Are the new Tariffs on Goods from China going to affect prices on Pool cues?

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ddg45 said:
Which cues are the best is completely subjective, so any time anyone uses the term "known fact" that's generally not true.
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Yes you are right but it is common knowledge American cue makers are the best. How they hit is subjective but nowhere in the world has the amount of great builders than here.
 
billiards_watch said:
Yes you are right but it is common knowledge American cue makers are the best. How they hit is subjective but nowhere in the world has the amount of great builders than here.
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I think at one time you were correct, like 50 years ago. Now, I imagine most of the money made in tournaments is won with cues made outside the USA, Asia and Europe for instance. Personally, I've owned a lot of cues and the best and most consistently good players were made in Asia, Japan and Ukraine.
 
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billiards_watch said:
Also, this forces Americans to create and produce something equal or better.

You want a LD shaft? Well Richard Hsu makes a fantastic shaft himself. No factory worker.

Brandon Jacoby of Jacoby cues make all their shafts here too (Nebraska).

I never get why people buy outside of America when we have the best builders in the world right in our own backyard. Pool cues are something Americans excel at and not outsourced. Where is the pride and representation of these fine cues that are being made here? We have very few industries that will still make our own and the cue building is something we still do.
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It's not a matter of making it as good, it is the cost to do so. I have looked at some US made clothing, $100-120 for a shirt, vs $40-60 for a good one made overseas. Plus the time and cost to build or refurbish factories. You are not going to build a supply of goods made in the US that would be practical for many people to buy without serious salary increases or delays with shortages for products.
 
lakeman77 said:
I think at one time you were correct, like 50 years ago. Now, I imagine most of money made in tournaments is won with cues made outside the USA, Asia and Europe for instance. Personally, I've owned a lot of cues and the best and most consistently good players were made in Asia, Japan and Ukraine.
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Pay to use.

For example Chohan uses his personal Southwest for the longest time till Meucci paid him to use their cues. A cue that is very sought after in Asia too.

There are a lot of cues made outside of the USA so there's no surprise players are being paid to use them. It's not by choice. It's by paycheck

Give me free cues and a paycheck and I will retire the Tasc. Or use that money to get a build going. LOL
 
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I like to buy from the USA as much as the next guy, having said that I am not afraid to shop overseas. Having checked out hundreds of cues at the Expo a few weeks ago, I gotta say the Cuelees stuff looked and played great...Probably my favorite cue that I tried this year. Their 12 max shaft was awesome.
 
yes if you imitate what the pros use then you are buying what someone is paid to use. and most times pros get special cues or equipment when they are on the payroll. they dont get one in the mail from stock like you do.
 
maha said:
boogieman if nike could sell those same shoes for 200 they already would be. but competitors are around the 150 price now so pushing up a price causes loss of sales. and with the giant markups they have they can absorb much or all the tariff to hold their most profitable price at peak demand..

same with the companies that make pool cues in china. they make them there because they then get a giant markup.
buying them doesnt mean you get true value for your dollar just pay less dollars.
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You're probably right. I haven't bought a Nike product since I was in Jr. High. I bought them for about 2-3 years but soon found out they were pretty bad shoes. They look neat and have name recognition, but they aren't great shoes. I'm not shitting on them, they have their place but not on my feet.
 
Black-Balled said:
Kudos for the list.

They don't produce sufficient quantity to satisfy overall demand.
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the reason they dont produce enough for demand of cues, is that china makes similar ones cheaper and people tend to shop by price.
if their demand got larger and consistent quickly(say thru tariffs) you would see them ramp up production to meet the demand.
 
maha said:
the reason they dont produce enough for demand of cues, is that china makes similar ones cheaper and people tend to shop by price.
if their demand got larger and consistent quickly(say thru tariffs) you would see them ramp up production to meet the demand.
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So much of production is based on NC that it is much easier to ramp up production than it once was. Stack raw material into the auto feed area, make sure there is enough room for the finished product to not pile up and cause issues, let er eat! An NC machine can run over twenty hours a day seven days a week. Even a fairly light duty machine can crank out a lot of product like that.

Hu
 
maha said:
the reason they dont produce enough for demand of cues, is that china makes similar ones cheaper and people tend to shop by price.
if their demand got larger and consistent quickly(say thru tariffs) you would see them ramp up production to meet the demand.
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Who knew it was so simple?
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This may have been covered, but it bears identifying, repeating, or summarizing. To tackle the tariff problem totally, it is not going to be enough to just open a new plant in the US. One will have to insure that all raw materials, parts, etc., originate within the US. I remember the term "integration" (vertical and horizontal) from econ 50 years ago, but I do not recall any discussion of "domestic" integration. Do we have any economists in the house?
 
lakeman77 said:
I think at one time you were correct, like 50 years ago. Now, I imagine most of the money made in tournaments is won with cues made outside the USA, Asia and Europe for instance. Personally, I've owned a lot of cues and the best and most consistently good players were made in Asia, Japan and Ukraine.
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Look at any big event and about all you see is Cuetec, Pred and Mezz. About the only big stars rocking a US-built cue are Gorst, Chohan, Sky and a few others. Asian made stuff dominates.
 
garczar said:
Look at any big event and about all you see is Cuetec, Pred and Mezz. About the only big stars rocking a US-built cue are Gorst, Chohan, Sky and a few others. Asian made stuff dominates.
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Top US custom builders learned better than to let players have cues on deals. Any time they got low on funds or went bust gambling the first thing to go was the cue! In the late seventies and early eighties I won enough cues to fill a closet. Some were supposed to be good cues. Every once in awhile I wonder what some of those cues were. I would give them away on the spot or sell them almost immediately. I don't remember even test hitting any of them. I remember one guy chasing me down the next night and crapping a brick when he found out I had already gotten rid of his cue. Had he asked me to hold it I would have. I think I gave half the barmaids in town gold chains acquired the same way. I didn't do gold either.

Hu
 
Reed Foley said:
I buy American made cues but I really don't know if they are 100% American made..Hit some balls with the Big Chinese P cue and fail to see the quality.
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A lot depends on the final hands building a cue. The exotic wood probably wasn't grown in America, some of the raw materials might have not been made in America, but custom cues are put together with care and precision. You get what you pay for and more.

There are things like pins that can look the same but be quite different. While there are some quality builders all over the world there are also alleged custom shops that are actually production operations. Hard to tell the difference sometimes and we all have to draw the lines for ourselves.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
Top US custom builders learned better than to let players have cues on deals. Any time they got low on funds or went bust gambling the first thing to go was the cue! In the late seventies and early eighties I won enough cues to fill a closet. Some were supposed to be good cues. Every once in awhile I wonder what some of those cues were. I would give them away on the spot or sell them almost immediately. I don't remember even test hitting any of them. I remember one guy chasing me down the next night and crapping a brick when he found out I had already gotten rid of his cue. Had he asked me to hold it I would have. I think I gave half the barmaids in town gold chains acquired the same way. I didn't do gold either.

Hu
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LOL love these stories.
 
Chohan has his trusty Southwest and would be playing it but Meucci paid him. He's not playing with it because he likes it.

Actually I believe the can play with whatever they want. They are under contract for certain events.

As a good professional, you would want to play with their cues outside of tournaments because you don't want someone taking a picture of you playing with something else. LOL Especially if someone is sending you cues and paying you.

If sponsorship was one cue and unlimited shafts then I would pass.
 
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