South West Cues-Why $$$ ????
- Thread starter dacue
- Start date
dom_poppa
Banned
I put my name on the waiting list every year since 2005. When I get called, I hope there's no limit on how many I can have made.
I will consistently have a inventory to sell.
I am sure someones probably put in an order since 2000 and every year after that and getting cues every year since.
Then go flip them.
:thumbup:
I will consistently have a inventory to sell.
I am sure someones probably put in an order since 2000 and every year after that and getting cues every year since.
Then go flip them.
:thumbup:
Why I like SW:
Build quality is perfect, from the finish to the shafts to the construction. I've had hundreds of cues pass through my hands through the years and a great many of them had some sort of issues that were less than perfect. I've had over 20 SW's and they have never dissapointed in terms of quality.
Responsive, polite, on time, efficient operation Terrific people to deal with. Again, there are a bunch of cuemakers out there that fall short in the customer service department.
They hold their value better than most any cue out there. If you buy them right, they are money in the bank.
Simple, elegant design I happen to like simple looks without a ton of inlay, showcasing woods.
Balance and dimensions are "comfortable" No weird weight distribution, handle too thin or thick, etc....
I'm sure there are special circumstances but per Laurie it's......
1 cue per spot unless agreed upon when you added your name to the list.
P.S. If they got on the list on 2000, they were way late to the game. There are guys that have had standing orders since the late 80's that still get cues. I know a guy that still gets cues every year because his father had a standing yearly order, and the father passed away years ago.
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Last edited:
Just Curious
Just curious, You stated you owned 5 or 6. If the prices are inflated and you never kept one very long, why did you get the others after you got the first or second one? It seems like you must like them if you keep getting them. Just wondering. I want to know how they get people to wait 6 years or more from the order date. I get people complaining for a year to a year and a half.
Just curious, You stated you owned 5 or 6. If the prices are inflated and you never kept one very long, why did you get the others after you got the first or second one? It seems like you must like them if you keep getting them. Just wondering. I want to know how they get people to wait 6 years or more from the order date. I get people complaining for a year to a year and a half.
dom_poppa
Banned
or he was just trying to find one that he likes.
Buy, don't like it, sell it, buy again, don't like, sell.
i had no idea what to say - so JCIN, thanks for saying it for me, +...
do some of you think that so many in the pool world are just friggen fools to want a sw?
did you ever consider what some of the Greats play with - like $100 cues and further - why they play them? or for that matter, why they play another even more expensive cue...
do you know that sw does not sponsor anybody to play with their cue - if you play with one it is because you bought it?
and for sure their number system is YR-3XX; and that means that their yearly number start point is 300 [for the first cue, or, 301] after the the year code [two numericals, such as 09 for 2009]...
do you know that until a few years ago, they priced their cues on the day you ordered one, and did not ask for any down payment until about 6 months before they would finish the cue? they still do not ask for a down payment until about 6 months out, but finally they started pricing their cues on the year they finish them and that was just recently
and most important of all, did you know that they do not allow resellers to buy more than 1 cue so to make sure that the final customer, the player like you or me does not have to pay a jacked up price just to have one of their cues?
Mrs. Franklin is one of the finest people i know...
i don't want to say any more about this
many of you should be ashamed of yourselves, but a fool only sees another as the fool, never themselves
and thanks again JCIN,
smokey
do some of you think that so many in the pool world are just friggen fools to want a sw?
did you ever consider what some of the Greats play with - like $100 cues and further - why they play them? or for that matter, why they play another even more expensive cue...
do you know that sw does not sponsor anybody to play with their cue - if you play with one it is because you bought it?
and for sure their number system is YR-3XX; and that means that their yearly number start point is 300 [for the first cue, or, 301] after the the year code [two numericals, such as 09 for 2009]...
do you know that until a few years ago, they priced their cues on the day you ordered one, and did not ask for any down payment until about 6 months before they would finish the cue? they still do not ask for a down payment until about 6 months out, but finally they started pricing their cues on the year they finish them and that was just recently
and most important of all, did you know that they do not allow resellers to buy more than 1 cue so to make sure that the final customer, the player like you or me does not have to pay a jacked up price just to have one of their cues?
Mrs. Franklin is one of the finest people i know...
i don't want to say any more about this
many of you should be ashamed of yourselves, but a fool only sees another as the fool, never themselves
and thanks again JCIN,
smokey
This is 100% truth and Laurie is by far one of the best people I have dealt with over the years. SW makes a good product and people are willing to wait for their chance to own one. There are a lot of car companies, jewelry companies, etc. that demand a wait time for a perfect product.
dom_poppa
Banned
Over Priced and Over Hyped
SVB plays with a Cuetec.
Orcullo soon to follow.
Enough said.
I have known many friends that have purchased SW cues and they have all sold them and ordered another.
Wink, Wink, Wink they have always said they hit great.
Wanna make some money order a Southwest, many people do......because everyone believes the hype, easy money.
I am not saying they don't make good cues.
But are their cues better than JossWest, Gina, Schuler, Schrager, Judd, Szamboti, Burton Spain, Belabuska, Black, Tad, etc....
I am going to ask SVB to personally pick me out a Cuetec, when I am in Vegas.
I won't have to wait 10 years.
The Cuetec will be a blessing as I no longer fly with my cues.
I could not bear the thought of losing my custom made cue, at the airport.
I could never replace them.
I have never sold any of my cues.
By the way, I have 5 custom made cues by, Hall of Fame Cuemakers.
Everyone who has hit with any of my cues say they hit great.
Francisco Bustamante wants my Ebony and Ivory playing cue.
I am thinking of selling them?
Oh by the way did I mention they all hit great, Wink$, Wink$, Wink$.......
SVB plays with a Cuetec.
Orcullo soon to follow.
Enough said.
I have known many friends that have purchased SW cues and they have all sold them and ordered another.
Wink, Wink, Wink they have always said they hit great.
Wanna make some money order a Southwest, many people do......because everyone believes the hype, easy money.
I am not saying they don't make good cues.
But are their cues better than JossWest, Gina, Schuler, Schrager, Judd, Szamboti, Burton Spain, Belabuska, Black, Tad, etc....
I am going to ask SVB to personally pick me out a Cuetec, when I am in Vegas.
I won't have to wait 10 years.
The Cuetec will be a blessing as I no longer fly with my cues.
I could not bear the thought of losing my custom made cue, at the airport.
I could never replace them.
I have never sold any of my cues.
By the way, I have 5 custom made cues by, Hall of Fame Cuemakers.
Everyone who has hit with any of my cues say they hit great.
Francisco Bustamante wants my Ebony and Ivory playing cue.
I am thinking of selling them?
Oh by the way did I mention they all hit great, Wink$, Wink$, Wink$.......
I forgot to mention the resale value in my other post. South West cues are good investments even at the higher prices they are getting now. I never lost a penny on a South West cue that I owned and sold and at the prices they are going for now I could have almost doubled my money if i'd hung on to the South West cues I owned in the past. I guess people are willing to pay more for a cue that's hard for the average player to buy. The 10 year waiting list makes owning one seem like a prize instead of just a good pool cue. I've owned at least 6 South West cues over the years and in my opinion they didn't play any better than most of the cues on the market now. Tommy Kennedy is the only pro player that I know of who plays with a South West cue and if they were something special surely other pros would play with them.
I heard a story once that Joe Gold played with a South West cue and he called Laurie Franklin and asked her about buying 2 new shafts for his cue. This was before he started Cognoscenti cues and she told him it would be about 6 months until he could get the shafts for his cue and he got so upset at the thought of having to wait that long for new shafts that he decided to start building his own cues. That's when Cognoscenti cues started! I think this is accurate, but it was second hand information. The bottom line is South West cues doesn't have to sponsor pro players to help them sell cues.
James
sw
They are way over priced and usually heavy too. I've had tons of high end cues and sw doesn't impress me at all. They look like coker's and are all pretty much the same plain jane and they don't usually have a,b,c,d,and e rings either. It's silly that they get what they do for them when you can get something that hits and looks way better for 1k less. But you can't blame them either. If you were selling them like they do you would keep pumping them out as well. Try a mike bender way better craftsmanship, sharper points better rings, etc. and a far better hit too!!
They are way over priced and usually heavy too. I've had tons of high end cues and sw doesn't impress me at all. They look like coker's and are all pretty much the same plain jane and they don't usually have a,b,c,d,and e rings either. It's silly that they get what they do for them when you can get something that hits and looks way better for 1k less. But you can't blame them either. If you were selling them like they do you would keep pumping them out as well. Try a mike bender way better craftsmanship, sharper points better rings, etc. and a far better hit too!!
Sorry but if Bender could do a point that sharp he could get SW money!
If your looking for a SW cue and don't want too wait 10 years,try a OMEN,they are incredible. many people think my OMEN is a South West.Half the price,great hit,points are just as sharp.Pete Omen cues are a great deal.My Omen plays just as good as any SW I've ever hit.
The simple and short answer is because people are willing to pay for them.
Now, lets put things in perspective. I mentioned this once quite a while back, but I think it is worth mentioning again. This is designed as an exaggeration, of course but it serves the point.
I can go out in my garage, and painstakingly build a car. I can weld together a frame, tin knock a body, upholster an interior, build a "one off" motor piece by piece and so on and so on.
It will take forever. I'll have countless man hours involved and if I was content to only work for a very small fraction of what an honest hourly wage is, I'd still have to charge millions for this car.
Would it be any good? Perhaps, would it be better than a new Caddy? LOL, probably not, but should I get someone to buy it, it wouldn't be because it was better than anything else. It would be because it was unique. A collectible.
The same hold true with any custom cue. They are made out of wood, not gold.
Now, consider mfg. companies like McDermott, or Viking, or Meucci. Big dollar buying ability for their raw materials. The suppliers of those materials would love a contract to sell to these companies just for the sheer volume of the orders.
It further stands to reason if suppliers would rather supply tens of thousands of dollars in material at a time to one builder, rather than a few hundred bucks worth to a custom builder, they would want to maintain that account.
What point am I making, that the actual buying power of these mass produced cues probably gets BETTER materials than the custom builder who only buys a few bucks worth at a time. Whether they even know it or not.
With buying power at their disposal, suppliers know full well that they could shut them off in a heart beat if they started to get inferior or unaged materials. So the best goes to the bucks.
All these things boil down to the small guy reinventing the wheel, "so to speak", doesn't necessarily provide the best quality material.
Now, on to the equipment to make the cues. I hardly doubt any custom builder can compete in that arena with the crazy computer operated equipment a large company has at their disposal. So consistency in quality is far harder to accomplish IMO.
Bottom line it all boils down to these things being collector items and desired based on that fact and nothing really else.
Also like I wrote in a related thread about cues, I recently purchase (what I call) not a Southwest, but a FarEast cue. LOL, 32 bucks, plays great, looks, just fine to me, and absolutely positively worth what I paid. :smile:
Now, lets put things in perspective. I mentioned this once quite a while back, but I think it is worth mentioning again. This is designed as an exaggeration, of course but it serves the point.
I can go out in my garage, and painstakingly build a car. I can weld together a frame, tin knock a body, upholster an interior, build a "one off" motor piece by piece and so on and so on.
It will take forever. I'll have countless man hours involved and if I was content to only work for a very small fraction of what an honest hourly wage is, I'd still have to charge millions for this car.
Would it be any good? Perhaps, would it be better than a new Caddy? LOL, probably not, but should I get someone to buy it, it wouldn't be because it was better than anything else. It would be because it was unique. A collectible.
The same hold true with any custom cue. They are made out of wood, not gold.
Now, consider mfg. companies like McDermott, or Viking, or Meucci. Big dollar buying ability for their raw materials. The suppliers of those materials would love a contract to sell to these companies just for the sheer volume of the orders.
It further stands to reason if suppliers would rather supply tens of thousands of dollars in material at a time to one builder, rather than a few hundred bucks worth to a custom builder, they would want to maintain that account.
What point am I making, that the actual buying power of these mass produced cues probably gets BETTER materials than the custom builder who only buys a few bucks worth at a time. Whether they even know it or not.
With buying power at their disposal, suppliers know full well that they could shut them off in a heart beat if they started to get inferior or unaged materials. So the best goes to the bucks.
All these things boil down to the small guy reinventing the wheel, "so to speak", doesn't necessarily provide the best quality material.
Now, on to the equipment to make the cues. I hardly doubt any custom builder can compete in that arena with the crazy computer operated equipment a large company has at their disposal. So consistency in quality is far harder to accomplish IMO.
Bottom line it all boils down to these things being collector items and desired based on that fact and nothing really else.
Also like I wrote in a related thread about cues, I recently purchase (what I call) not a Southwest, but a FarEast cue. LOL, 32 bucks, plays great, looks, just fine to me, and absolutely positively worth what I paid. :smile:
I'm sure SW are good cues, and that any dissatisfaction is a matter of preference. But worth the wait or price? A lot of people who have tried one weren't impressed, and there are lots of them for sale. I doubt all of those sales are because of dissatisfaction, but I've noticed that cues from other makers don't show up for sale nearly as often as SW does. There are probably factors I'm not considering, but those are the thoughts that would send me to several other reputable makers before I'd wait ten years for a new SW or pay such a premium for a used or flipped one.
The market for a South West cue is stupid!It's just another hype market!They make excellent cues,no doubt about it,but too have a ten year waiting list is just that,a ten year waiting game!Only time will tell whether a South West is worth the hype it receives now or not!In my honest opinion I'm not buying into it,I've played with South West cues pretty extensively and know a good one from a bad one.
I know there's no such thing as a bad SW!So let's just say it wasn't a players cue,is that cool?
Anyway they are beautiful and play great,that's hard too beat!But there are a few cue makers that can come close if not beat them in beauty & playability.
I play with an OMEN and regularly get asked if my cue is a South West,and I proudly state that I play with an OMEN.If you can find a better cue than an Omen for playability and price I'll eat it!
I know there's no such thing as a bad SW!So let's just say it wasn't a players cue,is that cool?
Anyway they are beautiful and play great,that's hard too beat!But there are a few cue makers that can come close if not beat them in beauty & playability.
I play with an OMEN and regularly get asked if my cue is a South West,and I proudly state that I play with an OMEN.If you can find a better cue than an Omen for playability and price I'll eat it!
Yep! Got on the list in 2002 and was contacted this week about giving them my specs.It actually was so long i had forgotten about it so the folks at SW maintain a list quite precisely.Mike S.
How is it marketing if they arent advertising???