I saw this too. The 3rd bid was 4790.00 and the last 2 bids 45000.00 could it be typo?
The cue was re-listed after the auction, then the 2nd auction cancelled.
This cue looked like a really fine example of a later style Rambow but the top end was maybe $3,000.
I sent the seller a PM to see what happened - mainly just curious about the mystery here.
I think Rambow signed them for a few reasons... distance himself from stock Brunswick cues and IMHO customers back then, might have only had one cue, and the personalization meant something. Not like today where we don't personalize cues because it ruins the reflippability (my word) :smile:
What I wonder is if at some point in the Hustler had they mentioned Rambow would he be more popular today?
JV
I agree, it looks like a great example of a Rambow, in nice original (probably) condition. Too bad the game playing ruined the auction.
Kevin
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1961-ORIGINAL-HERMAN-RAMBOW-POOL-billiard-CUE-STICK-SIGNED-BEAUTIFUL-1owner-NR-/170804001463?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c4b63ab7
The selling agent is not the owner and I believe the selling agent is 100% legit.
What happened to the seller is the two high bidders claim they entered the wrong amounts. The odds of that are remarkably low (read impossible).
Like I said, I believe the selling agent is 100% legit - so this is a mystery. I also believe the cue is 100% authentic its story matches the facts available publicly.
Not like today where we don't personalize cues because it ruins the reflippability (my word) :smile:
Reflippability is a term commonly used when a cue is flipped, flipped again, which give the cue reflippability.
Personalized cues without reflippability, can be reflippalized by most cuemakers, with a simple reflippalization process.
OK, I'll tell the story. I sold it around (I'm guessing) 1968 to a guy I went to grammar school with who was about to go to Vietnam. This was a guy I hadn't seen since grammar school (7 years earlier). He just called me up one day and said he'd like to buy my Rambow cue. I didn't even know he played pool. Since I had given up the game about 3 years earlier and the cue had just been sitting in a closet I agreed to sell it. Dumb me!! I sold it for 40 bucks and even threw in the case it was sitting in. I guess I never expected to play pool again.
Now..... a few months ago I attended my grammar school class's 50 year reunion and this guy was there! I hadn't seen him since I sold him the cue. Naturally I wanted to find out what happened to the "Rich Klein Made by Rambow" cue. To my dismay he didn't remember anything about it.
I found it hard to believe he didn't remember, but maybe he was acting on behalf of someone else when he bought the cue and it just wasn't important to him. I didn't know it in 1968, but Rambow had died shortly before this and the cue was bound to go up in value, or maybe already had. Maybe somebody had asked him to call his old school buddy and ask to buy the cue, figuring I'd be more inclined to sell it, and for a good price, to a friend who was about to go to Vietnam. If so, they were right.
So perhaps somewhere in this wide world there is a Rambow cue with my name on it. When I become president, or perhaps star in a few major motion pictures, the cue will become even more valuable.
I agree, it looks like a great example of a Rambow, in nice original (probably) condition. Too bad the game playing ruined the auction.
Kevin
I think CuesBlues is flipped out. Or has drank too many flippin rum and cokes.