This was my first SBE and I really enjoyed it. The pro arena was really cold at times and although not a lot of seating, when there early, we got great seats. Had a blast watching the 3 Cushion event....A lost game IMO. Vendors were everywhere, couldn't believe how many repair guys were there and the prices were "OK". Not exactly a place to go find a deal, but you had to beat them up and even then, the deal was SO-SO. I had a bunch of $$$ and only spent less than $1000.
Thought I'd walk out with a Justis, but, and this may offend some, I'm not a big fan of the arrogant "we don't care if you buy it or not". After talking to John Barton, I tried hard to buy one of his cases, better interior and price, but he didn't have anything at the expo I was "in love" with. He treated us like normal people, didn't try to sell us anything. I did end up buying one of his "fabric" cases, of which I got a great deal.
The guys at Unique were AWESOME! I spent a bunch of my money there on cue making/repair supplies. They gave me some good info, great prices and the owner was so down to earth that I was amazed. I stopped by again, looking for a few things I had forgot on Saturday, and it was "Hey Tank". WOW, they remembered me and for that, I'm going to buy as much from them as possible.
I spent some time with Bassel from Custom Cue Lathes. Again, down to earth guy even after I told him I didn't buy one of his lathes. He gave me a good deal on some tooling, some lathe pointers and we shot the breeze about CNC and lathes. Great guy!
Prather rocked it as well, talked to him for quite some time, gave me some great info and I ordered some stuff from him.
Some vendors could've cared less I was there...it was like I was intruding on their time even though their booth was a ghost town. I was ready to go off on some high dollar cues $4k to $6k range, but arrogance totally turned me off. I mean really, it's Sunday and I offer you $300 less than the already high asking price and you tell me "I'd rather keep it"...PISS OFF. It was a $4000 TAD, nothing over the top and even $3700 was high, but I wanted one...not to be this year!
The Raritan Bakery was AMAZING! Had fresh pastries, muffins and donuts...incredible cannoli and always fresh coffee. The owner and his wife were so friendly and polite. I hope that business thrives, they were very much into it and its customers.
Bathrooms could've been kept up a little better and the café kinda sucked and was overpriced, but that's normal for most places of this nature. The amateur tournament, I felt, was run very well. I don't know how it compared to VF, so I can't give any info on that, but for my first SBE, I thought it was fine. There are going to be some issues, but that's life. I'll be there next year.
Oh yeah, Sandcastle Billiards and their owner Ed totally made my friends and I feel as if we had been regulars their for years. We went every night and had a great time.