Advice on what to do with these cues

Facebook is another marketplace you might look into.
Cues could be worth a few hundred bucks each, maybe more.
Post pictures and people can help you estimate value.
Gl

contactgsw said:

A nice what looks to be a custom, with two shafts, all capped, but for the life of me I can't find any maker marks.

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You definitely want to post detailed pics of this to get an identification, it could be anywhere from practically valueless to a 5-figure value depending on who made it.

contactgsw said:

Thanks guys.
Will start getting pictures up tonight.
Steve

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Get pics of whole cue, any numbers or id marks, pin/ joint,
and buttcap on the bottom

Get Eddie Farris to help with cue id/values.
He is a good man who makes good cues:wink:

Perhaps you should consider eBay?

Lots of protections for both buyers and sellers.

I just went through the same thing with about 40 pool cues. here's what I found.
First thing is to weigh each cue and measure the shafts as everyone wants to know that much for sure. Also roll the cues and shafts looking for taper roll or actual warping. I used those round dot stickers and put the weight and shaft size on it and stuck it on the butt sleeve of each cue. Do it that way and you only do it once! You'll never remember all of the cues! I also made a single letter notation for the taper roll. N for none S for slight etc. Only relative but better than nothing.

Inspect every thing carefully and be up front about condition. I cleaned up all the shafts as best as I could, shaped the tips, replaced a few, and polished the ferrules, all by hand.

If you can chase down production cue makes and model numbers it will help to catalog anything you can find out, like years produced, retail price, etc.

I found Facebook listings worked well for many of the cues. There are a lot of pool cues for sale groups to join but the more you can list in the better off you are.

Craigslist may work okay but it was very hot and cold. Ebay always works okay but between them and PayPal you will be out 13%. Not bad with a couple hundred dollar cue but it really stings if you have a $3000 cue to sell!!

AZ Billiards can be good but you see mostly higher cost cues in the listings and I don't think people want to deal with a new guy with no sales feedback and expensive cues.

If someone stops by to see a couple cues, they are waving money in your face!! See what you can do to work out any deals to get as much of it as you can. If they are spending a lot on a few cues give them a decent deal! I sold $800 for 4 cues to one guy and at least one of the cues was worth more (maybe twice) than the $200 he paid for it. he was thrilled and had some breathing room on them.
Another guy was interested in one cue at $2400. Okay, fine but I pulled out another just to show him and he bought that and a Swift case as well and spent $3000. So don't pass up any opportunities!

Shipping was with USPS Priority Mail in the long triangle shaped "tubes" they are 38x6x5. They are free delivered to your door. You can ONLY order them online. Local post offices cannot get them as weird as that is!! Shipping a single cue priority mail across the states should only cost under $15, other than insurance and cost for other packing material like bubble wrap.
I can always find free bubble wrap on Craigslist around here.
Also UPS has good round shipping tubes but they cost about $4.00 each if needed in a pinch.

I had a few butt sections that had no shafts, McDermott, Cuetec, etc. nothing special. I sold them on Ebay and listed them for about $40 and took offers. Most offers were about $20 or $30. I didn't dicker much and took what I could get. Sorta the same with cues I knew nothing about, no maker marks etc. and didn't look like much. I started them at about $75 and took offers.

And take good pictures!!

Good luck with it. It is an unenviable task and will take some time!!

contactgsw said:

I understand he just repairs and refurbishes now. I think it would be cool to get his provenance, any idea of contact info?
Steve

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Pete no longer does cues. Eddie Farris does. His shop is at Magoo's in Tulsa,Ok.

Here is the very best advice I feel that I can give someone with cues to sell in your position- and i have 20 years experience buying and selling cues on and off line: 1. you really know nothing about cues, 2. You are not an experienced on line seller, 3. you have multiple cues to : find out their market value, get detailed info, take detailed pictures, list, sell, ship and PRAY that there is no push back on your sales through ebay, paypal, credit card companies, and deadbeats- as well as hope that all the cues get safely through the mail ( damage, theft, etc.)
I suggest you gather up every cue and case , once you have found them all. Find a local person through a local billiard hall or local cue maker who KNOWS a good deal about cues and cases. Add up the suggested retail values of ALL your cues and cases. THEN- go to that wholesale guy and sell them everything at one time at a minimum of 50% of your best retail estimate.
You will be done with the cues, have cash in hand, and save yourself MOUNTAINS of headaches- trust me- if you try and sell these individually online; as a complete novice you will REGRET it and come back to say I was Right!

mikemosconi said:

Here is the very best advice I feel that I can give someone with cues to sell in your position- and i have 20 years experience buying and selling cues on and off line: 1. you really know nothing about cues, 2. You are not an experienced on line seller, 3. you have multiple cues to : find out their market value, get detailed info, take detailed pictures, list, sell, ship and PRAY that there is no push back on your sales through ebay, paypal, credit card companies, and deadbeats- as well as hope that all the cues get safely through the mail ( damage, theft, etc.)
I suggest you gather up every cue and case , once you have found them all. Find a local person through a local billiard hall or local cue maker who KNOWS a good deal about cues and cases. Add up the suggested retail values of ALL your cues and cases. THEN- go to that wholesale guy and sell them everything at one time at a minimum of 50% of your best retail estimate.
You will be done with the cues, have cash in hand, and save yourself MOUNTAINS of headaches- trust me- if you try and sell these individually online; as a complete novice you will REGRET it and come back to say I was Right!

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Good advice here.

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Sounds like you really don't have much.

Be easy to let everything go on Ebay.





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contactgsw said:

Thanks for the reality check. Very accurate. Fish out of water here, but lessons to be learned. I'm going to try and get the Tulsa cues back if I can, to those folks who understand that customizer community. The others, I can see your point. The unlabeled custom, I'll let the photos show whether it's valuable or not. The McDermott is so nice, looks unused, with the $329 tag still on it. It's going to be hard to to let it go below that. May have to keep the National, take it and the Lucasi to the local halls with my leagally blind friend, maybe I could win, but knowing him, probably not. An interesting community, some very good and objective evaluation of the cues by pm. Appreciate all the input.

Steve

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An objective casual observer could easily get the impression that you want this to be complicated.

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Advice on what to do with these cues

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My advice, if money is not a priority, hold onto the nicest one. No regrets.

I recommend you create separate threads for each cue with pictures and request general opinions on values and the ID of the unknown cue.

From there you can decide where and how you want to post the cues for sale. Wherever you advertise, you will need to determine the condition (cosmetic and physical) and specs (length, weight, shaft diameter) of each cue.

Don't try to make your own judgement on the desirability of each cue. Not being familiar with cues, the cue in the worst condition may actually be the most valuable and vice versa.

There are some shops out there that will sell cues on consignment. they usually take 10-15%. If you are looking for an easy solution, that might work. they could also tell you which cues are worth selling. Might be the easiest way if they found a number of other cases.