Anniversary or Gold Crown III

B

Boxcar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I searched for responses on this topic.

Both tables are within 150 miles of my home. Both have ball return. Anniversary has both original rake cradles. Both would be prettier if they were restored. No slate damage. No married parts. No abuse. Nothing broken. Price point is close and within my cheap budget.

I want one of the tables to be my "forever" table. If it was you, which one would you pick, and why?

Thanks,
Boxcar
 
PoolTable911

PoolTable911

AdvancedBilliardSolutions
Silver Member
Boxcar said:
I searched for responses on this topic.

Both tables are within 150 miles of my home. Both have ball return. Anniversary has both original rake cradles. Both would be prettier if they were restored. No slate damage. No married parts. No abuse. Nothing broken. Price point is close and within my cheap budget.

I want one of the tables to be my "forever" table. If it was you, which one would you pick, and why?

Thanks,
Boxcar
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Both are excellent tables. The Anniversary would be my choice. Restored they are second to only the Centennial in my opinion.
 
bradsh98

bradsh98

Bradshaw Billiard Service
Silver Member
Anniversary...

The threaded wood inserts of the GC III are absolute garbage. They are often damaged from abuse, resulting in the pocket castings loosening up. On that note, the pocket castings are cast thinner than the GC I-II versions, causing the mounting ears to be more prone to bending. Also of note: the castings tend to corrode and lose their finish.

If attention is given to these known issues, the GC III can be a fantastic table. There are a lot of positive aspects of the GC III table. The most apparent being the fact that a GC III table will accept a modern day k55 cushion, without needing to modify the rails. The Anniversary will require modification.

Assuming that both tables are fully restored, in pristine condition, the Anniversary will always be worth more. You will never see a GC III worth more than $5000. But, it's not very often that you see a nice Anniversary for less than $5000.
 
S

SlateMate

Banned
bradsh98 said:
Anniversary...
the Anniversary will always be worth more....
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a lot more. the GCIII is bit of a pos and YES those bronze coated castings corrode and you have to chrome plate them or etch and paint AFTER you wire-brush them back down to the aluminum. been there done that. Anniversary all the way.
 
B

Boxcar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Gentlemen,

Thank you for the outstanding feedback. Based on your remarks, I will buy the Anniversary.

Best regards,
Boxcar
 
jtompilot

jtompilot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
bradsh98 said:
Anniversary...

The threaded wood inserts of the GC III are absolute garbage. They are often damaged from abuse, resulting in the pocket castings loosening up. On that note, the pocket castings are cast thinner than the GC I-II versions, causing the mounting ears to be more prone to bending. Also of note: the castings tend to corrode and lose their finish.

If attention is given to these known issues, the GC III can be a fantastic table. There are a lot of positive aspects of the GC III table. The most apparent being the fact that a GC III table will accept a modern day k55 cushion, without needing to modify the rails. The Anniversary will require modification.

Assuming that both tables are fully restored, in pristine condition, the Anniversary will always be worth more. You will never see a GC III worth more than $5000. But, it's not very often that you see a nice Anniversary for less than $5000.
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I didn’t think the GC3 had the modern k55.
 
S

SlateMate

Banned
bradsh98 said:
All but the very early GC III's had modern k55 cushions.
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i was surprised when i called Brunswick and spoke to their pro. he specifically didn't not call his Brunswick Superspeed cushions"K55" or "K" anything and told me that any Superspeed cushion will work on any GC table. he said that Superspeed's are NOT K55. maybe there are slight differences in profile or maybe Brunswick doesn't want to compete with other cushions. who knows?
 
realkingcobra

realkingcobra

Well-known member
Silver Member
SlateMate said:
i was surprised when i called Brunswick and spoke to their pro. he specifically didn't not call his Brunswick Superspeed cushions"K55" or "K" anything and told me that any Superspeed cushion will work on any GC table. he said that Superspeed's are NOT K55. maybe there are slight differences in profile or maybe Brunswick doesn't want to compete with other cushions. who knows?
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You talked to a sales person, Brunswick don't have pool table mechanics, as they themselves don't set pool tables up.
 
G

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
SlateMate said:
a lot more. the GCIII is bit of a pos and YES those bronze coated castings corrode and you have to chrome plate them or etch and paint AFTER you wire-brush them back down to the aluminum. been there done that. Anniversary all the way.
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GC 3's are far from being a pos. If set up correctly they play fine. I like the 4 the best but i'd take a good 3 any day if price was right.
 
trentfromtoledo

trentfromtoledo

8onthebreaktoledo
Silver Member
garczar said:
GC 3's are far from being a pos. If set up correctly they play fine. I like the 4 the best but i'd take a good 3 any day if price was right.
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VERY TRUE. Anyone who knows what they are doing can make a 3 play and look great. I happen to know this to be a fact. :)

Trent from Toledo
 
S

SlateMate

Banned
yeah, i used to play on them all the time in texass. there was one that was absolutely perfect and they turned it into a challenge table. the GCIII that i recently bought was a complete pos. the castings were corroded BLACK and the slate was crowned and had huge gaps. that's pos in my book. it's a roll of the dice because evidently the quality control was not so great back then.
 
realkingcobra

realkingcobra

Well-known member
Silver Member
SlateMate said:
yeah, i used to play on them all the time in texass. there was one that was absolutely perfect and they turned it into a challenge table. the GCIII that i recently bought was a complete pos. the castings were corroded BLACK and the slate was crowned and had huge gaps. that's pos in my book. it's a roll of the dice because evidently the quality control was not so great back then.
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Any GC can be rebuilt to better than new.
 
S

SlateMate

Banned
sure, i could have put a lot more work into it and got it playing very well but there's no shortage of GCIII's around and i got tired of wasting life on this one. i'm currently negotiating on a 9' GCIII so we'll see what happens. in the mean time, i'll get another AH table for cheap and play on it to get a playing fix. then when i find a GC that isn't a ton of work, i'll set it up and keep it.
 
trentfromtoledo

trentfromtoledo

8onthebreaktoledo
Silver Member
SlateMate said:
sure, i could have put a lot more work into it and got it playing very well but there's no shortage of GCIII's around and i got tired of wasting life on this one. i'm currently negotiating on a 9' GCIII so we'll see what happens. in the mean time, i'll get another AH table for cheap and play on it to get a playing fix. then when i find a GC that isn't a ton of work, i'll set it up and keep it.
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On every single post you post about tables you are thinking of buying you are mostly concerned about them being CHEAP. There certainly are POS tables of all brands out there, but, you chose to buy it and then try to discredit GC3's?? It is YOU that is the problem. If you can't look at a table and tell what the condition is, you might want to get a professional's opinion. You want to buy something for nothing. A GC3 in good condition is averagely $750-$1250, plus the cost of moving it, the money to get it playing right and worth every penny. I will always pay more for something that is not a POS and that is just common sense. A pretty smart guy told me this once "Don't be so cheap you screw yourself"....

Trent from Toledo
 
S

SlateMate

Banned
i bought that 8' GCIII for $400 and sold it quickly for $500 because i was tired of working on it.....i could have probably sold it for more. so i wasn't too concerned about "the condition" because i couldn't lose money. get it?.... it's impossible to see all of the flaws in slate when you go look at a table that has cloth on it. you pretty much have to commit to buy before you start taking it apart and then figure out all of the imperfections during the installation process. the slate on that GCIII was junk but AGAIN i got it so cheap that i couldn't lose money. had i wanted to wait, i could have sold the frame alone for $500 or more especially after i painted it pearl white and the feet Xirallic Gold Black.

the REASON i "discredit" the GCIII is BECAUSE OF MY EXPERIENCE. clearly they had quality control issues back then which have hopefully been rectified.
 
realkingcobra

realkingcobra

Well-known member
Silver Member
SlateMate said:
i bought that 8' GCIII for $400 and sold it quickly for $500 because i was tired of working on it.....i could have probably sold it for more. so i wasn't too concerned about "the condition" because i couldn't lose money. get it?.... it's impossible to see all of the flaws in slate when you go look at a table that has cloth on it. you pretty much have to commit to buy before you start taking it apart and then figure out all of the imperfections during the installation process. the slate on that GCIII was junk but AGAIN i got it so cheap that i couldn't lose money. had i wanted to wait, i could have sold the frame alone for $500 or more especially after i painted it pearl white and the feet Xirallic Gold Black.

the REASON i "discredit" the GCIII is BECAUSE OF MY EXPERIENCE. clearly they had quality control issues back then which have hopefully been rectified.
Click to expand...

Wait a second, what color was it to begin with before you painted it.
 
S

SlateMate

Banned
it was stained wood but his dog chewed some of the base so i just bondoed and painted it. it looked great. i painted all the castings and feet Xirallic Gold Black and the base and sides were pearl white. the guy who bought it liked the paint-job a lot.
 
trentfromtoledo

trentfromtoledo

8onthebreaktoledo
Silver Member
SlateMate said:
i bought that 8' GCIII for $400 and sold it quickly for $500 because i was tired of working on it.....i could have probably sold it for more. so i wasn't too concerned about "the condition" because i couldn't lose money. get it?.... it's impossible to see all of the flaws in slate when you go look at a table that has cloth on it. you pretty much have to commit to buy before you start taking it apart and then figure out all of the imperfections during the installation process. the slate on that GCIII was junk but AGAIN i got it so cheap that i couldn't lose money. had i wanted to wait, i could have sold the frame alone for $500 or more especially after i painted it pearl white and the feet Xirallic Gold Black.

the REASON i "discredit" the GCIII is BECAUSE OF MY EXPERIENCE. clearly they had quality control issues back then which have hopefully been rectified.
Click to expand...


Here we go again!!! LOL

If you know what you are doing you assess the problems as you take it apart! Not as you install it...

You can try to "discredit" the GC3, but, it really is you. Anyone who would say something like that based off of one table really shows they dont understand what they are working on. The 3 different versions of the GC3 were the longest run of the GC series ever. 1976-1997?

Not saying there have never been any slate issues with Brunswick, but, you would have been able to tell if the slates were crowned before you took it apart.

Done with this back and forth, You are not a mechanic or installer and your one time opinion is just that....

Trent from Toledo
 
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