I wish I had the room for a GC, it would be a no brainer to get one. However, from what I hear, Brunswick is essentially a Chinese company now.
Imperial pool tables, are they any good? Comments welcome.
- Thread starter 8-Ball Player
- Start date
You should be able to find a pretty nice Valley for $1K and its a commercial table, they will take a lot of abuse. Its quite possible that an Imperial will start having the threads pulled out of their pressboard after the first recover job should you have to change the cloth. Check on amusement rental companies in your area, they generally have many tables they would like to sell.
I just called a local entertainment rental company, he said they only use non-slate tables because of ease for travel.
Do you have any local pool halls or bars that use Valley's or Diamonds smart tables? If so maybe ask them who they get their tables from.
There is a pool hall that is selling a used 7ft Diamond for $6500. Imo, that is way too much when you can get a brand new one for 7k. However, the worst part about a Diamond table is waiting for it to be built, Diamond said they are 800 tables behind and it can take 10 months to get a new table. The Valley tables on the used market are all beat up and worn out and they still want a grand for them. I just went ahead and ordered an Imperial Eliminator with the pro championship cloth, will be here next week. We'll see how the table is. If trash I'll post about it.
I just bought a brand new Imperial Eliminator 7' table with championship speed tan cloth. It has a three piece one inch slate. It came with everything: pool cues, balls, bridge stick, 8 ball and 9 ball racks, wall rack, brush, tan chalks to match the felt a table cover and even a rules book. I had a local family owned (40 years in business and involved in tournaments) billiard store professionally install it (where I bought it). It took them about three hours to set the table up. They did an awesome job. I paid $2700 OTD COD. I was in awe on how great it plays, I absolutely love playing on this table. I don't understand why more players don't choose tan cloth, much easier on the eyes than blue cloth. I made the right choice and glad I did not blow 6k on a used Diamond pool hall table or 7k+ for a new one and wait a freaking year to get it. For home use, it really makes no financial sense to put in a professional tournament table. If I have any issues I'll report it here.
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Enjoy it. One thing, you made a comment earlier about Brunswick being essentially a Chinese co. now. Where do you think Imperials are made? B'wicks are designed and assembled here from sub-assemblies/parts from various sources. Imperials are 100% Chinese made. 3G's is still a lot to pay for an Imperial but if you're happy that's cool.
Most of everything is made in China. I bet many parts on the Diamond table are in fact made in China. Just because something is assembled in the USA doesn't mean its 100% made in the USA. I gave up on trying to avoid China made stuff a long time ago because it is dang near impossible. Even if you make a table yourself some of the parts you use are probably manufactured in China.
To clarify, the table alone was not $2700, about $450 of that was the cost of delivery and professional set up. So the table alone was only about $2250 including upgraded championship cloth and 8% sales tax. Also, included in that $2250 price was the championship speed cloth upgrade which was about $160. So the table alone without a cloth upgrade and tax wasn't much over 2k. For a three piece 1" slate table and all of the accessories that comes with it that is a hell of a bargain. Another good thing about this table is parts are easily obtainable if you ever need them. This table has been manufactured for decades and is still one of the most popular selling tables because of its affordability and playability. Many colleges have been buying them in bulk for a long time.
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