What’s the worst cue you’ve ever bought?

With a few exceptions i always bought used and got to test drive it. I ordered a Joss(Dan), Richard Black, Crical, Schmelke and a Schuler new and unseen. All were nice. One cue, a Schmelke, had shafts that warped a tad but still played fine. My new Schmelke sneaky is perfect so far.
 
Last edited:
Back when I was a kid I bought an aluminum cue🤣

Worst cue for the money category, Southwest. OMG it was like a broom handle. Can’t hardly believe that I’ve wanted one for 40 years and when I finally got one I absolutely hated it.

I agree 100% with this. I wanted a Southwest really bad in the mid 2000's.

Was able to finally shoot with one for a little bit and it hit like a club and was super thick.

To this day, they are still the first cue I think of when talking about a cue that hits bad.
 
Southwest, Haley(had 3, and they all had no feeling, was a great guy and the cues were perfection otherwise) 2 of 3 R Black's were dead and Schon(played as bad as Southwest)
 
After much thinking, it would have to be the Players jump break cue I got about 12 years ago. Hit the rack just fine and jumped okay, but the damned weight bolt would never stay screwed in tightly. It reached a point that I carried an Allen wrench in my case because damn near every time i played, you felt it rattle loose. A year and a half later, I finally gave in and bought a McDermott Stinger at Super Billiards Expo.
I have a Players Jump/Break I got years a go, works great, no issue.
I don't think that has a weight bolt in it as I like light break cues and it's about 17.6oz
 
About a year ago I ordered a cue from a fairly well known Filipino cue maker. The butt has warped badly and I now own an $800 house cue. Before he started building I checked to make sure it would be cored and he assured me it would. I’m tempted to cut it in half to check if it really was cored.
What is your worst buy?

The first one, I bought as a teenager, that set me off on this insane, ignorant trail of tears.

Lou Figueroa
 
About a year ago I ordered a cue from a fairly well known Filipino cue maker. The butt has warped badly and I now own an $800 house cue. Before he started building I checked to make sure it would be cored and he assured me it would. I’m tempted to cut it in half to check if it really was cored.
What is your worst buy?
So who was the cue maker? 🥱
 
I used to win cheap cues at small local tournaments 15-18 years ago. Those were awful cues, I always gave them away for free to the kids at the club.

A big part of my collection are cues that I've won in raffles that we used to have here. One of the cues that I won was a Sugartree Sneaky Pete, a beautiful cue that played really nice but didn't really held up good in storage while I was away from the game for about 15 years. It's finish absorbed black dye from the case interior and the joint pin is a bit loose. but since I didn't payed in full for it, it doesn't count.

I bought a cheap McDermott Luck L1 cue last year when I returned to the game as I wanted a black butt to go with a CF shaft, that cue was a bad buy.... felt awful and the original shaft was slightly warped, sold for very little money.

I guess that my worst bought cue was an Arthur Plane Jane I bought directly from Marcus Dienst at his booth at the 2010 World Team Championship in Germany. I was there as a photographer so I haven't brought a cue with me but there was an open spot to play in the event so I needed a cue... I bought that player and a jump break from him. the set played great. I've sold the jump break soon after and kept the player, it did not held up in storage as well, both butt and shaft are warped...

arthur_001.jpg
 
In Detroit back in the late 70’s there was a Gus Szamboti that had at least a half dozen owners in a month that I know of personally, myself being one.

No one could play with it at all. It was a jinxy cue to say the least. Weirdest shit anyone ever saw. Nice looking cue, no one made money on it, it just kept getting sold and sold and sold. It was like there was a Gypsy curse on it. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
About a year ago I ordered a cue from a fairly well known Filipino cue maker. The butt has warped badly and I now own an $800 house cue. Before he started building I checked to make sure it would be cored and he assured me it would. I’m tempted to cut it in half to check if it really was cored.
What is your worst buy?

I have a Linds cue from the Philippines, great cue.
 
Old forum member, Hidey Ho, and I traded the same cue to each other. We both hated it. He originally traded it to me, and I waited about a year and traded it back to him. He forgot how bad it was. Maker is still active, lot of people say he makes great cues. That particular cue sucked in every way.

Other bad cue was a custom order, shafts were almost a ounce different in weight. Missed the design asked for, even though it was a merry widow. And it took about 11 months longer than promised after it was fully paid for. Why I won't do deposits anymore.

Had a Porper cue in 89 I almost broke in half it played so bad. Ended up eating about 700 on it and getting a low end joss j-1 that hit about 3000 times better.
 
Can't say I've ever owned a bad cue. I purchased a 31" carbon shaft from China and that was terrible, the deflection was extreme.

A friend of mine once got a Lee Peppers (remember him!) sneaky and that was one of the worse cues I have ever seen.
 
A Verl Horn back in 1997 - it was beautiful, I went to Mooreland and bought it from Verl. The cue was full tuxedo cue like he is famous for. The cue literally played terrible. I ended up trading it away to a collector in Dallas a year or 2 later.
Same experience here, I bought one from the guy that did all of my cue work. I paid 400 bucks for it and it was beautiful, played like a 2x4 would play if you put a tip on it. The thing played so bad.
Apparently they all didn't play bad because any time I mentioned I had a Verl Horn everyone wanted to hit with it. All were disappointed. I traded it off a few months later.
 
This Doc Frye knock off plays short
I love my Cuebuddy cue. It's always the conversation piece of the room.

Sorry, I don't have a worse cue. I've only ever owned 3... a Players, a Lucasi and my Joss, and I have all 3 still. oh yea, and a PureX jump/break, so I guess I've owned 4 ha
 
I love my Cuebuddy cue. It's always the conversation piece of the room.

Sorry, I don't have a worse cue. I've only ever owned 3... a Players, a Lucasi and my Joss, and I have all 3 still. oh yea, and a PureX jump/break, so I guess I've owned 4 ha
Please post with its parent cue....
 
I think I read this whole thread. Did anyone mention any of the new cf cues? They from what I see seem to be pretty consistent in quality and play. Am I wrong?

For my answer to this thread I am sad to say a Gus Szamboti. He made me a number of cues over the years but this one cue a Rambow style four points cue was like the one another poster described.

Beautiful but played what can only be described as dead. I hated it and everyone who wanted to buy it hated it also after playing with it for an hour. I did finally sell it at a tournament and never saw it again.
 
Back
Top