There is a catch 22 to that story. Someone with the skills to do that doesn't need to be selling counterfeit cues they can make money with the cues they are making under their own names.
Also to make it even remotely worth doing something like that they would have to be getting really high money for the cues. The buyer who is paying that kind of money is not going to be fooled easily.
It would not be worth the risk of doing it. I know people who if they thought they were screwed like that would stick the person in the everglades. I am not being funny, what cue maker is going to risk their name to make a few bucks and that is all it is.
It is not like they just made a million dollar score like in the drug trade. They made like 10 grand and risked their life. It makes absolutely no sense. And again I am not kidding about that. Guys who spend thousands on cues are not the type who like being screwed.
I somewhat disagree. The skills to counterfeit a Bushka wouldn't be that hard to acquire. That might be heresy to some but the fact of it is that most competent people can learn to use the tools George did. Whether they can be counted on to follow the exact steps to build it exactly as George did is another story. But let's assume that they have the skill and can make a perfect counterfeit.
It is highly unlikely that they will be able to get $10,000 for a relatively plain cue. I admit that I don't know the current prices of Szambotis, Black Boars, Searings, and Herceks but there are four of the top makers in the US at the moment and I would be surprised to see them selling a plain cue such as most Bushkas are for the price a plain Bushka gets.
referring to cues like this
Having grown up on True Crime mags that my mom had in the house I often think about how someone would get away with stuff. My thought would be that the only way to do it and have the slightest chance of not being found out would be to make the cues in secret - be an unknown cue maker - completely off the radar - and then filter them into the market through a "found in granddad's closet" type scheme through Ebay.
But even that is going to be tough because most people will want the cue authenticated and they will have to be SUPER GOOD to be able to pass Pete Tascarella's inspection IMO. Any that have already passed, well congratulations, you own a Balabuska even if George didn't build it.
I do also agree about risk/reward. Personally I don't think that the risk fits the reward because not only do they risk prosecution or worse but they also can't do it alone. So they have to split the proceeds with accomplices who may end up betraying them down the line.
Trust is ultimately where all schemes break down. The minute you bring in someone else you have introduced a weak link. But counterfeits Bushkas do exist and some of them are probably not "fake" any more having been accepted as real.
In my business I see a lot of counterfeit stuff on the market. I have a theory that if a counterfeiter can make a clone of the real thing so perfectly that the maker can't tell if he made it then for all practical purposes the item is real. Chew on that for a while.
