What makes a custom cue expensive?

name
craftsmanship/time
materials

Name, Famous Maker, Supply & Demand, Last Bling like P{pints, Inlays, Exotic Wood, Fancy JP's, you got the list.

Skill is better then Equiptment, but equiptment will get you more attention.

Ones choice. That's the reason for the cost. One is able to choose who, what, & where.
With choice comes cost. Otherwise, pick off a rack.

"What makes a custom cue expensive?"

Price

For many of the same reasons that a Mercedes is more expensive than a Kia...

cheap

Assuming that the cue is coming from somebody with a reputation, tell me where else you can get the time and craftsmanship for the same price? Cues as a general rule are underpriced, not overpriced. The hobby builders keep the price artificially suppressed.

Cue prices should start at about fifteen hundred dollars instead of under five the last I knew. Try going to a similarly equipped shop for a set of custom kitchen cabinets! Even your lawnmower repairman is getting a hundred an hour or more.

Hu

Oh, look! A justin.

Black-Balled said:

Oh, look! A justin.

Click to expand...

Well, one would assume we have a Justin, here.

To answer the question, I like the Mercedes vs. Kia analogy. Both will get you there, and in many instances, the Kia will get the same job done as the Merc, getting from A to B without any issues at all.

I've only owned one custom, and I liken it to that of a sports car, sure it was pretty and lots of oooh's and ahhh's came when I took it out of the case. However, like a Ferrari on the track, if I turned up the stroke, it would come along for the ride with me.

JMHO:smile-square:

Type79 said:

"What makes a custom cue expensive?"

Price

Click to expand...

and a little understood economic principle called value pricing.

Black-Balled said:

Oh, look! A justin.

Click to expand...

I am newish here and have to ask since I've seen "Justin" referenced in many posts.
Is Justin just a pool room Karen or are you actually talking about a real Justin that has been a posting pain in the past.

The Mercedes-Kia analogy is a good one, and I think it speaks to the "craftsmanship" variable listed early in this thread.

Another analogy would be a quality Swiss (or German) movement in an automatic vs a quartz movement. The skill and time differential required to make a high-end automatic timepiece vs a quartz timepiece is significant. And the price reflects that.

Not everyone appreciates that craftsmanship nor is willing to pay a premium for it. Same with cues.

A Justin asks all kinds of cue questions for things he would never buy.

A DCP will complain about if you have the knowledge to tell him anything pool related. A DCP will name drop as much as they can to attempt to justify their position. A DCP will argue over something as mundane as a shade of green on table cloth.

An SC5, well there is a character limit to posts, and that might just be its own forum.

SSDiver2112 said:

I am newish here and have to ask since I've seen "Justin" referenced in many posts.
Is Justin just a pool room Karen or are you actually talking about a real Justin that has been a posting pain in the past.

Click to expand...

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Heres my take.
A high volume production cue company(think Lucasi,Viking,McDerrmot) when the worker grabs a piece of wood it gets a quick look over to make sure it's reasonably clean.
The custom maker will go through all he has to pick out the best looking one.
I have Lucasi,Schmelke and Troy Downey cues.
When I lay all three out non pool people remark how much better the Downey looks.

Women really go for a man with a custom pool cue.

For me it was very simple.
I wanted something that pleased my own esthetics.
I designed it along with the cue maker and gave him creative lattitude
once I knew he pretty much knew the look I was going for.

When you design a cue with a cue maker you get one of a kind.
Only you have a stick like the one you own.

Here’s Why.......

Time.......

It represents the amount of labor involved.


A car mechanic charges by the hour.....how much. It varies but $50 to $100/hr isn’t out of place.
The hourly rate has to cover occupancy costs, utilities, insurance, benefits, cue mistakes, advertising,
equipment & maintenance, spoilage, licenses and taxes, bookkeeping services and all the other
incidentals that go hand in hand operating a business.


So if a cue takes 10 hours, which would be a pretty simple design, ex: say $80/hr., that’s just the start.
Then there’s the actual materials used that have to be marked up for profit since an hourly rate can’t
cover materials that varies with every cue. And when the cue is finished, there still has to be a markup
because a cue maker can’t survive just relying upon hourly billings. I offered hourly to illustrate why
cues can cost so much. And special designs can involve lots of CNC programming hours as well.

I designed five of my cues so the cue maker had to custom program the CNC software to accommodate
the design. Bob Owen told me one of my designs involved a lot of extra programming hours to produce the
cue. That time is just as valuable as when he is gluing veneers or cutting inlays. That cue he made used so
many small inlays that it was extremely tedious work and it took a lot of time......ergo, labor....ergo, it cost a lot
more than if it used a more simple design. Less hours means a lower final price.

That’s why cues can cost so much. A cue maker is using his skills and he decides what his time is worth.
The market confirms it by the way it reacts to the cue maker and some cue makers may be in the several
hundred dollars an hour range. Joel Hercek makes about 20 cues a year so they are in very high demand
And his wait list is over 10 years and every cue is pretty much one of a kind so he commands top dollars.

I’ll post some photos later of what was involved building that cue I earlier mentioned. A lot of CNC programming
was involved and painstaking detailed work with the inlays and Pau Lau has a tendency to crack so there was a
lot of do overs. It was a pain in the ass cue build to undertake but Bob remained enthusiastic throughout the build
despite that at times it ultimately became agonizing to complete. He’s a wonderful man and talented cue maker.

Here's Why Some Designs Take Longer Than Others

Time Is Indeed Representative of Money When It Involves Cue Making.

Voila........some cues do cost more and hopefully you understand the basis why a little better now.