I sure have a story to confirm your statement.
A customer of mine goes into a pawn shop, buys a cue real cheap.
Sends it to me to see if it can be fixed.
I told him the cue is so bad that it needs to be cut into pieces so I can reverse engineer one part of the cue, the rear extension. He knew it was bad but wanted it fixed. I asked if he was going to keep the cue for himself, he said yes.
The forearm on the cue had a real thick split from top to bottom, I rolled a .090" black ring up and down the crack, you could see the maple core inside the cocobolo, the black ring above it was cracked, same with the ring below it.
Within one week of me sending it out, it's on faceflop for nearly $1000 with ZERO mention of the work done.
I don't believe I will ever fix another cue in such bad shape unless the owner knows that I will out him if I ever see it for sale.
I don't care whether they know it or not, I will out them.
But I am not in business.
Maybe you are worried how people will see you if you out someone that way? Are you worried about how that person will see you?
If I had a business dealing with cues, cue making, and cue repairs, I would have a mission statement, and I would have a statement of my ethics. I would state plainly that I will not participate in fraud and that if I see it I will publicly point it out.
Many cue repair guys have seen such things happen. Worse, some have intentionally participated in it.
The absolute worst is someone willing to make or modify a cue in such a way as to misrepresent the origins to make it valuable. We all know about the many fake Balabushkas.
In my business (medicine) we are held to ethical standards. Cues, cue making, cue repair, and cue dealing is more like the wild west.
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