I have a Hercules cue made by Helmstetter
- Thread starter arhines
- Start date
Made by ADAM. Need pic to have any idea of value.
justinb386
Banned
Is your Hercules cue one of these 2 cues, in the pics?
I asked about these cues awhile back on here, and was told that they were not made by Adam, in Japan, but by a different cue company in China. I do not know though. I think they have a Radial Pin, so I bet they hit very nice. Not sure about value, but I think maybe $150 would be fair, on the used market.
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Why would a Radial pin imply a "nice" hitting cue? You could have a complete train-wreck cue held together by a Radial. Hard to tell from pics, are they actual Radial pins? Lotta asian stuff has radial-looking pins but aren't real deal.
Here's an ad for them: http://www.shootersbilliards.com/hercules-pool-cues/ BTW, ADAM's higher-end stuff is still made in Japan. Most mid-low stuff is made in China. The same factory that makes Lucasi makes a lot of ADAM cues. That's what these look like. Not Japan built. No way to give accurate value without seeing pics of the actual cues in question. 150bux/cue might be close if in really good shape.
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Adam cues made 20 years ago are they good cues? I found a deal on an Adam CS434 cue, seller said it was made in Japan. Are these cue worth the attention?
Nice cue. In 2007 it sold for around 900bux. ADAM factory in Japan makes nice stuff.
justinb386
Banned
A few years back, when I was interested in buying this cue (in the link below), a lady from that site emailed me actual pictures of the cue, and it had a Radial Pin on it.
http://www.shootersbilliards.com/Hercules-Pool-Cue-H303.html
I understand that they are finally putting Radial Pin joints on some of their cues, these days, in China, like some Lucasi cues that I have seen for example, but for a very long time, most of the cheap cues that I seen from China had 5/16x18 flat faced joints, and maybe a few other joints, that did not have wooden threads.
Just from my experience, cues with the Radial Pin were very well made (other then DP cues, which are junk, in my opinion, but even they hit decent).
I have had a lot of cues with the Radial Pin, but they were mostly customs, and really loved the hit of all of them, except for the DP cues I had with that pin, but I blame his poor quality shafts on that, not the joint pin itself.
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justinb386
Banned
Yeah, I get the feeling that none of the Adam cues are made in Japan anymore, other then the Adam Musashi line of cues.
The Balabushka Replica cues are now made in China (probably in the same factory that makes Lucasi cues, like you said), going from what I read on a few threads on here in recent years.
I would be very interested to learn if Adam ever had their own cue making factory in Japan, or if they just contracted Miki to build all of their cues (like the higher end Adam, Helmstetter, and Balabushka signature series replica cues).
According to the Mezz cues website, they state that Miki was the maker of the Adam and Helmstetter cues (along with other brands too).
http://www.mezzcues.us/history/
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justinb386
Banned
Can you possibly post a picture of the cue? I believe that the ones made in Japan, were made by Miki (the same cue maker who makes Mezz cues), but there are many Adam cues that were also made in China, and did not have real inlays (but Overlays), and those were very low quality (I know from personal experience). The ones from Japan were very high quality though, for production cues. They were full splice cues, with sharp points and veneers, and had some very beautiful birds eye maple in many of them. I think the poor quality Adam cues (from China) really hurt the value of the high quality ones from Japan, and in general, gave Adam a bad name. I mean, people can't even spell the name correctly. Most refer to them as Adams cues, which I think is insulting.
Google search it and you'll find pics. Miki's shop was the one chosen by David Foreman and D. Helmstetter to make ADAM(Foreman's son's name) cues. When Miki's contract was up he started Mezz. I've never seen an ADAM overlay cue. I've seen(and owned) both Japanese and Chinese models. The Chinese models were made at Tai-Can factory(now Hamson-Universal) that makes Lucasi, Predator and others. The Chin. ADAM cues are made just as well as Lucasi.
Yes indeed. I thought all this was covered before for Justin?
Anyway, as for the overlay (decal) cues, yup, Adam has made many. They also made many ramin wood cues. It's not really any kind of secret, they are in the catalogs.
And...I would guess you actually have seen them and likely just overlooked them. Probably didn't even occur to you that they were Adam cues.
I should not still make ramin wood cues as ramin is endangered and protected, but Asia being what it is they may still be making them.
As an example, here is a modern Adam decal cue: http://www.estevematashop.com/en/productos/detalles/adam-sakaii-carom-billiard-cue/3660/341
Here is a thread where Adam decal cues are shown and discussed. As it happens it is Justin's thread.
https://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=235813
All i said was i've never seen one. Sure they exist, luckily i've never dealt with one. Unlike j's posts.
