"Big" Cue Collectors

i never cease to be amazed by some peoples collections. Heck I have about 2 or 300 chess books and I never meant to collect them lol. I went to buy a Bobby Fischer book one time and ended up buying the guys whole collection, he was working on his Gm norms when he was touched by the Holy Spirit, he and his wife were trying to get travel money to some remote place to teach these natives about God.
I had no choice.
Anybody collect chess books, sets, computers ? Or need to go on a quest? lol
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Just curious, again. How many cue collectors/investors out there are holding a group cues that are worth at least 50K? Are there any groups or organizations for such folks? Are there high end pool halls in which the players are all playing with high end cues?
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Do you mean a single cue or collectively? 😉😅
 
Coins, Guns and Cues......

I learned many lessons that applies to all three that I collect. I will give an example. When I was 5 or 6, I took my allowance and would happily go to the coin shop and buy coins. I had the cheap little folders, with "holes" for each coin in the set. I was doing my best to fill many holes. What I should have been doing is buying very few coins of the rarest and highest quality I could afford. I learned and while I still have those 60 year old folders of nearly worthless coins, I started buying highest grade and rarest coins.

When I see "collections" of low value, common things they seem to be be "filling holes".

I guess we all need to start at some stage, one of my daughters as a child collected Beanie Babies, she was convinced that they would be worth alot of money someday. Of course I tried to explain, but like most folks, she needed to learn on her own.

To answer the OP asked, all three of these are well over your target.

Ken
 
There are plenty of big cue collectors, there are also big collections and the cues could be minimal. I can tell you that anyone that collects is driven. If you collect Meucci's, fantastic. Schon's, McDemotts, awesome. Those guys are building big cue collections and more power to them. 50 Szams, or 50 Meucci's, you are still a collector. I appreciate the time and effort that goes into the build. Hats off to anyone that has built a collection, those on a minimal budget, double good for you. Enjoy them!!! Teach your children to enjoy them!!
JV
 
Ok I’ll stop being a smart ass.

I have cues that are well over $50K each. I sold a cue for $80k a few months back.

I have friends with huge collections right here on AZB. I’m not part of the cue collector club, they are fine guys and I really like them a lot. I just never got into the swing of going to their shows/events. However I think what they do is great and I support them 100%. They know loads more about cues than I do.

The reason I buy cues is I love them, always have and always will. I’m not into posting pics of them, in fact just recently I took a group pic of some of them/ most I’ve never photographed ever.

The other reason I’ve always bought cues is I understand them and they are a good store of value if bought right and held long enough. Have I made $? Yes. Would I have done better in the stock market? Probably. But I like cues and I’m not scared to spend $20,000 on a cue but am scared of stocks. My cues are a “end of the world” bankroll for me if all else fails. I’ve never had to sell a cue…..yet. 🙏🏼 it stays that way. But they are bearer assets and I take comfort in that.

Have I lost money? Sure I’ve made horrible trades and let a few monsters go and also over paid for a few poles and lost big money on them. That holds true for any investor and market/ net net net at the end of the day , I’m doing just fine with my cues and am very lucky and blessed to be where I’m at with them.

That’s the cue story for me anyways. Every collector has a different story. It’s not all about money, and it’s certainly about money in some sense. It’s both. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Best,
Fatboy😃

The story’s about Japan in this thread are slightly exaggerated. And yes lots of counterfeit cues were dumped off on unsuspecting buyers there years ago. 😕
 
I really wasn't asking about individuals. I am trying to get a sense of how many "significant collectors" are out there (and admittedly my dollar amount was way low).

I worry about, am concerned about, always, the health of pool in America. As an old school pool type, I have watched my world diminish at a frightening pace -- forget disappearing sea ice, I got real problems.

Opinions are only as good as the data behind them. No one seems to have a hard numbers on anything about pool, at least that I can access. Brunswick should have the nuts but has basically nothing beyond their old catalogues. So in my own limited way, I was somehow hoping to learn something about where our old cues go to die. Establishing reliable parameters upon which to build my inquiry has proved difficult. Good thing its not critically important -- like obtaining a degree or making a living. But, truly, someone needs to be collecting the information.

At any rate, thank all of y'all for your replies. I really do appreciate you and your love of pool, in whatever form.
 
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Fatboy said:
Ok I’ll stop being a smart ass.

I have cues that are well over $50K each. I sold a cue for $80k a few months back.

I have friends with huge collections right here on AZB. I’m not part of the cue collector club, they are fine guys and I really like them a lot. I just never got into the swing of going to their shows/events. However I think what they do is great and I support them 100%. They know loads more about cues than I do.

The reason I buy cues is I love them, always have and always will. I’m not into posting pics of them, in fact just recently I took a group pic of some of them/ most I’ve never photographed ever.

The other reason I’ve always bought cues is I understand them and they are a good store of value if bought right and held long enough. Have I made $? Yes. Would I have done better in the stock market? Probably. But I like cues and I’m not scared to spend $20,000 on a cue but am scared of stocks. My cues are a “end of the world” bankroll for me if all else fails. I’ve never had to sell a cue…..yet. 🙏🏼 it stays that way. But they are bearer assets and I take comfort in that.

Have I lost money? Sure I’ve made horrible trades and let a few monsters go and also over paid for a few poles and lost big money on them. That holds true for any investor and market/ net net net at the end of the day , I’m doing just fine with my cues and am very lucky and blessed to be where I’m at with them.

That’s the cue story for me anyways. Every collector has a different story. It’s not all about money, and it’s certainly about money in some sense. It’s both. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Best,
Fatboy😃

The story’s about Japan in this thread are slightly exaggerated. And yes lots of counterfeit cues were dumped off on unsuspecting buyers there years ago. 😕
Click to expand...
I was there the day you bought sixteen high end cues (Szams and Bushkas). Some serious coin changed hands that day. I warned you off one cue that had a defect but you bought it anyway since it was the cheapie in the lot at 6K. IMO you are one smart investor.

Unlike you I was a cue "collector," buying cues that felt good in my hands and I liked hitting balls with. That left me with 35-40 cues worth anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand. I did have one 10K+ Gina that I only kept a couple of years. I know now I sold it too cheap, probably worth double that now (or more). Sold another very intricate TAD to Lucky in Japan for 7.5K and was told he immediately turned it over for 15K, lol. In the last few years I've sold off most of my cues. They were just taking up space in my closet. Probably down to only ten or twelve cues left, some I can't bear to part with and none of them particularly expensive. They just feel good in my hands. That is my criteria.

Never made any real money on my cues, maybe broke even at best. Thank God real estate investing turned out good for me. I never have to make another ball! But I remember when I did. I won't ever forget those days. Sleeping in the back seat of my old Chevy. Makes me thankful for where I am today.
 
jay helfert said:
I was there the day you bought sixteen high end cues (Szams and Bushkas). Some serious coin changed hands that day. I warned you off one cue that had a defect but you bought it anyway since it was the cheapie in the lot at 6K. IMO you are one smart investor.

Unlike you I was a cue "collector," buying cues that felt good in my hands and I liked hitting balls with. That left me with 35-40 cues worth anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand. I did have one 10K+ Gina that I only kept a couple of years. I know now I sold it too cheap, probably worth double that now (or more). Sold another very intricate TAD to Lucky in Japan for 7.5K and was told he immediately turned it over for 15K, lol. In the last few years I've sold off most of my cues. They were just taking up space in my closet. Probably down to only ten or twelve cues left, some I can't bear to part with and none of them particularly expensive. They just feel good in my hands. That is my criteria.

Never made any real money on my cues, maybe broke even at best. Thank God real estate investing turned out good for me. I never have to make another ball! But I remember when I did. I won't ever forget those days. Sleeping in the back seat of my old Chevy. Makes me thankful for where I am today.
Click to expand...
I lost 10’s of millions on realestate in my life. I can’t ever seem to buy the right property .
 
jay helfert said:
I was there the day you bought sixteen high end cues (Szams and Bushkas). Some serious coin changed hands that day. I warned you off one cue that had a defect but you bought it anyway since it was the cheapie in the lot at 6K. IMO you are one smart investor.

Unlike you I was a cue "collector," buying cues that felt good in my hands and I liked hitting balls with. That left me with 35-40 cues worth anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand. I did have one 10K+ Gina that I only kept a couple of years. I know now I sold it too cheap, probably worth double that now (or more). Sold another very intricate TAD to Lucky in Japan for 7.5K and was told he immediately turned it over for 15K, lol. In the last few years I've sold off most of my cues. They were just taking up space in my closet. Probably down to only ten or twelve cues left, some I can't bear to part with and none of them particularly expensive. They just feel good in my hands. That is my criteria.

Never made any real money on my cues, maybe broke even at best. Thank God real estate investing turned out good for me. I never have to make another ball! But I remember when I did. I won't ever forget those days. Sleeping in the back seat of my old Chevy. Makes me thankful for where I am today.
Click to expand...
That Gina cue was something else you had. I took to from Vegas to LA for you. I still have pics of it😍😍. Funny I take pics of other peoples cues, never my own. Of course I’ve never shared those pics with anyone. They are the vault.

When ever I make $, I buy a cue or 20 depending on how much I’m making. I bought a cue for $4000 last year, I made a little on a deal and did what I always do-buy a cue. That’s how I ended up with so many poles. I sell way less than I buy. I sold one big cue this past year as the number was right for both sides and it seemed like a good idea.

Buying cues is just a way to squirrel off some $ that “disappears” , you know Jay “pay yourself first”.

I have a friend, great guy. He’s a realestate agent in LA. Has a great family, 3 year old baby. No bad habits. Biz has been bad for him. He recently had to move out of LA. He said “I didn’t plan right and buy anything of value in the last 15 years”. It’s a cautionary tail, if he’d have bought cues, coins, comic books, watches (of course the right ones) he would have had some dry powder to get past the tough patch in his life. Instead he had to get a u haul and leave LA.

That’s why I learned about cues and thankfully so far have never needed the $. But it’s there.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
I really wasn't asking about individuals. I am trying to get a sense of how many "significant collectors" are out there (and admittedly my dollar amount was way low).

I worry about, am concerned about, always, the health of pool in America. As an old school pool type, I have watched my world diminish at a frightening pace -- forget disappearing sea ice, I got real problems.

Opinions are only as good as the data behind them. No one seems to have a hard numbers on anything about pool, at least that I can access. Brunswick should have the nuts but has basically nothing beyond their old catalogues. So in my own limited way, I was somehow hoping to learn something about where our old cues go to die. Establishing reliable parameters upon which to build my inquiry has proved difficult. Good thing its not critically important -- like obtaining a degree or making a living. But, truly, someone needs to be collecting the information.

At any rate, thank all of y'all for your replies. I really do appreciate you and your love of pool, in whatever form.
Click to expand...
It’s my opinion (which in the grand scheme of things isn’t much) is the cue market is doing ok. Young people aren’t into cues like the over 50 crowd. So long term, cues aren’t the best idea like they were 30-40 years ago.

Probably about the time Japan was buying up the cues was the peak market, not because of Japan, it just times out that way. The 90’s were strong for cues, probably the strongest decade for cues.

With the tools available now it’s a lot easier to “Print” cues than ever. Ofc the limited supply of cues which aren’t being made any longer isn’t effected as much by the printing.

Cues made in the 60’s aren’t as hot as they were 20 years ago, neither are 70’s cues. It appears the old school cues are fading in time. In the 90’s nothing appeared to be fading. Hence my comment about the 90’s.

Pool has as many people playing as ever possibly more than ever. However our version of pool & what happening now are 2 different things. Equipment, gambling, formats, rules, life styles have changed and as a result pool has. It’s not how many ppl are playing or the amount of $ in that ecosystem, it’s just a different world. Hard to compare pool from 50 years ago to the current version.

“Everything changes” Mike Sigel said that to me once in the middle of a conversation, it wasn’t even about pool. Wise words as it really applies to damn near everything.

So yeah back to cues, there’s people out there with huge collections worth millions, but that’s dead money in the vaults of a few people. They have their own economy and it doesn’t really effect pool much.

And yes I see the changes in pool and everything else in life, like it or not Mike was right. Nothing lasts forever, everything changes….

Best
Fatboy 😃
 
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Fatboy said:
It’s my opinion (which in the grand scheme of things isn’t much) is the cue market is doing ok. Young people aren’t into cues like the over 50 crowd. So long term, cues aren’t the best idea like they were 30-40 years ago.

Probably about the time Japan was buying up the cues was the peak market, not because of Japan l, just times out that way. The 90’s were strong for cues

With the tools available now it’s a lot easier to “Print” cues than ever. Ofc the limited supply of cues which aren’t basing made any longer isn’t effected as much by the printing.

Cues made in the 60’s aren’t as hot as they were 20 years ago, neither are 70’s cues. It appears the old school cues are fading in time. In the 90’s nothing appeared to be fading. Hence my comment about the 90’s.

Pool has as many people playing as ever. However our version of pool & what happening now are 2 different things. Equipment, gambling, formats, rules, life styles have changed and as a result pool has. It’s not how many ppl are playing it’s just a different world.

“Everything changes” Mike Sigel said that to me once in the middle of a conversation, it wasn’t even about pool. Wise words as it really applies to damn near everything.

So yeah back to cues, there’s people out there with huge collections worth millions, but that’s dead money in the vaults of a few people. They have their own economy and it doesn’t really effect pool much.

And yes I see the changes in pool, like it or not Mike was right.

Best
Fatboy 😃
Click to expand...
One of my favorite quotes, "If you live too long, you will die in an alien world."

Its really not the changes, but the speed at which they come. And, as you and Sigel remind us, it is not just some things, it is every thing. I seem to have an exceptional affinity for the past. The South in the '60s was a very slow place, and it actively resisted change. On top of everything, being in Biloxi, I existed in a microcosm within a microcosm. Not only did we not want to move into the 21st Century, we just didn't -- literally, we simply closed the whole place down. One might surmise that collecting provides us with an opportunity to move the past from the attics of memory physically into the presence of our hands.

Billiard Parlors then Pool Halls once filled this country -- North, South, East, and West -- providing males of all ages with places of refuge and education. For almost a hundred years, they flourished. Then it seems, at the peak of their popularity, a combined plague of bar boxes, video games, and chat rooms descended. As I finally realized the other day, I guess I should really be thanking God for bar boxes.
 
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Fatboy said:
Ok I’ll stop being a smart ass.

I have cues that are well over $50K each. I sold a cue for $80k a few months back.

I have friends with huge collections right here on AZB. I’m not part of the cue collector club, they are fine guys and I really like them a lot. I just never got into the swing of going to their shows/events. However I think what they do is great and I support them 100%. They know loads more about cues than I do.

The reason I buy cues is I love them, always have and always will. I’m not into posting pics of them, in fact just recently I took a group pic of some of them/ most I’ve never photographed ever.

The other reason I’ve always bought cues is I understand them and they are a good store of value if bought right and held long enough. Have I made $? Yes. Would I have done better in the stock market? Probably. But I like cues and I’m not scared to spend $20,000 on a cue but am scared of stocks. My cues are a “end of the world” bankroll for me if all else fails. I’ve never had to sell a cue…..yet. 🙏🏼 it stays that way. But they are bearer assets and I take comfort in that.

Have I lost money? Sure I’ve made horrible trades and let a few monsters go and also over paid for a few poles and lost big money on them. That holds true for any investor and market/ net net net at the end of the day , I’m doing just fine with my cues and am very lucky and blessed to be where I’m at with them.

That’s the cue story for me anyways. Every collector has a different story. It’s not all about money, and it’s certainly about money in some sense. It’s both. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Best,
Fatboy😃

The story’s about Japan in this thread are slightly exaggerated. And yes lots of counterfeit cues were dumped off on unsuspecting buyers there years ago. 😕
Click to expand...
One thing I can say with almost 100 % certainty is that the stock market will be ripped off again.
At least if you have your money in cues or coins or scrap metal, it is always worth something, stocks can be worth nothing overnight and all a person can do is light cigars with them. Or weigh theirpockets down , when they jump off cry baby bridge. I don't know why that is such a funny image to me , it just is I guess. Wish I was an artist!
 
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