sherm,
Do you think that if Gus knew his cues would be worth 20-30-40-50 plus thousand dollars, he would still say the same thing. I am not too sure of that.
maybe the guy who has a babe ruth signed baseball should play with it??????
As a matter of fact I'm sure he would! I collected Szamboti's before they were collectible. I had 12 about 2 years before he died. Unfortunately I also owned a poolroom and
when the summer came one year, I had to start selling them off to keep the electric on. He was also one of my mentors when I started building cues. Actually I have one Sweet
Gus now that is mint and still has the original tips. It probably hasn't had 25 games on it even though it plays very well. I understand why YOU want to keep your cue in MINT
condition! I was just pointing out for those who hadn't the opportunity to know Gus, what his feelings were about "collectors". When he spoke the word, you would have thought
it had 4 letters! lol
Here's a little "Gus Story" if you don't mind me temporarily hi-jacking your thread.
A good buddy of mine who used to play in my poolroom was one of Gus' original customers. He could get a cue in about 6 weeks back in the day. He had a stakehorse who was
loaded. His stakehorse decided one day he wanted one of Gus' cues. This was before Gus started making any fancy cues and did hardly any inlays. The stakehorse asked Billy,
my buddy, to call Gus and have him make him the fanciest cue he could. Billy told him, "I don't know, he's kind of funny and I don't think he likes to make fancy cues". The
stakehorse talked Billy into calling Gus and asking him to do it anyway. Billy got Gus on the phone and explained that his stakehorse was loaded and wanted a real fancy cue
made. Gus told Billy, "you know I make pool cues to play with, not look at!" Billy tried to explain to his stakehorse while he still had Gus on the phone. The stakehorse said give
me the phone I'll talk to him. The stakehorse started in on Gus telling him he wanted the fanciest cue he's ever seen made special for him. He said you can put gold, silver,
diamonds, rubies, whatever just make it a real show piece. Gus asked him to put Billy back on the phone. When Billy got back on Gus said "who the hell is that idiot?" "Tell him
to go to a jeweler if he wants something like that, I don't make fancy cues for morons who can't even spell pool" ! Billy got Gus calmed down and explained that the guy has
been staking him for quite a while and is a multi-millionaire. He's not as goofy as he sounded then, he just wants something really special. Just make him something different
that no one else has and charge him whatever you want. He'll pay it. Gus ended up making him a very unusual, in fact one of a kind cue. Billy has the cue to this day. It's not
really fancy, but it was really classy looking when it was new. It's an ebony "Merry Widow" cue with no points or inlays which Barry say's is the only one known to exist AND it
has white phenolic ringwork which is also the only one that he made using the white phenolic. Barry still has the rest of the rods of white phenolic and he said it's definitely one
of a kind! Billy has asked me several times what I think the cue is worth, but as I told him, it's really hard to say since there's no other ones like it to judge by.
