Your thoughts on outrageous cue prices

[Bavafongoul]

Everything has not doubled. Don't be so quick to waste my money. You are the reason for rampant inflation.

You are absolutely correct…….some cues have doubled and largely because the cue maker was not as popular 10 years ago and their workmanship is being applauded today even by their peers. You just have a distorted way of expressing your beliefs which is why you are so poorly perceived on so many different threads from what I’ve seen.

However, I know you are not prone in the slightest to exaggerate or misrepresent material facts on this forum so I
cannot help but feel I owe a public apology to everyone for being the reason for rampant inflation that must be hurting
most of you, except for those that haven’t even noticed the cost of goods and services steadily increasing year after year. So with a contrite heart, I want to say I didn’t mean to, especially since the last cues I bought were in May 2016.

Were it not for Ascue trying to shame me in public for rampant inflation, I probably would have continued doing whatever in his mind he thinks I am doing that makes everything cost more than before…..when? Who knows? He doesn’t exactly have a firm grasp on most topics that he posts about but bless his little heart. He means well.

 

[jasonlaus]

jason you aint getting on my good side by buttering me up with likes.

Should I use crisco?

 

[Ascue]

You are absolutely correct…….some cues have doubled and largely because the cue maker was not as popular 10 years ago and their workmanship is being applauded today even by their peers. You just have a distorted way of expressing your beliefs which is why you are so poorly perceived on so many different threads from what I’ve seen.

However, I know you are not prone in the slightest to exaggerate or misrepresent material facts on this forum so I
cannot help but feel I owe a public apology to everyone for being the reason for rampant inflation that must be hurting
most of you, except for those that haven’t even noticed the cost of goods and services steadily increasing year after year. So with a contrite heart, I want to say I didn’t mean to, especially since the last cues I bought were in May 2016.

We’re it not for Ascue trying to shame me in public for rampant inflation, I probably would have continued doing whatever in his mind he thinks I am doing that makes everything cost more than before…..when? Who knows? He doesn’t exactly have a firm grasp on most topics that he posts about but bless his little heart. He means well.

You shame yourself with your know it all attitude and a penchant for long rambling replies that say nothing

 

[Bavafongoul]

You shame yourself with your know it all attitude and a penchant for long rambling replies that say nothing

So you say…..put me on ignore or stop reading my posts but you can’t or won’t…..i have no interest in
your opinion on anything so you are now on IGNORE along with a few other Az idiots I care not to mention.

 

[Ascue]

So you say…..put me in ignore or stop reading my posts but you can’t or won’t…..I live in your mind rent free.

You are really something

 

[thepavlos]

Outrageous!

 

[Rosewood]

I won't begrudge a good cuemaker selling his cues for a good price. Everyone has to make a living and if you are a craftsman making an exceptional product you should be justly compensated. I doubt even the best cuemakers are getting rich making cues.

 

[Mensabum]

Cue quality in general have gone significantly up, you can get a cue pretty cheap these day online and they will play pretty good. However, when it come to custom cue like anything else, you will have to pay a premium for the craftsmanship, quality of the wood and the rest of the details and reputation that comes with that brand of cue.

Predator limited 30 years rose gold ebony cue is over 8K for a limited production cue (it used to be 4K for limited cue) so prices for production cues in general have doubled. If you looked at the BK Rush...I used to get these wrapless used for 300 and 400 with wrap but now these BK rush have double in price. It's only naturally that custom cues pricing aligned with inflation. All the top tier custom cues will only get more and more expensives and will never be cheaper.....if you don't buy now and you think it's too high and should wait for the price to drop...you are kidding yourself (if you can't afford one now...you'll never got one in future because in another 5 years and you find the prices will double again.

Carbon fiber shafts have been dominating the market and it has been getting cheaper and cheaper. I tried all of them and found the harmonic can not be compared to a high quality shafts that are selected by top builders...The wood shafts are unique, the grain lines and feel of the high quality wood can never be replicated with carbon and they are much more valuable in my opinion.

I gotta agree.

 

[Mensabum]

You are absolutely correct…….some cues have doubled and largely because the cue maker was not as popular 10 years ago and their workmanship is being applauded today even by their peers. You just have a distorted way of expressing your beliefs which is why you are so poorly perceived on so many different threads from what I’ve seen.

However, I know you are not prone in the slightest to exaggerate or misrepresent material facts on this forum so I
cannot help but feel I owe a public apology to everyone for being the reason for rampant inflation that must be hurting
most of you, except for those that haven’t even noticed the cost of goods and services steadily increasing year after year. So with a contrite heart, I want to say I didn’t mean to, especially since the last cues I bought were in May 2016.

Were it not for Ascue trying to shame me in public for rampant inflation, I probably would have continued doing whatever in his mind he thinks I am doing that makes everything cost more than before…..when? Who knows? He doesn’t exactly have a firm grasp on most topics that he posts about but bless his little heart. He means well.

Just don't let it happen again. My wallet has moths flying out of it.

 

[Ascue]

The trouble is the middleman

I gotta agree.

You say cue pricing aligned with inflation. Inflation didn't double prices in 10 years on most things. Thats why I call gouging. Gasoline hasn't doubled. Electricity hasn't. Many many food items have gone up but not double.

 

[SSDiver2112]

The trouble is the middleman

You say cue pricing aligned with inflation. Inflation didn't double prices in 10 years on most things. Thats why I call gouging. Gasoline hasn't doubled. Electricity hasn't. Many many food items have gone up but not double

Question; what do you think you should pay for hours of a person’s time, quality materials, and a uniquely designed cue?

Personally too many yell gouging when it isn’t. Whether it’s water and hotels rooms after a storm or pool cues it’s not gouging. Pricing is based on the costs and the needs of the seller. A cue maker offers a cue for a price. If you don’t like the price, move on to a cue maker in your price range.

If you want to complain about price then look at the cookie cutter cues from some production companies that are $1000+ Custom cues are made individually with more “by hand” aspects than a production cue. Without high volume discounts, a custom cue maker will always have a higher cost. The labor involved in building a custom cues is high. Buy a Chinese cue if you want cheaper labor and a cheaper cue.

I am a new cue maker and have struggled with what to charge for my cues. After building a spreadsheet to determine all labor and material costs, I have a better idea on what goes into building a simple cue. I’m not flipping hamburgers so I deserve more than minimum wage.

 

[Cuemaster98]

The trouble is the middleman

You say cue pricing aligned with inflation. Inflation didn't double prices in 10 years on most things. Thats why I call gouging. Gasoline hasn't doubled. Electricity hasn't. Many many food items have gone up but not double.

Eggs more than double...a lot of other food costs and general expense have more double in the last 10 years. The rich set the inflation rate by rising their prices on goods and services....when your inflation rate is higher than the rate of your income growth.....than guess who get screwed. Taxes for the super rich decline and the middle class and poor gets the bill....that's how depression are started. Even then the value of the these good custom cues will hold and will only go up in the future. Unlike DeepSeek, cues are cheaper to make from Asia but they still haven't been able to replicate the high quality of custom cue builders from Americas (SW, Gina, Robinson, Bill McDaniel, JW, Tim S, Tascarella, Gus/Balabushka, Ed Prewitt, Skip Weston, Mike Bender, Cogs, Tads and so other many 2nd and even 3rd tier cue builders are much higher quality). The low deflections tech and innovation was designed and market as an alternative but I've tried them all and it can't be compared.

I will never be able to win a tournaments with a predator or any production cues with low deflection shafts...maybe an older schon and meucci with old high quality shafts but definitely not any carbon shafts. I tried them all and maybe too old now to re learn how to play with them. Not saying the low deflections are no good....just that I can't re-adjust my game after playing with so many good high quality cues for so long.

Picked up an older Tascarella 59"inch cue with some of his best high grade shaft wood and the cue ended up paying for itself with me winning two weekend tournaments. The harmonics and feel on this shaft is 10x better than any carbon shafts that I've touched (Revo, Ignite, Bull, Ed Prewitt carbon, Meucci, Cynergy, all of other carbons that claimed to be better) ......once you dialed in on the shots with this shaft it will become part of you. I really wish more people learn to play with high quality cues to really understand the experience.....it really like making music when you're in the zone.

If you don't know what high quality shafts looks like....here are three below that I used on my playing cues, all with Gorina Soft Tips. (Dennis Searing, Gus Szamboti, Tascarella). These shaft woods are worth their weight in gold!!! Best shafts wood that I've seen are from (Southwest, Gina, Searing, Gus, Tascarella, Bill McDaniel, and if you're lucky (Old Meucci, Old Schon, Mezz). You might even get lucky with older Mcdermet, Viking, Falcon, and cheaper production if you know what to look for in a quality shaft.

 

[classiccues]

Personally I think Ascue is referencing "posted" prices. Which may seem high, however I believe that there is a reason for that. It is called low balling. It is a buyers' market for sure, and sellers are increasing the asking prices because people are sending in offers less 30-40%. There are certain cues that will always bring a premium, but there are some cues that are less. During the golden years, 86-2010 give or take, if a monkey made a cue, someone sold it for 3500. Lately, this is not the case.

There has been a change in cue demographics and to deny that, you are an idiot. If you walk into almost any room, almost everyone has CF shafts. If I was a custom cuemaker today, I would get a blank provider and market CF shafts with my cues, at least as an option.

JV

 

[BarenbruggeCues]

If you want to complain about price then look at the cookie cutter cues from some production companies that are $1000+ Custom cues are made individually with more “by hand” aspects than a production cue. Without high volume discounts, a custom cue maker will always have a higher cost. The labor involved in building a custom cues is high. Buy a Chinese cue if you want cheaper labor and a cheaper cue.

Agree with most everything you said. Not necessarily anymore for some models. A lot of the top brand production names are very quality brand names and made overseas. Mezz and Predator come to mind right off the top of my head. Ironically, some of the different brand names are being made in the same factories with only a different badge/design placed on them. I walked into a billiard/table store, maybe over 10 years ago. I just stopped to kill some time and was looking at a local built pool table they carried. The salesman started with his pitch and we soon ended up test hitting some cues he was selling at the store. He was sky high over the moon on the Lucasi brand and was selling it hard. After looking it up one side and down the other and stroking a few balls with it (I distinctly remember him saying we can't chaulk the tip cause I wouldn't be able to sell as a new cue ) I said to myself....self you better step up your game if you want to play in this cue building market! There are some very talented overseas custom builders that are pushing the limits for everyone that want to compete in that world market also. No idea what they're getting on return for their product but if it is not top level for the pay grade they're shorting themselves.

 

[BarenbruggeCues]

The trouble is the middleman

A good middleman is very good for the "builders" market. A middleman that wants to buy a builders product and place it for sale only to make a few quick dollars...not so good. I "interviewed" approximately a dozen resellers before I settled on the two I have been with for the last 15 yrs.
Two of the best at what they do!

 

[BarenbruggeCues]

The rich set the inflation rate by rising their prices on goods and services....when your inflation rate is higher than the rate of your income growth.....than guess who get screwed. Taxes for the super rich decline and the middle class and poor gets the bill....that's how depression are started. Even then the value of the these good custom cues will hold and will only go up in the

I certainly don't aim to turn this into a "political" fire storm, however, TARIFFS are not helping either. I am not ashamed to say I use a certain amount of tooling, fixtures, and products that are made overseas in my shop and in the last number of years have seen these products double and some triple in price. Why? Because so called tariffs that are placed on these products. Who has to pay for these tariffs? Not the people producing the product. THEY aren't paying anymore because any tariffs induced on them are passed along to the end consumer. Think about it? So forth and so on.
Call me anti American if you like but if I can purchase an indexer and tailstock made overseas for $200 (used to be just $79 not so long ago) that will do the end job that I'm looking to achieve, why should I pay 3-4 times that amount for one made here in the states? So I can raise the price of cues even more and have people call me more bad names???
I digress.......

 

[Jaden]

All aspects of costs that relates to cue making have gone up considerably. Wood prices has doubled or tripled in less than 6 years. Machinery prices has gone through the roof and obviously the general cost of living has gone up.
Your example with Tascarella and Scruggs is quite misleading, some makers command premium prices, but you can easily find a cue from a less known cue maker for a much more affordable price

Yeah the lathe I bought 12 years ago for 3500 shipped is now 5600 not shipped.

Jaden

 

[Kim Bye]

Yeah the lathe I bought 12 years ago for 3500 shipped is now 5600 not shipped.

Jaden

Have you seen the price of Bison chucks lately? More than double the price in just a few years...

 

[BarenbruggeCues]

I

Yeah the lathe I bought 12 years ago for 3500 shipped is now 5600 not shipped.

Jaden

I thought I was doing a question asker a favor just recently when asking about what lathe I use and would recommend. After telling them and posting the answer I went back and looked at the web and current pricing. I should have done that first!! Had to apologize to them for recommending a great product because of what it is priced at now.

Oh yea...I thought I was taking it in the shorts when I purchased my 6 jaw Bison way back after I took delivery on the lathe. I'm scared to look and price them now! Every day I open the shop I give my chuck a little pat on the butt and tell her she's a nice girl now!

 

[Ascue]

Eggs more than double...a lot of other food costs and general expense have more double in the last 10 years. The rich set the inflation rate by rising their prices on goods and services....when your inflation rate is higher than the rate of your income growth.....than guess who get screwed. Taxes for the super rich decline and the middle class and poor gets the bill....that's how depression are started. Even then the value of the these good custom cues will hold and will only go up in the future. Unlike DeepSeek, cues are cheaper to make from Asia but they still haven't been able to replicate the high quality of custom cue builders from Americas (SW, Gina, Robinson, Bill McDaniel, JW, Tim S, Tascarella, Gus/Balabushka, Ed Prewitt, Skip Weston, Mike Bender, Cogs, Tads and so other many 2nd and even 3rd tier cue builders are much higher quality). The low deflections tech and innovation was designed and market as an alternative but I've tried them all and it can't be compared.

I will never be able to win a tournaments with a predator or any production cues with low deflection shafts...maybe an older schon and meucci with old high quality shafts but definitely not any carbon shafts. I tried them all and maybe too old now to re learn how to play with them. Not saying the low deflections are no good....just that I can't re-adjust my game after playing with so many good high quality cues for so long.

Picked up an older Tascarella 59"inch cue with some of his best high grade shaft wood and the cue ended up paying for itself with me winning two weekend tournaments. The harmonics and feel on this shaft is 10x better than any carbon shafts that I've touched (Revo, Ignite, Bull, Ed Prewitt carbon, Meucci, Cynergy, all of other carbons that claimed to be better) ......once you dialed in on the shots with this shaft it will become part of you. I really wish more people learn to play with high quality cues to really understand the experience.....it really like making music when you're in the zone.

View attachment 804805

If you don't know what high quality shafts looks like....here are three below that I used on my playing cues, all with Gorina Soft Tips. (Dennis Searing, Gus Szamboti, Tascarella). These shaft woods are worth their weight in gold!!! Best shafts wood that I've seen are from (Southwest, Gina, Searing, Gus, Tascarella, Bill McDaniel, and if you're lucky (Old Meucci, Old Schon, Mezz). You might even get lucky with older Mcdermet, Viking, Falcon, and cheaper production if you know what to look for in a quality shaft.
View attachment 804806

I purchased an Andy Gilbert merry Widow a few months ago. I had every intention of buying a jacoby ultra for it but thought I'd try the stock shaft first. To my surprise , it is a better shaft than my revo, jacoby black or peach rogue.. it just is. The feel of maple but it's a true point and shoot. It's my player. My best playing cue. Production cue stock maple just aren't like that. Recently bought a barnhart. Think I'm gonna like it too. Gilbert cues are very reasonable in price. Thecues I buy from the makers are plain yet beautiful. Play great. I'll take one over a schon any day and save money to boot.