1
New member
This is why we converse! To teach our fellow man new things and learn the same from them! :grin: