Sold My First Cue

Borden27

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I sold my first cue today.I bought all my equipment about 3 months ago,and I have built about 12 cues.Most of them are plain without any inlays but with great wood, and 10 are wrapless...Dunno, just excited to sell my first and I have an order for X-Mas
 
I sold my first cue today.I bought all my equipment about 3 months ago,and I have built about 12 cues.Most of them are plain without any inlays but with great wood, and 10 are wrapless...Dunno, just excited to sell my first and I have an order for X-Mas

You have me curious with that statement so I have to ask...how in the world are you turning them that fast? Did you go from square wood stock to 12 finished cues in 90 days? Or are you buying blanks that are already finished size & building from that? I understand that you are excited but I'm sure you want to follow the correct steps/time so that your cues are the same years from now as they are today. 12 cues in 90 days is a cue a week. Congrats though on your first sell!
 
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I had the same question as Varney.
I think Borden bought JimL's shop about 3 months ago- so he picked up an exisiting "river of wood."
Congrats on selling your first cue- you should post pics.

~Beau
 
I sold my first cue today.I bought all my equipment about 3 months ago,and I have built about 12 cues.Most of them are plain without any inlays but with great wood, and 10 are wrapless...Dunno, just excited to sell my first and I have an order for X-Mas

You have been busy. Post some pics of your cues.
 
Congrats on your first sale. I still remember my first sale and it was good feeling.
 
I had the same question as Varney.
I think Borden bought JimL's shop

I looked & you are correct...that was on 9-25-10. So its only been a bit more than 2 months. Man it'd of taken me that long to move all the stuff and set it up. :o
 
Let me start off by saying I bought an entire shop off from a guy in Mass.After I got all set up, I started using wood (about a hundred pieces) that he had turned down over a year ago.Soon as I got the equipment, I started turning down the rest of the wood I received.I now have over 300 of pieces of wood hanging (all butt wood).I won't be using the wood I turned down for awhile.It has been hanging for over a month now

Borden Cues
 
cue journal

congrats on the sale and welcome to the wonderful world of building. while it is still fresh in your memory i would suggest you get a journal and number your cues, and describe each one. i started mine about 8-9 years ago and each is described as to what woods are used, shaft size, tip, taper, weight, joint material etc, etc, etc. being unable to remember each little detail on every cue i build, its nice to have the record.


good luck chuck starkey
 
Good point Desi!

When I was doing guitars, I did not keep really good records of the builds initially (just photos). Later, we started keeping tract of everything (down to paint codes and paint type) so if we did a repair later, we knew exactly what we were dealing with.

Oh, by the way: Congratulations! I have made three cues in about 10 years and have not sold one yet! Good for you!:thumbup:
 
Keep good pictures as well as the records too. Neat to go back & see what you made years ago. Also it serves well when a customer is curious what a certain cue may look like...often you can go back & find a pic of one similar to show them.:wink:
 
Hi,

Be careful! There are a lot of intricacies to cue building and subtle things can come back to bite you.

It is great to sell a cue but remember that your name is on it. Many cue makers who come out of the box too quickly regret it later.

I might be a good idea to make a few cues for your friends and family and have them play with them for a while.

I gave away about 30 cues before I started selling them and I don't regret it. Some of my cues had buzzes and I had all sorts of finish problems. Anyone who got a free cue from me understood from the get go that the free cue was a beta test procedure. When a downstream problem came up I didn't have to deal with someone who was pissed off and wanted to flame my reputation.

Good luck with your operations, but move slowly because problems downstream can turn into bad press that you can't control. The best thing is to do whatever the customer wants when you encounter a complaint. Customer is KING!
 
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Hi,

Be careful! There are a lot of intricacies to cue building and subtle things can come back to bite you.

It is great to sell a cue but remember that your name is on it. Many cue makes who come out of the box too quickly regret it later.

I might be a good idea to make a few cues for you friends and family and have them play with them for a while.

I gave away about 30 cues before I started selling them and I don't regret it. Some of my cues had buzzes and I had all sorts of finish problems. Anyone who got a free cue from me understood from the get go that the free cue was a beta test procedure. When a downstream problem came up I didn't have to deal with someone who was pissed off and wanted to flame my reputation.

Good luck with your operations, but move slowly because problems downstream can turn into bad press that you can't control. The best thing is to do whatever the customer wants when you encounter a complaint. Customer is KING!

Very good advice...JER
 
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