Is the Cue Market Dead Now and Forever?

Yes. No new blood so no need for quality cues. Growth fuels all commerce. No growth no commerce. We old bastards just trade among ourselves.

If it isn't already this thread might do it.

Quality Cues said:

I have been buying, selling and trading cues for the past 12 years. Each year the market has gotten progressively worse. It appears to be impossible to sell cues for real money anymore. I've seen the same cues not being sold for months at a time in the For Sale section. Is the cue market dead now and forever?

Click to expand...

it's dead now but the only thing that's dead forever is death on earth

the cue market will come back but never like it was in the late 80's or early through mid 90's when anybody could sell a jointed custom cue with the primary value driver being how fancy/garrish it was. i remember counting inlays with John W to determine a price point for a given cue, Ah, the good ole days...

BUYERS/COLLECTORS are also much more astute

With the number of pool halls closing compared to the number opening the end may be closer than any of us care to admit. Pool may just become an at home game with very few actual pool halls available in the next ten years. This is just my one man's opinion...

I think I just lowered my offer.

Disposable income is at an all time low... Investing in cues was never what could have be considered a wise investment strategy it was more of a fun hobby while the money was flowing good... A few makers will still command high prices but for the most part they will be few and far between.... The market isn't dead it is corrected from being over inflated in the glory years....

Far From Dead

I've spent a lot of money on cues since last summer and I'm not finished buying pool cues.

The market isn't dead, more like a financial coma that fosters some tremendous bargains in pool cues.

However, rest assured, the patient isn't dead by any stretch of the imagination.

Matt B.

I know for myself personally, no matter how many cues I had acquired when it came time to play I always went back to one specific one. So I sold that rest and haven't even bothered to try and acquire others. Plus at this point, my main focus is to start preparing for my daughter to go to college in the next decade. So the thought of buying cues just to gather dust , doesn't have the same appeal as it once had. I loved when I had a modest collection but that time is gone for now. It may come back later, who knows. Plus yes, as far as investments it's hard to retire on a pool collection.

TommyT said:

If it isn't already this thread might do it.

Click to expand...

What has killed Wanted/For Sale is simply this:



As I look at that forum nearly every day
the way I peruse it now goes like this:

I look for all the threads first with zero (0) replies.

This means it has been freshly posted in the previous 48 hours and
has not been up there long enough for the seller to bump it.

Any item that has been bumped repeatedly by the seller and has had
numerous views as an example 12 bumps and over 2000 views means
this to me:

The seller is either overpriced, or the item is not desirable or both.
Either way the seller is a selfish, self centered idiot to continue bumping
wasting space on the forum when he should try his luck on ebay or facebook.

There are several of those c@ck$uckers on there right now.

Quite frankly it is quite rare under present market conditions to find anything
desirable right now, and when that rare combination of desirability and
fairly priced item shows up it is generally sold within a few hours if not minutes.

The last two items I had listed both sold in less than 2 hours.

So, the truth is there are buyers, however the $uckers market is
non existant, yet these idiots looking for the $ucker market have not
seemingly realized this fact yet which makes them the biggest $uckers.

Cue Market Dead

asiasdad said:

What has killed Wanted/For Sale is simply this:



As I look at that forum nearly every day
the way I peruse it now goes like this:

I look for all the threads first with zero (0) replies.

This means it has been freshly posted in the previous 48 hours and
has not been up there long enough for the seller to bump it.

Any item that has been bumped repeatedly by the seller and has had
numerous views as an example 12 bumps and over 2000 views means
this to me:

The seller is either overpriced, or the item is not desirable or both.
Either way the seller is a selfish, self centered idiot to continue bumping
wasting space on the forum when he should try his luck on ebay or facebook.

There are several of those c@ck$uckers on there right now.

Quite frankly it is quite rare under present market conditions to find anything
desirable right now, and when that rare combination of desirability and
fairly priced item shows up it is generally sold within a few hours if not minutes.

The last two items I had listed both sold in less than 2 hours.

So, the truth is there are buyers, however the $uckers market is
non existant, yet these idiots looking for the $ucker market have not
seemingly realized this fact yet which makes them the biggest $uckers.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. If I see something reasonable, I'll try it. If you have it priced twice what it's worth, no thanks...

The cue market isn't that bad, you just have to go where the money is

Cue Market Dead?

And for a completely different angle:

These high priced "great playing cues" are now being replaced by Limited Deflection Shafts that play better for 25% of the cost.

Why buy a Bender cue only to put a Limited Deflection Shaft on it?

I've sold mine in less than 30 minutes..

The reason the market is bad is the fact that a lot people are stuck deep in cues and rather than drop the price to what the current market demands they will just lay stagnant. Posting the same cue over and over or bringing them to the top of the WFS forum for long periods of time just drives the knife in deeper and deeper. The cue market is no different than anything else, if you want to sell something price it accordingly or let it collect dust until there is another big boom....hopefully sooner than later. Another problem is the fact that when you go to sell something it gets nickle dicked to the tenth degree buy people who more than likely were just fishing to begin with. I havent listed a cue for sale since the forum changed and dont plan to until things pick up. If I see someone looking for something specific ill shoot them a pm and I would lay a Rolex to a donut that its probably going to be less $$ than 90% of the same cues out there. I always thought it was funny when people would comment in for sale threads about how much of a "steal" a cue was, if it was such a blue light special why didnt they buy it...:rotflmao1: Theres a really good group of buyers and sellers on AZ but theres also a select few that are impossible to deal with. I remember emailing someone last year who had a cue on here that I liked and knew going in that I was going to take the worst of it, which I was ok with just because I wanted the cue. It was over priced in todays market but so is just about everything else. After inquiring about it via email I got a response to the effect of "you might want to go back and think about how to approach someone when buying a cue"... No joke, thats about word for word how it went. Needless to say I politely thanked the person for their time and said I would have to pass. Now I know theres people on here that have bought and sold way more cues than I have but if I was a betting man im not sure if I would take the over or under on 500. The moral to this rant is, its not always the market that sets the prices.

In the words of great and powerful deano, if anyone is looking for a $2500 cue let me know and ill sell you one for just south of $2K...and take you out to dinner :thumbup:

It's hard to even look in the "for sale" threads anymore. The format is better but the sellers are still stuck on prices from 5 or more years ago. I mean, I don't need a cue, but if I saw one that stuck my fancy for a decent price, I'd pull the trigger.

Prices suck. How do you pay top dollar for any cue, knowing it's over priced by 25%, and that depreciation has not even set in yet ?? Yikes.

Perfect example, there was a cue recently in the section.... a $650 cue if bought new from maker, just a fancy sneaky. But this was used, had several nicks and scratches on it and looks like it's never seen a new tip or a clean rag, and asking only $550. Yeah, for the extra hundo, I'll roll the dice and get a spanking new one !!!

We have built 3 or 4 unbelievable collections over the last 3 or so years. One issue, IMHO, is so called dealers do not take the time to cultivate, motivate or educate collectors, they flip the current cue for a few bucks and walk away.

Plus there continues to be cuemakers coming out of the woodwork into a sport where participation is dying. So a natural glut of cues continue to build.

Back to the so called new wave of dealers... you would think people would take the time to learn WTF they are selling. How can you seriously try and sell a cue when you cannot spell the f*cking cuemakers name. Seriously, Zamboti, Balebushka, Philleppi, or can't spell CORTLAND.

You can go on and on...

JV

AZ has done its best to help slow it down with its new rules. The traffic on the Wanted For Sale section is gonna continue to drop. I watch the $h!t everyday. They've taken a fun forum full of activity and turned it into a classified ad cemetary.

Read my signature below.....................

Just my thoughts,
JimmyK

JimmyRayK said:

AZ has done its best to help slow it down with its new rules. The traffic on the Wanted For Sale section is gonna continue to drop. I watch the $h!t everyday. They've taken a fun forum full of activity and turned it into a classified ad cemetary.

Read my signature below.....................

Just my thoughts,
JimmyK

Click to expand...

Nah, the cues were not selling then either... thus why the "buddy bumps" were rampant, they need that cue on the front page every day to try and find a buyer, yet they just sat there for weeks, then months, and finally off the market.

classiccues said:

We have built 3 or 4 unbelievable collections over the last 3 or so years. One issue, IMHO, is so called dealers do not take the time to cultivate, motivate or educate collectors, they flip the current cue for a few bucks and walk away.

Plus there continues to be cuemakers coming out of the woodwork into a sport where participation is dying. So a natural glut of cues continue to build.

Back to the so called new wave of dealers... you would think people would take the time to learn WTF they are selling. How can you seriously try and sell a cue when you cannot spell the f*cking cuemakers name. Seriously, Zamboti, Balebushka, Philleppi, or can't spell CORTLAND.

You can go on and on...

JV

Click to expand...

+1

I sold a cue a while back and saw it for sale again by someone other than the guy who bought it off me. The "dealer" that was selling it tried to argue with me about what the cue was made of. I had to laugh, because the cue was made for me... I think I would know what its made of.