Cheap Cue Recommendations

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axejunkie

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My building has a table and the cues have gradually become broken. They were Aska brand, decent Asian-made two piece cues. Shafts have been snapped off at the joint by some clumsy players or drunks.

I'd like to get some new ones so residents can play. Any recommendations in the under $50 per cue range? One piece cues might be the way to go given the recent damage.
 
Id suggest that you shop locally, and to not go buying junky bent cues online. you need to at least be able to roll them. It's the last thing Id order online. different case if it's a cue maker and you are aware of their reputation from trusted personal references, and have reason to have confidence in them , but they don't sell 50 dollar cues.

if you wanto buy 50 dollar cues that were made in china At lest pick straight ones. pu them on a table that is flat, roll them and perceive how far out they are.. they will likely still bend because they are inferior quality but at least don't buy one that is all warped to start with. just ask for house cues, or a "sneaky pete" that's a cue that unscrews with no embellishments, looks like a house cue but unscrews.

Ones that dont unscrew , one piece cues, might be less likely to be stolen, if they aren't being transported then that's probably suitable.

lots of places lock their cues in a rack but if they unscrew it often defies the lockup as someone can simply unscrew the cue , but locks are for honest people. you dont want high priced stuff or it may just go missing as the room is likely used by others.

a lot of pool halls have a selection of bent junk for patrons who aren't serious enough to buy their own cue, Often no one steals them as they are junk anyway.
 
I have something called an "Eliminator" sneaky pete made by Imperial, a game room company. For $50 it isn't bad. I picked it up during COVID because my player was locked in the my closed office. It lives in my truck now. Not great, but it came from the retailer straight and well packaged. I think Imperial make one-piece cues as well. Tips are rubbish, but in a game room, you'll end up replacing them in a little time.
 
axejunkie said:
My building has a table and the cues have gradually become broken. They were Aska brand, decent Asian-made two piece cues. Shafts have been snapped off at the joint by some clumsy players or drunks.

I'd like to get some new ones so residents can play. Any recommendations in the under $50 per cue range? One piece cues might be the way to go given the recent damage.
Click to expand...
Do you really want to get cues for "residents to play" after describing cues being snapped off.

Go cheap for the residents if you intend to get them cues.

Get a two piece cue for yourself and look at Schmelke.
 
its a common situation in appartment buildings that there is a shared games room which is kept open for the residents to play upon. the manager won't want to manage pool cue use, or monitor every kid that enters, hi might lock it up at night.
He will simply want to maintain the table and cues for the residents.

Like a pool or sauna or gym, these things are charged for in the overall rent and are offered to potential residents as perks. cheap cues that won't go running off or at least aren't too expensive to replace make sense.

If a resident loves pool he can buy a cue and look after it but the table is useless with broken cues. what can happen is that kids will try to use them anyway and damage the cloth, Id remove any that are damaged, tips missing etc, even if there is only one available , they can still play.

I imagine the resident manager wont want to monitor every naughty kid that has access. likely mom or dad sends them down to get herself some peace of mind. In an actual pool hall you usually have staff in the room that would control horseplay. Apartment dwelling shared games rooms aren't like that.
 
Thank you for the input all around. The now broken cues actually played decently, they lasted several years and stayed straight enough for me to play with.

The cues being damaged is likely the case of a few bad characters (likely non-residents), with most people taking decent care of the equipment. No cues means no pool, and if no pool it's possible the table goes away.

If management doesn't want to spend money, I'll probably ask the local rooms if they have some house cues I could buy or have. I'm guessing $200 is the max they would dole out to replace the current equipment.
 
www.askabilliards.com

ASKA Set of 5 Pool Cue Sticks 58", Hard Rock Canadian Maple, 13mm Hard

Set of 5 Aska Pool Cue Sticks L22, 58", 2-Piece Construction, 5/16x18 Joint, Canadian Hard Rock Maple, Long Lasting Hard Le Pro 13mm Glued OnTip Cue Length is 58" (standard pool cue length). Canadian Hardrock Maple 29" Shaft. Mixed Weights - Smoke Cue 21oz, Blue 20oz, Brown 19oz, Green 19oz, Red...
www.askabilliards.com

$180
 
The price of 5 seems quite reasonable. Personally I wouldn't want to deal with returning them, like if they arrive and are warped.
then again some love returning stuff, there are people who buy clothes through amazon, wear them and then return them, cheaper than doing the laundry. next the stuff is sold in mixed lots at auctions and people buy the stuff in bulk , pay the auction price, put what they can back online.
Amazon supports this system of waste, because they gain market share and market share means everything if the desire is to create a monopoly, or something close to a monopoly.

I ordered a phone case and some stuff to stop a head gasket leak, tried to return it, they were so good, I can just throw it out, they dont even want it back. the loss is cost of business, they want a monopoly and a huge market share so the little stuff is part of satisfying customers, getting them addicted to online shopping.

Once a market share monopoly is created and the brick and market stores arent; competitors, then Amazon can stiffen those return policies. The modern electronic stocking is linked to giant electronic robotic warehouses so parts are pulled , and packaged and sent to the consumer with as little human intervention as possible.

I've been noticing more and more websites for services , parts suppliers , mobile phone companies etc, even government , removing their phone numbers and encouraging customers to go help themselves, so they dont have to pay for customer service.. If you deal with a small company that sells online you may have a totally different customer relationship, one where you can call them and have a problem fixed without being pushed towards a useless chatbot or stuck on hold to captively listen to repeating advertising slogans. I think AI will expand on all that. The chatbots will work better in the future, because of Ai tech. Im not sure I find that reassuring.
 
I walked into a local business, bought a sneaky pete for 100 bucks from a brick and morter store from a nice man I know. I went though a few and picked a straight one. it's a full splice cue and I didn't want embellishments, especially sticky labels or decals that mimic wood joints. I dont care about the bling.
Its straight and fine and good enough for me, i prefer snooker but when I play 8 or 9 ball and loose its not because of my cue it's a problem with the guy behind it. If I borrow cues or use a bent one or a different house cue each tine I lost confidence and couldn't really tell if it was the cue. If I let a great player play with it I can see straight away it's a problem with the cue pusher , not the cue,

I liked the consistency. because then I knew it was my own fault and stopped wondering if the problems were with the cue I'd picked up. If I played pool games a lot I'd invest more but I think it would actually have very little impact on my game.. gee though if you use it every day or even once week and drop more than a hundred that's ok. then its about personal finance, maybe you want a nice thing because you use it lots. maybe you have so much money that a thousand dollar cue isn't the difference between paying the rent or feeding the kids. If it is, the 100 dollar cue is just fine. you can still become a great player with a 100 dollar cue.

maybe you can even tie a guitar string to it and playlik ehtis guy ;-)
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measureman said:
www.askabilliards.com

ASKA Set of 5 Pool Cue Sticks 58", Hard Rock Canadian Maple, 13mm Hard

Set of 5 Aska Pool Cue Sticks L22, 58", 2-Piece Construction, 5/16x18 Joint, Canadian Hard Rock Maple, Long Lasting Hard Le Pro 13mm Glued OnTip Cue Length is 58" (standard pool cue length). Canadian Hardrock Maple 29" Shaft. Mixed Weights - Smoke Cue 21oz, Blue 20oz, Brown 19oz, Green 19oz, Red...
www.askabilliards.com

$180
Click to expand...
I was guessing these were in the $40 to $50 per cue range. The Aska cues we had were pretty good, they stayed straight and hit ok. I could play with one without too much adjusting.
 
axejunkie said:
My building has a table and the cues have gradually become broken. They were Aska brand, decent Asian-made two piece cues. Shafts have been snapped off at the joint by some clumsy players or drunks.

I'd like to get some new ones so residents can play. Any recommendations in the under $50 per cue range? One piece cues might be the way to go given the recent damage.
Click to expand...

I have some vintage house cues I would let go for that
 
axejunkie said:
I was guessing these were in the $40 to $50 per cue range. The Aska cues we had were pretty good, they stayed straight and hit ok. I could play with one without too much adjusting.
Click to expand...
I got a couple steel jointed Askas around that price. The tapers are typically Chinese quick and sturdy but no other complaints. One oddity about Chinese maple. The cheap shafts I have are hard as rock. They barely budge under sanding.
 
Too good for a banger clubhouse
 

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