You make the point perfectly.
Classic Cue Market Dying Off
- Thread starter Fast Lenny
- Start date
Moe Szyslak
Well-known member
Imagine you go to buy a golf club and they tell you it will take six months and they'll email you when it's ready...maybe. And it costs 10 times what you can get off the rack, but look at the pin striping on the handle! And they assure you that the feel is 10x better than the feel of the one that's 10x cheaper, and if you don't agree you can't play.
You should probably stay quiet on this one
Just get a nice Rounceville blank off Bell Forest and then get a up and coming maker to finish to your specs.
I just bought a ebony into ebony to turn into my new break cue and I'm having Scott Gilmore finish it.
Super excited for this one!
I dont even know any of these custom cue makers. But a for sure thing is that Predator or Cue Lee will always be easier to sell used.
I dont even know how a custom cue can make you shoot better when Pool itself is all about "guesstimate aiming system" unlike a gun where you can have a clear aim line, unless sniper where you should take into account of other elements.
Pool balls does have the center ball system as the foundations but it doesnt always work in your favor. So how does a custom cue make you shoot better is beyond me. It is the player that brings fame to the cuestick...not the other way around
Until you play with a variety of cues, it is challenging to understand there is a difference in pool cues.
Think of it this way. It isn’t necessarily the cook making the meal but rather the recipe that is followed.
Can you appreciate that as an example that applies to cue makers as well? If you locate a cue that you
thinks feels the best, lets you achieve you the best cue ball control for the variety of shots you encounter
in a match, then any cue built to those specs will play better than other cues you might have. The specs
are more important than the cue maker making the cue unless the person did questionable workmanship.
Follow the recipe and the meal turns out great. Change it and the results are different, not necessarily better.
Build a cue to the specs you like the best. If you don’t know, take the time to find out. A cue built to those
specs in a SP or fancy design will just overall play better. The price of a cue is unimportant to how it plays.
Think of it this way. It isn’t necessarily the cook making the meal but rather the recipe that is followed.
Can you appreciate that as an example that applies to cue makers as well? If you locate a cue that you
thinks feels the best, lets you achieve you the best cue ball control for the variety of shots you encounter
in a match, then any cue built to those specs will play better than other cues you might have. The specs
are more important than the cue maker making the cue unless the person did questionable workmanship.
Follow the recipe and the meal turns out great. Change it and the results are different, not necessarily better.
Build a cue to the specs you like the best. If you don’t know, take the time to find out. A cue built to those
specs in a SP or fancy design will just overall play better. The price of a cue is unimportant to how it plays.
If there was any validity to this line of logic all baseball players would use the exact same style and weight of bat since it's the Indian not the arrow.
Many of the same factors that go into the selection of a bat also go into the selection of a cue.
I recommend reading up on bats, how their made, and the performance characteristics of even minor design changes.
Wow, you’re so much smarter and and better prepared than other custom makers
. Perhaps they have a wait because they have a history of work, their cues, that attest to their talent. Maybe you don’t have a wait, not because of your wood supply theory, but because no one knows who you are because the work you’ve produced hasn’t garnered any notoriety. Not a judgement, just an observation, but please feel free to continue to pontificate on the subject.
Hit is definitely subjective and everyone has a preference for sure. I have liked wood to wood big pin cues but at times have liked the hit of a SS jointed cue.
Prices on mid range cues are down a little and prices on really high end and lower end are up. My average cue now is around $1500 for the butt. But having said that, I used to get $2000 plus for a similar cue several years ago. Some of my older cues that I have collected will not bring what I paid for them 20 years ago. Others have doubled in value or more in that time. You would think the longer someone is dead the more their cues would be worth. But the younger generation does not have the connection to Balabushka, Szamboti, Spain, Schrager, Palmer, Paradise, Tad, Schick, Martin and such as mine did. For younger collectors the best investments in my opinion for resale later are rarer older production cues like early McDermott, Meucci Original and Viking. Those early cues are the cues that have consistently went up in value. Hold them long enough and they may go down like all the other ones I mentioned above like average Palmers have. Now really rare Palmers still bring premium prices. BC and D model McDermotts see to be going up. Meucci Originals seem to be going up. And early Viking cues with the clear window are good collectors. Adam cues are on their way down like Palmers, but some are still good investments. Early Schon and Joss cues are still nice collector cues with name recognition among younger players. So what I am saying is if the company is still going and popular their early rarer model cues are the best investments as the market stands today in my opinion. For those who want to flip cues you just have to keep up with the market and only buy when the deal is right and sell when the deal is right.
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That site always cracks me up. People bid stuff way too high. There's a McDermott kit cue currently at a bid of $157. Brand new, that retails for like $180.
My favorite hobby is going on there and dropping a mid to high bid on a cue. Just to make sure there is a painful floor for any potential buyer.
Not so high that I'm not willing to pay, but enough to make sure any flipper is going to have a hard time getting their money back.
I might have a new hobby now. There are a couple lesser-known auction sites I can do this on.
Trust me, there is no such thing as "lesser known" auction site everyone already knows about Hi-Bid, AuctionNinja, Proxbid, LiveAuction, and CTbids.
But if you mean outside of those, please do share!
And pay very close attention to the specs that cue has…….and remember it………that’s your winning formula.