AZ Billiards~ Yesterday-vs-Today

[PDX]

While this is not the AZ I joined 5/6 years ago, but there are some wonderful deals, if you can wade through the crap. I want the dealers back. This was a cue porn site that had sales too! I recall production cues being kinda rare on here, not its flooded with them.

Luckily I'm not stuck with lots-o-money tied up in cues.

 

[J Layer]

As a collector it has been really tough so many people trying to use AZ like eBay.
Some not being honest about their cues for sale. Some saying make offer..etc..
It seems more and more like it's a lesser cue educated consumers

Less collectors..More trying to turn a buck with low to mid level items.

I came on one day to take a look and one person bumped 8-10 threads on page one so I hade to thrift through his over priced threads that had been bumped many times over without interest.

IMO AZ has declined in it's wanted/for sale section...It has hurt the true collectors imo.

 

[JoshStodola]

Nice cue! I am relatively new to the site and if I had to complain I would say that too many people are selling new things on here in an effort to turn a profit. This should not evolve into a commercial setting. If I want to pay retail for a new case or a new production cue, I would go somewhere else!

 

[LHP5]

Damn. Personally, I'm amazed at all the deals on here right now. All of you guys speaking about the old times makes me wish I knew about this place 6 or 7 years ago.......

 

[dbldown]

so what comes next?

So we have a nice array of views of the state of the WFS section. I have seen a few deal gone bad threads really have a cooling effect on buying here. Buyer beware is the order of the day.

What I wonder about is what happens to cue values when everything under a 5 thousand dollar is junk? What happens to the value of the old 70's vintage cue when the average pool player was born in the 1990' s? If the economy is going to stay in a prolonged recession , with less players and now even less collectors, how can prices on high end cues be sustained?

I was negotiate with a collevtor on a cue that 6 years ago sold for 3600 retail. They bought it as an investment and need to het 4500 for it. I am not lowballing at 4000 and will likely never make my money back at resale. Like the stock market their needs to be capitulation (repricing and collapse marketwide) before recovery. Cash is king in a market with few buyers.

I wonder what cue buying will be like in another 10-15 years? Probably will be some awesome estate sales.

 

[BobbyC]

Yesterday V today

IMO, a combination of things, but we are where you stated we are.

1. Soft market means lower prices...I think that a lot of folks are simply not listing their custom cues and won't, until the market comes back somewhat. The real problem is if they never come back and move on to another outlet.

2. Not as many buyers...a lot of the guys who were buyers are the guys not listing right now...maybe they will come back.

3. The "new" breed of AZBer hawking the used production cues at near retail prices, etc. Nothing wrong with it, but a few years back, AZ was pretty much all custom cues.

4. Loss of interest...the bad market has caused many "flippers" to stop flipping...not much, if any, profit to be made at this time. Also, the pool economy has been hurt, also. I know that here in my area, we have lost several pool rooms over the last couple of years. I used to play leagues 5 nights a week, now, I am not playing any APA ot TAP leagues, only the Senior Master's League on Fridays.

5. Just too many knowledgable AZBers not posting at this time. That means that many of the fun converstaions are missing...I miss those more than the cue postings.

Joe

Well said Joe, some good points made!Bob PM sent as well to Tommy!