If some on AZ are correct, that Glenn collection will eventually be worth a fraction of what they paid for it. Historically, of course, you can't remove the significance, but financially it may well be a disastrous investment.
Did Mosconi use his Balabushka at the exhibitions
- Thread starter PoolFan101
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If some on AZ are correct, that Glenn collection will eventually be worth a fraction of what they paid for it. Historically, of course, you can't remove the significance, but financially it may well be a disastrous investment.
Grady Mathews did an exhibition in my basement in 1992 for myself and another
guy. Cost me $400. When he got there he asked what we wanted to do. We set
him a break ball and a rack and asked him to run some balls. he proceeded to
run 124. This was on a 9 foot Brunswick regina, pretty tight pockets. We had him for
3 hours. Last hour spent listening to some of his road stories, that was the best
part. GREAT GUY
Denny Glenn did not buy the Mosconi Balabushka at the auction several years ago.
He and his brother visited our home in KC on the way to Chicago for the auction (May 2011).
The cue was pricy, as earlier stated, and was acquired by a huge sports memorabilia collector,
not really even in our genre, who had Babe Ruth stuff, etc.
Dammit!
Will Prout
He and his brother visited our home in KC on the way to Chicago for the auction (May 2011).
The cue was pricy, as earlier stated, and was acquired by a huge sports memorabilia collector,
not really even in our genre, who had Babe Ruth stuff, etc.
Dammit!
Will Prout
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One price point: 1972, rosewood points, eight MOP inlays (4 each above and below the wrap), leather wrap, two shafts with ivory ferrules: $175,
Sounds like the common 10x(?) for an ultra-premium product. Over time, those purchases are almost always not worth it in terms of a monetary return. But sometimes they are, if you happen to get the equivalent of a Ferrari 250 GTO.
Thanks for all the reply's fellow's , By any chance would anyone have any pic's they could upload of Willie using his famous Bushka. I would like to see some. I am a fan but his time was before me. It would be cool to see some pic's of him in action with that cue.
Thanks Garczar , I Appreciate it. Willie was one of the Goat's.
To put into more context, how much regular production cues were going for, or other custom makers?
I really doubt that, Dan. I've known the Glenns since I was a teenager. Pete was a shrewd buyer and Denny carried on the tradition. They never sold or really even traded cues (except for one time that Denny talked a guy into trading him a Balabushka for a Palmer - straight up!). I think Del said they paid $105 for the last Bushka that they had George make.
They did pay a lot over the years for various player's famous cues, and if they sold them for the actual value of the base cue, they would probably take a loss, but there is money in the provenance they have. For instance, I have a fancier Balabushka than Mosconi's fanciest, but it would probably be worth just over half of what Mosconi's cue brought at auction because I'm not Willie.
Yes there are some real high dollar collectors who go for the the "holy grails" across different sports and other ares such as entertainment ( think ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz); watches ( think Paul Newman's Rolex) ; cars ( Steve McQueen Bullitt movie Mustang) etc. etc. - they just desire to have the names with no passion attached to the actual sport, person, movie, etc. they own stuff just because they can!
About six years earlier Tex Zimmerman made me a bird's eye maple cue with leather wrap and ivory joint, butt plate and ferrules (two shafts) for $65. No splices or inlays.
Brunswick was probably the sales leader in production jointed cues at that time.
About 1969 I got a prototype Mali cue when they were first starting cue production. It was a solid rosewood butt. As I recall, it was $55 with one shaft. It was made in Connecticut. If I were better organized I could find the correspondence.
Rumor has it that he played with a Jackpot. 
Great info as always, Will. The Glenn video goes very fast, and I have pretty sharp eyes. I think the Bushka I saw in the video was probably the fourth one in the Billiard Encyclopedia picture below. It has the very same buttsleeve, black acrylic, with copper colored rings, and MOP diamonds and dots.
The only difference that I can see is the ring above the wrap has a solid white phenolic ring, rather than the two white phenolic rings on Mosconi's Bushka. Interesting where it ended up, I would have bet on the Glenns'.
Hope this comes out ok, new computer, different picture sizes.
All the best,
H
Attachments
He had to play on Brunswick tables. Brunswick also paid him $50,000/year to wear a Brunswick jacket.
50K was a lot of money on those days. He had to be top 100 salary in sports in the USA.