So how did this conversation swing from secondary market lull to cue makers having issues with branding and/or marketing? Cue makers aren't the people who benefit from the secondary cue market, nor are they the ones complaining about it being slow. I got a feeling people don't really understand cue making much. It's not something anybody can make a lot of money at. In order to sell cues at a high price, we have to keep the production low or else folks lose interest. As soon as a maker begins ramping up production, there suddenly is an availability boost and people lose interest, thus causing prices to fall. It's impossible to make a lot of cues AND get good money for them. That's the box we step into when we become cue makers, and it's universal. Now we have a failing market because we take a stone age approach to marketing/branding? Give me a flippin break.
The thing I have noticed my entire time with cues is that everybody wants to make money. Everybody is playing an angle to make money on my cues except for me. Flippers want cues cheaper than even the dealers get so they can make a quick dollar undercutting the retail price. Worse yet they always have some stupid story or excuse about why they need it so cheap, as if I haven't heard a million of them already. The problem with the market isn't that cue makers need to work on their advertising. The problem with the market is that there are a thousand flippers vying for the same dollar, trying to out flip one another. Cue makers aren't responsible for brand building so you can make money off their name. If you want to b!tch that the market is slow, then take some responsibility on yourself to promote cues & recruit new buying base. Why should I, as the maker, carry the burden of not only my own career, but yours as a flipper as well? That is totally a quintessential pool player move. Get pissed off and whine, blaming somebody else because you couldn't pull off your hustle. You get stuck with a cue you never had any intention of keeping or playing with, only owned it for the purpose of flipping for profit, and now it's the cue maker's fault because nobody is buying it at your inflated price. That damned cue maker needs to work on his name recognition! Can't make this crap up.
