Can we talk about Dale Perry cues?

[Paul Bell]

Prices on Dale Perry cues that have been sold on eBay:

 

[Highmiles]

I had an early DP cue in ebony with ivory floating points and a uni-lock joint. It played very well, to the point where a friend traded me a Joss West with two shafts for it. We both ended up happy with the trade.
P.S. This all happened well before the E-bay cues.

 

[garczar]

Yeah people are posting them up on eBay at those prices but there not selling.

I've bought two 1/1 cues in the past year and did not pay more than $150 for either. I also purchased one of his pre-retirement cues that supposedly cost $1900 new for $275.

The single greatest driver of price bumps on the cues is people hitting Buy Now without doing any research thinking there getting a great cue and then actually doing their homework afterwards. Talked to one seller on eBay that bought a 1/1 locally for $300 not knowing the history thought he was going to flip it for 1k and sold it to me for after having it listed for a year for $150.

Please don't confuse ask with get....

Yep, people confuse 'asking' and 'getting' ALL the time. Just 'cause a cue is on fleabay for whatever price rarely means it sells for that.

 

[iusedtoberich]

Prices on Dale Perry cues that have been sold on eBay:
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I don't believe the 950 and 1200 for a second!

 

[Paul Bell]

I don't believe the 950 and 1200 for a second!

It used to be and maybe still is that the price sold is listed unless it is a BEST OFFER type of sale AND there is a line through offer price. For example, see the crossed-out price in an eBay posting below of a Predator sale. In that case, there is no knowing what it actually sold for.
I haven't seen that crossed-out marking in more-recent cue sales, however. It seems like the more-recent BEST OFFER sales have a discounted price and, presumably, that is the sale price. Maybe someone can instruct me what the price is on the Best Offer sales.
Here are prices of sold cues in the last few months:

 

[vintagecollectibles831]

Not eBay stuff. The "good stuff".

Everyone knows the argument that he hurt the value of the older cues when began mass producing the LOA 1/1 cues.

That was then.

Anyone else got one they are proud of?

I had one that I felt was very high quality, and played really super nice. I think it must have been 90's era. It have some very nicely figured Birds eye maple, Ebony Points, with some other very nice wood inlays. Uni Loc joint. It was a super nice cue, I thought, and I liked it a lot. Thinking about it now, I really miss that cue. It really played very nice.

 

[vintagecollectibles831]

I have owned a pre e bay 1999 DP cue and an e bay era DP cue. The first one was a real nice player and excellent construction. The e bay era cue was surprisingly well made and played very well too- I only paid $125 or so for it back in about 2010. it was a real nice looking cue and it would command about $400 today as the bay era cues went up with inflation. My 1999 DP only sold for about $400 as well and it had ivory rings and a true Cortland linen wrap - Zebra wood and it was in A 1 condition.

I look at it as he did what he had to do to sell cues, I hold nothing against the man. He was an honest e bay seller, some liked those cues and some did not- Mine was a true bargain at the time and would be today at $400 as per the way it looked and played. Too bad his pre bay cues suffered in price - they were excellent cues.

His pre ebay cues were on another level, in quality and playability, in my opinion. They not only looked far nicer, and they hit far sweeter.

 

[vintagecollectibles831]

The plain truth is that anyone who owned a nice looking DP E Bay cue and sold it in excellent condition prior to 2021 probably wishes that they still had that cue as they most likely paid only about $125 or so for a cue that sells for $350 to $450 today and it played very well at either price point!

They hit like pure garbage compared to his older cues, in my opinion. Probably the worst cue I ever played with was a DP.

 

[alphadog]

What is the story on thr stage IV shaft?

 

[mikemosconi]

They hit like pure garbage compared to his older cues, in my opinion. Probably the worst cue I ever played with was a DP.

I had an eBay era DP that played great and was well constructed - many others also say the same about eBay era DP cues - and some, like you, did not like the cues.
Obviously the positives far outweigh the negatives on Dale’s eBay cues as they have gone from $99 original eBay selling point to now 3 to 6 times that number as selling mostly in 350 to 550+ range.
Dale’s pre 2008 cues even more highly undervalued as they suffered from the lower price points on his ebay cues.
I wish that I never sold my DP ebay era cue OR my DP pre ebay era cue- they were both fine looking and playing cues.

 

[kling&allen]

I had an eBay era DP that played great and was well constructed - many others also say the same about eBay era DP cues - and some, like you, did not like the cues.
Obviously the positives far outweigh the negatives on Dale’s eBay cues as they have gone from $99 original eBay selling point to now 3 to 6 times that number as selling mostly in 350 to 550+ range.
Dale’s pre 2008 cues even more highly undervalued as they suffered from the lower price points on his ebay cues.
I wish that I never sold my DP ebay era cue OR my DP pre ebay era cue- they were both fine looking and playing cues.

I still have one of his $150 eBay cues and for its price it’s wonderful. The pocket radiuses are rounded as Chris noted above to speed CNC production, but the wood, finish, and wrap are all very good. Maybe I got lucky.

 

[vintagecollectibles831]

I had an eBay era DP that played great and was well constructed - many others also say the same about eBay era DP cues - and some, like you, did not like the cues.
Obviously the positives far outweigh the negatives on Dale’s eBay cues as they have gone from $99 original eBay selling point to now 3 to 6 times that number as selling mostly in 350 to 550+ range.
Dale’s pre 2008 cues even more highly undervalued as they suffered from the lower price points on his ebay cues.
I wish that I never sold my DP ebay era cue OR my DP pre ebay era cue- they were both fine looking and playing cues.

It around 2005, or maybe 2006, I purchased a Dale Perry cue from one of his ebay auctions. It had a Silver Radial joint pin. This was during a time when he was not listing a ton of them every week. This was probably early in his ebay selling days. Anyways, it auctioned off for around $350, iirc, and it was a super nice looking cue. I could not tell from the pics, but when I got it, it felt like the biggest POS that I ever tried to play with, lol. The shaft quality was pure garbage. It had the worst feeling taper that I ever felt on a cue in my life. It was really bad. Sent the cue back to him, and he gave me such a hard time about the refund. He did not seem like a very nice person. I remember him laughing at me on the phone. He seemed like a total narsisist to me. Another time, I purchased a sneaky cue from him, and wow, that cue was such a POS too. Hit like total garbage. This was before he came out with his Stage 4 shafts, which actually hit pretty nice, I though. Anyways, for some strange reason, that Sneaky cracked on me, and I know for a fact that I did not bump it up against anything. I have always been very good at taking good care of cues, and treat them like a baby. Anyways, it was such a POS. I returned it, and he only gave me a partial refund, and blamed me for the damage. Thinking about Dale Perry, I really do not like that guy. His older cues sure do hit super nice though, and are very high quality, in my opinion. I just really do not like the guy who made them. Those earlier ebay cues were garbage though, in my experience. The Stage 4 cues he made played decent though, I think. Just not nearly as nice as his older 90's era cues. Just my opinion.

 

[Rtoron]

I had one of Dale Perry's pre Ebay cue. Nice cue. Sixty inch cue. Ivory ferrules and joint. Four ebony points into Birdseye Maple prong. I won the yearly tournament at Riverbend Billiards in Alton Illinois with it. It was a very nice high quality cue.