I concur that the buyer should have asked more questions but let’s be honest in this discussion.
The seller knew that the cue was refinished by a 3rd party and the shafts were not made by Paul Mottey.
I previously owned a Mottey for years before trading it toward my Prewitt cue I bought from Bill Grassley.
Paul’s shafts are amazing…..wonderful taper and both my Mottey shafts weighed 4 ozs., 12.75mm and
had ivory ferrules with a piloted joint. Paul’s piloted ivory cues played just as nice as any of my flat faced.
So the seller intentionally omits information that is highly pertinent & would be deleterious to his selling price.
He knows that not having original shafts could squash the deal or assuredly lower his asking price. Original
shafts from the cue maker are important. He intentionally took advantage of the seller by not disclosing this.
The seller was unscrupulous and deceived the buyer. Now some may argue that the buyer should have asked
better questions. Hogwash……this isn’t a trial where the verdict rendered is based on the testimony offered so
if your lawyer fails to ask the right questions, you lose the trial. The seller withheld information which is not only
deceptive but highly material to the buyer’s decision to purchase the cue or negotiate a fair but also better price.
When someone says they are selling you a Paul Mottey cue, it is implied that the shafts are made by Paul Mottey.
Otherwise the seller is misrepresenting the sale. What he is really selling is a Paul Mottey cue butt and 3rd party
maple cue shafts. That is only half of a Paul Mottey cue when the shafts weren’t made by Paul. The seller was
obligated to reveal this to any buyer but he hid it. Omission of material information is a lie unto itself. You can’t
argue that….”Well, the buyer never asked if the shafts were made by Paul Mottey so that’s on him, not me as the
seller.” That is just trying to justify the seller was unethical and deceived the buyer to make the sale. You can’t put
the blame, guilt nor responsibility on the buyer for the seller’s actions for not being not forthright & completely honest.
The price of that cue could be as much as 20-30% lower without original Mottey shafts. Now if I buy a Joel Hercek
cue, it is only a Joel Hercek cue if he made the shafts. Otherwise it is a Joel Hercek cue with shafts made by X
cue maker. It is worth a helluva lot less than if it had shafts made by Joel. Let’s not try to defend being dishonest.
The buyer got screwed and the seller feels blameless when in fact he is absolutely guilty of lying by omission of
highly pertinent information that was extremely important for any buyer to have known before deciding to purchase
the cue. Anyone that thinks the seller is innocent of any wrong doing, I suggest you write down the Az identity of those
posters on this thread. If they can defend what the seller did, then just be wary if you were became interested in pretty
much anything they might ever want to sell. If it’s okay for this seller to cheat, well, , maybe larceny lies in their heart
as well. They really can’t say it’s okay for the seller to have done this to a buyer without creating doubt they’d do it too.
The seller should offer a substantial refund to the buyer or cancel the sale and take his cue back so he can attempt to
honestly sell it with full disclosure to a new buyer. Don’t defend the actions of a scumbag seller. It reflects back on you.
Just my opinion but folks, how would you feel if it happened to you? Don’t write that it wouldn’t happen because you
would have asked the right questions of the seller. That’s just bullshit reasoning to try defending a unscrupulous seller.
The seller deserves to be ostracized and rebuked by the Az community for being dishonest, untrustworthy & unreliable.
