Phenomenal work indeed, Thomas. I'm glad to see that your craft has advanced as your experience unfolds. Please extend the same understanding to your fellow cuemaker as I'm certain you can understand that everyone didn't start off at a master level - including yourself, as noted in this thread.
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Pretty pictures. Looks like a lot of the decal work I have seen.
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No doubt. That's the problem with most of the crap coming out of China - they simply STEAL the ideas, designs, and hard work of others. Here we call that "plagiarism", there you call it "good business".
TW[/B][/SIZE]
Are you saying he plagarized the knockoffs?
iirc Thomas was a proud member of the MARINES, i'm sure i'll be corrected if wrong
If you actually read what I wrote you'll see I wasn't criticizing ANYBODY. The original poster asked about the difference between sharp-ended inlays and round-ended inlays. He SPECIFICALLY referenced a particular Searing cue, so I took the time to mock up a photo showing the VERY CUE HE REFERENCED with both looks.
At NO TIME did I criticize, "bash", or otherwise discredit any aspect of Searings work, personality, or anything else. I don't know the guy and had (at the time) only EVER seen perhaps two of his cues, one being the recent photos on this forum.
As for my "lazy" comment, the TW haters are openly taking that out of context, and twisting it like a pretzel. They can't even quote the entire sentence, which I punctuated with the all-important caveat regarding IF a design "calls" for sharp corners. I've been VERY CLEAR that such an assessment is something arrived by the cuemaker and by the viewer/customer.
In recent days several "top" cuemakers (mostly HoF makers) have sent me emails essentially saying "I told you so" about posting on AZB. They were right - it's a cesspool, which is why they don't post here. I now see their point, and - aside from this thread battle with "Barton/Collins/Whatever" - I have no intention of posting opinions, advice, or ideas here again. Photos of my work... maybe. "Buy American" comments... absolutely. Other than that, AZB is obviously a situation comedy better viewed from the outside.
TW
I'm real confident that we could get by without you and your cheap made in china knockoff cases too![]()
Words to live by:
http://www.madeinusa.org/nav.cgi?info/whybuy
TW
So since you dodged the question earlier let me ask it again? Do you refuse to sell to foreign buyers?
Will you take a pledge on AZB not to sell your cues to any foreign buyers?
Obviously you want to go down the road well traveled to deflect from your lack of service due to the poor workmanship of your cues. So let's go there.
When a buyer shows up with cash do you ask them how they made their money and refuse to sell to them if they are not a US citizen who has made their money on things only inside the USA?
Just curious what the questionnaire looks like? Or do you simply count the money?
You can't get anywhere with me on this topic Thomas. Better people than you have already tried this tactic dozens of times. It's a favorite of people who are backed into the corner and trapped by the truth. I am sorry that you have to deal with people who have bought your cues and had them go to crap and then had to deal with you holding their cues for years and never returning the product.
That won't go away. Maybe someday someone will have a display of TW cues that are in poor shape. That would be a fine display. I might ask one of my friends to approach you about buying a cue and see how much you trip over yourself to get that Chinese money.
But the Chinese buyers already know better than to actually buy your cues. Your reputation precedes you.
I will take that pledge. I will sell to foreign countries, just not communist ones.![]()
I will take that pledge. I will sell to foreign countries, just not communist ones.
And you well know that i've been screaming buy american way before this thread, from our previous arguments on the subject. Your the one being led, i live in the land of the free![]()
So since you dodged the question earlier let me ask it again? Do you refuse to sell to foreign buyers?
Will you take a pledge on AZB not to sell your cues to any foreign buyers?
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Holy shit, are you really that stupid? The entire point is to seek an EQUAL trade level with foreign countries. Currently it's disastrously skewed against the interests of American manufacturers. One realistic solution for U.S. makers is to sell to foreign customers whenever possible, and at the same time to NOT buy from them - at least until a balance is achieved.
But that raises an interesting question, Collins/Barton/Whatever... are you still legally an American citizen?
TW[/B][/SIZE]
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Well I think that you should spend a little time educating yourself on real economics and not flag-waving rhetoric
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Clearly indisputable facts are hardly "rhetoric". I regularly ship products to foreign customers, and their single biggest concern is the DUTY they are forced to pay on anything imported from the United States.
China protects their own manufacturing by requiring high tariffs and VATs ("Value Added Taxes") of goods imported from the U.S., while we fail to do the same at our own borders. This is one of the root causes of our devastating trade imbalance, and one of the root solutions is for every American citizen to buy domestically manufactured goods whenever possible.
An alarming example of this problem is sports shoes. In China, sports shoes imported from the U.S. are subject to a 35% duty, even before any "value added taxes" are imposed. What makes this particularly insidious is that China is also the leading culprit in counterfeiting brand-name sports shoes (Nike, et al) and dumping them on other countries - the U.S. in particular. Again, like so many other questionable trade practices, knock-offs and counterfeits are not even looked down on among Chinese manufacturers; it's just considered "business as usual".
Another area of cheating China is notorious for is in the seafood industry, where there actually are some U.S. duties imposed on Chinese imports (shrimp, for instance). The Chinese importers evade these duties by unlawfully transshipping the goods through third countries (Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, et al) that are illegally identified as the country of origin; by falsifying shipping documents to misrepresent the country of origin, and by intentionally miss-classifying the goods. Business as usual for China.
You can threaten, rant, rave all you want, John, but there's no getting around one very clear FACT: when an American citizen chooses to buy a foreign made product such as a JB Case, he hurts every American cue case manufacturer. If we want our country to become strong again [in the world market] we have to take a stand, and the easiest way to begin doing that is by NOT buying from foreign manufacturers.
And, frankly, if you actually ARE an American citizen, then you're just lining your own pockets at the expense of every American case manufacture - and you ought to be shot for treason. Just my opinion, of course... well, actually mine and a hell of a lot of other American's who give a damn.
TW[/B][/SIZE]