ok......heres my evidence as to why its a RICH
I'll try to get another opinion from someone very knowledgeable about Rich cues (and to a smaller extent, Fry Cues) and I will get back to you. I am sure he will have some knowledge of this.
Also, looking at that signature - it looks like it's burnt in on a die, similar to the Willie Hoppe signature Brunswick was doing well before this. They wouldn't make a die just for one cue. I wonder if this was some kind of line Rich had going. I've asked about that as well and we'll see what we can dig up.
Chris
I didn't want to open my mouth to possibly put my foot in it on the first thread b/c i was not sure.......
b/f all the speculation i honestly had it in my mind that it was a Rich cue.
Tho my memory is fantastic its no where near Jay Helferts (his brain must have mac OS 10.5 lol)
Anyways it was a faint memory and has been growing strong the more i think about it.
Some were around 7-9 years ago I saw a cue I swear was exactly like that and had Mike Eufemia's name on it......I'm very certain that it was a Rich cue.....AND that it was a LINE OF CUES.....
sort of like the Jean Balakus heublers.
I'll admit I'm not 100% but I'm toeing the line at 90%
main reason being that RICH cues are not nearly worth what a Doc Frye is worth. I remember the cue selling for something like 300-500 and just couldn't see it attaining in value to want to buy it.
If it had been a Doc Fry for that price I would have snapped it up as it would have been worth at least double that maybe triple at the time.
It was on ebay and the seller had plenty of info on it if I remember correctly. At the time I was looking for another old cue and it was one that i was very interested in. I got lucky and found a super sweet pretty old Huebler 4pt/4v with ivory inlay and chain rings every where, came with 2 shafts in the same range of price @ like $300....that Huebler is one of the prettiest i and many have ever saw and its nearly doubled in price from what i paid for it.
Anyways I'm rambling.
POINT A: Your cue has a RICH BUMPER ON IT......so its a RICH
POINT B: If it were a Doc Fry then you could take out the bumper and there is most often a penny shoved up in the hole from the year that it was made. He would go to the bank and get a big sack of new pennies from that year to "date" the cues.
Its still a nice cue brother, its just not worth a mint like a Fry would be if in fine condition. But i think its pretty obvious now that its not a Fry even if i exclude my possibly faulty memory.
I would send it off tho and get it cleaned or refinished without damaging the sig and other original parts. Its def not a common cue, and since its a Worst cue that makes it even a more cool piece of pool history.
Even with what Jay said about him not being a big enough name.....well he was a big enough name in New York from what I know and that was a New York cue company so I don't think it to be far fetched idea to think that he had a line....as for the cost of a die.....CHEAP that was not and has never been expensive to make a burning tool for signing wood. They used to wright in clay and dry it, make a clay and sand form with it and pour the alloy and bang its done....that would have been the easiest part to making that cue with that signature......they could have just had his sig and carbon copied it and used a wood burning pen to do the work?
good find,
-Grey Ghost
