Best pool related deal/sales that you have done or seen?

pinoyincalgary

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I sold the last George Balabushka he mailed out before he died for $600 . It is now in
the Glen collection. Dennis Glen recently brought it to me and I signed the cue with
my name and the date I received it. I played with it for a while after a got it, sold it
and bought something else. But if that is not bad enough, I bought one of the
first and ivory loaded box cues from Gus Szamboti. Mine was the one with the ebony
forearm with ivory boxes and the bottom sleeve was all ivory with ebony boxes. But
having wised up from my Balabushka sale I got $800 for this one.
jack

Wow...both of my dream cues. What year did you sell them?
 

jackpot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
G B and G S

Wow...both of my dream cues. What year did you sell them?

I bought them new and played with both about a year, The Gus was like the 5th cue
I got from him. The first was a box cue maple with ebony boxes, this was shortly after
he started making cues. then I got a traditional 4pt. and not too long after that I got
3 from him at one time. (all 4pts). I became phone friends with him and we talked every
few weeks until his death. I was fortunate in that I could always get a cue in a short
time. A funny thing about the ivory box cue is I told him I wanted it to look pretty much
like the ebony ivory box cue in the Joss (Stroud) brochure except ivory butt sleeve with
ebony boxes. He asked me if I had a brochure I could send him and I sent it.
jack
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
Vintage Meucci Sneaky Pete deal

About 25 years ago a guy came up to me in a pool hall and asked me to loan him $25. I knew the guy well enough to know it would not be a loan, but charity. I asked, "What do you need, a fix?" And he smiled and said, "It's good stuff." Then he handed me his cue case and said I could keep it until he paid me back. I said fine, took the case and gave him the cash. I never saw him again. Still have the cue, an 80's Meucci Sneaky Pete. Not bad for $25 I guess.
 

TNOriginals

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I bought an old plain jane Meucci Original at a pawn shop for $30. It wasn't much.
A buddy wanted a cue and said he would give me $80 for it. I said OK. He asked if I would take quarters. I said if they're rolled I guess I will. He said they were rolled, and had been for a long time.
Turned out they were rolled in 1964, and were rolled at the mint or the bank. I still have them.
 

pinoyincalgary

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I bought them new and played with both about a year, The Gus was like the 5th cue
I got from him. The first was a box cue maple with ebony boxes, this was shortly after
he started making cues. then I got a traditional 4pt. and not too long after that I got
3 from him at one time. (all 4pts). I became phone friends with him and we talked every
few weeks until his death. I was fortunate in that I could always get a cue in a short
time. A funny thing about the ivory box cue is I told him I wanted it to look pretty much
like the ebony ivory box cue in the Joss (Stroud) brochure except ivory butt sleeve with
ebony boxes. He asked me if I had a brochure I could send him and I sent it.
jack
Thanks for sharing. That is quite impressive imo. I hope to own a bushka or Gus sometime in the future. For now, all my money is going to mortgage and 3 kids (1 in college ).
 

Mr. Bond

Orbis Non Sufficit
Gold Member
Silver Member
A woman I know found a mint Steve Bihun cue ( apprentice to Rambow) in a case, stuffed into the cushions of an old couch left by the curb. For real.
 

fjk

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Best deal I ever made was playing Efren three sets of 9-ball for $50 a set.

Ha, me too, back in the mid 80s before anyone knew him. I actually won the middle set. His cue looked like someone widdled it from a tree branch...and he had two tips glued together, one on top of the other. I could remember staring in bewilderment at that screwy stick as he was running out from everywhere. Very cool dude though,,even when he beats you, you can't help but like the guy.
 

12squared

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I have made many cue deals over the years, some good, some not so good. But always fun. I usually buy cues to get an education on what I like and those that don't suit my game I would sell close to what I paid or trade for something new. I learned a lot.

Years ago when I lived in Northern California a guy walked into a pool room looking to sell his zebrawood Tad that had sanded down shafts, I bought it for $400. I stopped at another poolroom on my way home, showed it around and sold it for $800 (I owned it for 3 hours). The guy I sold it to sold it 5 weeks later for $1600.

Everybody wins! By a fluke, I made over $3100 many years ago on a cue deal after reselling the cues that I traded for that I paid $1600, I will not provide details out of respect of those involved. But I will say that everyone was happy, I just got incredibly lucky - never came close to happen again.

Dave
 

xianmacx

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Not pool related, but I will share anyway. please don't ban me. :)

I frequent an estate auction and prior to an auction I was previewing the lots. I was thumbing through an old box of photos from the 1930s and came across an envelope that said "autographs". Inside was a business card with Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimagio and Joe McCarthys signatures. I went back the day of the auction with 300$ to bid on the box. Knowing if they are real, the autographs are worth a few thousand. One other person bid on the box of pictures, I won it for 15$.

Turns out the autographs were real and I got 2500$ plus 700$ trade value from a local memorabilia shop.

Here is a link to it. Looks to have changed hands a few times since I sold it.
https://goldinauctions.com/joe_dimaggio__lou_gehrig_and_joe_mccarthy_multi_si-lot17217.aspx
 

jokrswylde

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just today received a pechauer pro 06 with a crown jewel pro shaft msrp $710. I paid around $200.

This deal was a result of awesome customer service courtesy of Billiard Pro Shop...
 

Fuji-whopper

Fargo: 457...play some?
Silver Member
A friend was trading some baseball cards and saw a pool cue leaning in the corner, asked the guy selling the cards if he would sell the cue too. He said "shit you can have that, was my father's so it's probably a piece of junk", the friend knowing it was not a piece of junk gave him $5 for the cue because his conscience would not allow him to just TAKE the cue.

And that, boys and girls, is the "$5 Tad" story.


Neil
 

PoolBum

Ace in the side.
Silver Member
A friend was trading some baseball cards and saw a pool cue leaning in the corner, asked the guy selling the cards if he would sell the cue too. He said "shit you can have that, was my father's so it's probably a piece of junk", the friend knowing it was not a piece of junk gave him $5 for the cue because his conscience would not allow him to just TAKE the cue.

And that, boys and girls, is the "$5 Tad" story.

His father's name was Tad?
 

o.g. (old guy)

mark
Silver Member
Several years ago, after completing my garage conversion and my G.C. 1 set up, I was in oregon being dragged through an antique store by my wife, found a couple of old billiard chairs. They weren't really what I was looking for, kind of spindly, with a wicker seat. They were asking $250 for the pair. I agreed to buy them for $225, figured they'd do til I found something better. Once home my wife was looking on the interweb and found the same type chair, said it was from the 1880's. Said to email for prices. Well I emailed him, he replied that 1 chair goes for $1700 but a pair is worth $5000. That may be a bit high, I figure he wanted to sell me another chair, but I think I did pretty well on the purchase. Especially since the ones I bought were in better condition than the ones he was selling.
 
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