The important thing to remember is that SW builds 300+ cues a year and STILL has a 10 year wait list. Barry Szam, Hercek and Searing all have 10 year lists but they build a max of 15 cues a year, so that's 150 people willing to wait for their product. SW has 3000!
You can call it hype (which I personally have never seen SW hype or advertise at all) or whatever, but "overpriced" is a serious misunderstanding of how markets work. If SW RAISED the price by $1000 each across the board do you really think all those people would drop off the list? Let's say 1/2 bailed, so then they'd only have a 5 year wait list and be making an extra $300,000 a year. If I was Laurie, I'd do it in a NY second. She's doing pool players a favor by pricing them where she does.
As far as why? Well, it can't be the looks. What does that leave as a reason? Its not the looks, its not the price, it just can't be their marketing campaign because I don't think they have one. What's that leave ? Hit? Hit as a factor in pool cue demand? Maybe.
Thanks
Kevin