Pool Ball Collecting.

Hard Knock Cues said:
Looks like the guy buys estate stuff so he must have been in the right place at the right time.
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Ain’t that the truth, sir.

The fellow who sold me my Romanique I set paid $25 as part of a much larger bundle that he didn’t really want but took purely as a favour. My friend bought his set for $1,000 from a gentleman who had paid $2 for them at a yard sale.

Having said all that I must confess that I have also been blessed by similar good fortune many, many times so wish everyone else well, too.
 
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A gentleman who collects Joe Camel memorabilia contacted me this week to chat about their branded pool balls.

Within their collecting groups on Facebook (many of whom are very dedicated and knowledgeable) only seven complete sets were currently known to be in existence (my own example below was the eighth).

One hundred sets were originally made in 1995.

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They are 57mm. I was looking to buy some, but the price seems very high.

And, 2 months ago, there was an incomplete set in the UK with 12 or 13 balls, which sold for about 70,-. They were online for months until someone bought them finally. So I am not sure, if incomplete sets are that low compared to a complete one…
 
Mulambo said:
They are 57mm. I was looking to buy some, but the price seems very high.

And, 2 months ago, there was an incomplete set in the UK with 12 or 13 balls, which sold for about 70,-. They were online for months until someone bought them finally. So I am not sure, if incomplete sets are that low compared to a complete one…
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It's an expensive set, when complete.

Rubik tracks prices better than I do these days. Personally I think what people are paying for sets right now is insane but I have most of the set I wanted already and clearly demand is far outstripping supply.

Honestly this is purchase needs to be lensed through a CBA paradigm. Do you want these balls, will having and playing with them bring you enjoyment?

If so I would strongly recommend buying them at market prices and don't sweat the cost.
 
Hello, Mulambo.

I have a hunch that the set in question might possibly be the same as one I enquired about six months ago, sir.

Are you absolutely sure the balls are 57 millimetres, dear chap? If it is the same set I saw some time ago, when finally managing to correspond with the seller it turned out that they were the smaller size.

If the balls are indeed 57 millimetres and a complete set, Mr M… buy them.
 
The seller confirmed my question about the size, and responded with 5,7cm.

I am aware, that they are in the hundreds, but where can I expect them to be? They are still way above the Raschig sets from recently here, and that’s not a price I find comfortable for a set of balls 😄

And if I get a set like these, are they even playable? I am not collecting for display purposes. So if they fail me after a few years, than I would really feel like I overpaid here by a lot 🙃
 
Hello again, Mr M.

This set is as high a quality as anything you will ever find, sir.

The highest recommendation I could probably offer would be to say… if you decide not to buy them, dear chap, I would sincerely appreciate the opportunity to do so myself.
 
So I added a couple dynospheres sets to my collection. They were on sale at seybert's so I took the opportunity. Obviously they're lower end sets according to price.
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Right on the box it says that their maximum weight deviation are within 1.5 gr. The lithium were 2.1 gr different and the elementals were 2.6 gr different.

I'm not so disappointed but I was curious if anyone has ever called them out on it?
 
Good afternoon, HKC.

An organisation like Dynasphere really should be able to attain very tight tolerances.

They cast literally thousands of the same set, which then allows balls to be mixed and matched into very narrow weight ranges even if the discrepancy thoughout the whole production run is 4g or so. For instance, all the balls in one set might be within a hair of 167g, while another set might have balls all close to 171g etc.

This luxury isn’t possible when fewer sets of a particular design are made, of course.
 
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Rubik's Cube said:
Good afternoon, HKC.

An organisation like Dynasphere really should be able to attain very tight tolerances.

They cast literally thousands of the same set, which then allows balls to be mixed and matched into very narrow weight ranges even if the discrepancy thoughout the whole production run is 4g or so. For instance, all the balls in one set might be within a hair of 167g, while another set might have balls all close to 171g etc.

This luxury isn’t possible when fewer sets of a particular design are made, of course.
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Understandable but if they put it on the box they should back it up.

Not too long ago I bought four sets of Aramith tournament balls from my distributor. One set was for me, two sets were for another customer and one set was for a friend. I checked and shuffled them all to get the closest weights amongst them. My set is .7 g apart. My friends set I believe was 1.2 g and the other two sets for my customer who didn't really care as much were within 3 g. Before I did that, most of the sets were only within 2 g. I guess what I'm saying is I haven't seen too many brand new sets that are within 2 g of each other. I think it's a little hit and miss and you're lucky if you get a set that's within 1 g.
 
Hard Knock Cues said:
Understandable but if they put it on the box they should back it up.

Not too long ago I bought four sets of Aramith tournament balls from my distributor. One set was for me, two sets were for another customer and one set was for a friend. I checked and shuffled them all to get the closest weights amongst them. My set is .7 g apart. My friends set I believe was 1.2 g and the other two sets for my customer who didn't really care as much were within 3 g. Before I did that, most of the sets were only within 2 g. I guess what I'm saying is I haven't seen too many brand new sets that are within 2 g of each other. I think it's a little hit and miss and you're lucky if you get a set that's within 1 g.
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Absolutely, sir.

Even pool balls of an identical design tend to come out with a tolerance of about 5g, but if thousands are being cast it is obviously possible to sort them into relatively evenly matched sets. Whether the factory does that, of course, is another matter!

To be fair, considering the extreme processes involved, even a 5g discrepancy is pretty impressive. The BCA tolerance range is 155g to 170g.
 
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Rubik's Cube said:
Absolutely, sir.

Even pool balls of an identical design tend to come out with a tolerance of about 5g, but if thousands are being cast it is obviously possible to sort them into relatively evenly matched sets. Whether the factory does that, of course, is another matter!

To be fair, considering the extreme processes involved, even a 5g discrepancy is pretty impressive. The BCA tolerance range is 155g to 170g.
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I've always believed 4gr. Difference is exceptable.
 
Good morning, everyone.

I just wanted to give my fellow pool ball collectors on this wonderful thread an advance heads up.

The Billiard Ball Museum recently released their third limited edition… this time a Raschig tribute set called R16 Deluxe. As always, just thirty sets were cast and previous owners were given first dibs before anything was revealed to a wider audience.

Having completed that process two of the thirty sets were not purchased and will be advertised on the FOR SALE section in the coming days.

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Rubik's Cube said:
Good morning, everyone.

I just wanted to give my fellow pool ball collectors on this wonderful thread an advance heads up.

The Billiard Ball Museum recently released their third limited edition… this time a Raschig tribute set called R16 Deluxe. As always, just thirty sets were cast and previous owners were given first dibs before anything was revealed to a wider audience.

Having completed that process two of the thirty sets were not purchased and will be advertised on the FOR SALE section in the coming days.

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I want to mention the box with this set is the best yet, was blown away.

The Billiard Ball Museum sets have gotten better each time!
 
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