Given that a good piece of birdseye or curly maple will be around $15-$20, a typical piece of exotic will range from $15-$75, the stack leather, steel joint, veneers, collar material, shaft stock, ferrule material, etc. can all quickly add up to a couple hundy, then $800-$1000 seems cheap to me. A guy has to be able to pay his utility bills, equipment maintenance, glues, paper towels, finish products, etc., and still be able to have enough cash left after the sale to make it worth his while. Even a newb who's trying to make a name can add up the costs & realize whether a cue is going make him money or cost him money. A guy who can build this cue for $800-$1000 won't be in business long.
Newbs usually don't have these materials on hand, which means they have to buy some or all of it after you place the order. It doesn't happen over night so he needs money in the interim. After completion, anything he profits from this cue will go into funding the next cue he builds, until eventually he can build a flow that he can begin to pay himself with. Otherwise, being a newb builder is very expensive and financially stressful.
Don't mean to sound negative at all. I just think many folks don't realize what a custom cue costs to build, especially when talking advanced techniques and materials. Newbs charge that much because that's what it costs, without driving them into the red on every build. They aren't overcharging. They are trying to make a dollar & survive. I promise you it's not lucrative. Heck, even doubling that budget, which is the ballpark I would charge, isn't going to make enough profit to pay minimum wage. A guy would have to have multiple cues going at once to pay himself a worthy wage. That's a luxury a newb doesn't have. Again, not being negative or raining on anyone's parade. Just putting it in perspective.
