Cues that should no longer be played with

I don't think there is any point where a cue shouldn't be played with generally. I think each person probably has level at which a person is or is not comfortable with.

I don't have any incredibly expensive cues, The few I have are mostly in the $400 range with one that I recently got that is about $700. The first time I took that new cue out to play I was actually a little nervous about it because, to me, that is an expensive cue compared to what I'm used to. Only took a few times and I'm now very comfortable with it, but it just goes to show you that your comfort level is relative to your situation and can change over time and changing circumstances.

I honestly could see myself getting comfortable with playing a cue up into the $2000-3000 range but I don't think I could really go above that point....and I honestly am not sure I'll ever even get to that point, but I'd say it's possible. But, for people who can easily afford it I see no problem with others playing cues that rise well above that pricepoint, if they are comfortable with it then I'm all for it.
 
I play with all of my cues .and I have over 60 of them.priced from 100 to 4000 not just lookers but players too
 
A lady I know shoots with an old heubler. The shafts are 9.2mm and it is the most crooked stick I have ever seen. I was trying to talk her into getting a new cue and then she ran out on me. Guess it works for her.....


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Playing Cue

Its a personal decision I have played with my Gus when I had it and played all the cues when i had them and they ranged from $800.00 to probably $8000.00. I was just careful WHERE I PLAYED THEM.
 
Cues

Thanks for all the Replies everyone !
I wasn't. Sure also because the real fancy decorative cues don't seem to be in use by the top players as much as they were say even 20 years ago
The cues seem much more on the plain side today and wasn't sure why
Maybe also sponsorship of cues like OB and Mezz and cues like that and years ago there seemed to be a lot more cues in use like Josswest and Szamboti's and cues with fancier inlays like that. I wasn't sure if the general attitude was that if they are in the thousands, they would depreciate faster by using them more. I love Palmer 14's and up for example, but where they are cues that have been gone for years, why risk the possible deterioration and depreciation. Am I wrong in thinking that the top say 20 pro's today, use cue's that are far less fancy and expensive than the top 20 pro's of say 1995 ?
But... Points very well taken. No matter what cue... Even if real pretty and expensive
What good does it do to just stare at it .
 
I think for me personally, the cutoff point would be something that was given to me by someone I absolutely respected to the bone. I would just want to have that cue from them for the rest of my life and give it to someone that knew and loved them too or just reminded me of them.

I had such a cue and I did give it away to a young man that reminds me a great deal of the man that gave me that cue. I just just wouldn't want to be the one using the cue.... I just didn't feel worthy. Don't know if that sounds right or sane to any of you, but I am glad that the lad I gave it to appreciates it and plays the snot out of it to better and better effect.

Cues are like any other instrument, they want to be played and they are filled with the souls of those that they have spent time with as well as those that created them.

Lesh
 
There's no particular price point, basically whatever you can afford to lose lol I personally would never buy a cue that I wouldn't play with, I currently have 8 cues, try to use them all, and if their is one I find I don't use often I sell it or give to a friend and get something I like more ( I have a rule about my cues not exceeding my cue rack space....Guess I could cheat and get a bigger rack ) My most expensive one is my primary player, and given its price if it didn't play better than all my other cues without a doubt, I wouldn't have kept it, but playing with it at a bar....I'll take a different one
 
Personally I insured my cues it cost me $110.00 a year but loss, theft, damage no sweat. I can tell you it makes me feel a whole lot better. I doubt I would live long enough to have Joel build me another but with the insurance I could replace it with a reasonable substitue.
 
Most that do not play with the cues they buy are collectors. They buy them as an investment and put them up for sale at a tidy profit.
 
Hello
Can anyone recommend what a general rule seems to be on what price point cues get too expensive to use rather than to just collect. It seems like a lot of the pro's today use more of a player's grade cue, and years ago using fancy expensive cues was quite common. Not as many Szamboti's and hi grade cues like that in play anymore
Or for example... If you purchase a hi grade Palmer cue from the late sixties early seventies.... Would anyone actually use it ? Or is it strictly for collectors ?
And what are examples of nice cues to use as players cues that you don't necessarily have to worry about depreciation/ appreciation ?
Thanks
Bill

I purchased a Palmer Model M from the 2nd catalog back in the early 70's. Then it was just called a "Palmer Supreme". Life changed for me, so I quit playing for a few decades. Anyway, I still have it. It has it's original finish & tips on both shafts.

Do I play with it? Once in a blue moon, for nostalgia.

But really, it hits like playing with a length of pipe. My Josey is a much better playing cue.
 

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Thanks for all the Replies everyone !
I wasn't. Sure also because the real fancy decorative cues don't seem to be in use by the top players as much as they were say even 20 years ago
The cues seem much more on the plain side today and wasn't sure why
Maybe also sponsorship of cues like OB and Mezz and cues like that and years ago there seemed to be a lot more cues in use like Josswest and Szamboti's and cues with fancier inlays like that. I wasn't sure if the general attitude was that if they are in the thousands, they would depreciate faster by using them more. I love Palmer 14's and up for example, but where they are cues that have been gone for years, why risk the possible deterioration and depreciation. Am I wrong in thinking that the top say 20 pro's today, use cue's that are far less fancy and expensive than the top 20 pro's of say 1995 ?
But... Points very well taken. No matter what cue... Even if real pretty and expensive
What good does it do to just stare at it .

Those Szambotis and Balabushkas they had didn't cost anywhere near the money they sell for today.
I know people who bought Zsams for under 200 dollars from Gus personally.
I was in the hall when Jimmy Mataya sold his Balabushka to Leonard in about 1987 {man I wish he would have offered it to me } then I could have bought it off him and didn't do that either. he probably wishes he still had it, lol.
I think he had it for sale for 2500. Seemed like a fortune then , seems like a steal now.
 
My friends every day player is an ebony Scruggs inlaid with 14-karat gold. Uses it in every dive bar around town during our city-wide bar league. He changes cue every once in a while. He was playing with a Hercek when I first met him, Black Boar for a while after that.
 
In spite of the fact that I made it the cue I played with was in the 10k range. It wasn't being used as a show piece but because it played like a dream. Personally I don't quite comprehend collectors who hang them on the wall or hide them in a vault. Even museum who have priceless musical instruments take them out occasionally for a romp. Personally I believe priceless guitars, violins, etc....wood items like pool cues too, get better with age and playing time. I'm not sure if it's the vibrations or compression or what it is but I think they do get better the more they're used.
 
I see both sides of not playing with something like a bushka or a
Fancy zamboti. But a southwest cue can easily run $4000 for a nice one and those really are made for nothing but playing. Expensive? Sure, but no one can fault someone for playing with a southwest.

Personally I will be putting this all to a test early next week when I pick up my new very Fancy Ed Young. Oy Vay
 
I know a guy that plays with a $10,000+ Barry Szamboti as his main player, so the point is north of that.



Yes that is why Barry made it to do. Be played with. Back in the 60's I shot Skeet, with a Browning Over & Under. It was a very fancy shotgun I save to buy, to shoot Skeet with. Think I paid over a grand for the shotgun. Could have bought a new VW Bug for 1,500.00 bucks, but ten years later I got over $2,000.00 grand for the used Shotgun that had well over 50,000 rounds threw the barrels.
 
Personally I believe priceless guitars, violins, etc....wood items like pool cues too, get better with age and playing time. I'm not sure if it's the vibrations or compression or what it is but I think they do get better the more they're used.

I couldn't agree with this more. Some more special than others and those that are could be described as magical.


Why am I the Colonel? Because I always get the chicken
 
Hello
Can anyone recommend what a general rule seems to be on what price point cues get too expensive to use rather than to just collect. It seems like a lot of the pro's today use more of a player's grade cue, and years ago using fancy expensive cues was quite common. Not as many Szamboti's and hi grade cues like that in play anymore
Or for example... If you purchase a hi grade Palmer cue from the late sixties early seventies.... Would anyone actually use it ? Or is it strictly for collectors ?
And what are examples of nice cues to use as players cues that you don't necessarily have to worry about depreciation/ appreciation ?
Thanks
Bill

Great question Bill,

Pretty straightforward rule that I am making up right here and now that everyone should follow to the end of time absolutely is if you spend more than one month of your income on a pool cue, you should not play pool. Sure, go ahead and buy as many cues as you like, but you are now banned from playing pool.

Cues serve the purpose of putting the little round balls into the little round pockets. Sure, there is room for individuality, art, style, variety and even a bit of ego. Understandable that it feels good to shoot with a cue you like (for whatever reasons) and other people like.... O Yeah, that's my Stealth cue with a 30 inch Schmelke shaft baby! WOOOoooooo!!!

However, when people start toting around cues that sell for as much as my car.... there needs to be some kind of intervention. The intervention I have chosen is an outright ban on such persons from any and all establishments that identify themselves as a Pool Hall or Billiards Parlor. It just has to be done so that Cue Sports remains focused on the actual achievement in Cue Sports that awaits all who are able to focus on the game itself.................................. unlike.......... some... people.

So when a cue becomes so rare and so valuable that it would result in a felony charge if someone stole it.... right about there, that is a good demarcation point for where you need to shelve that particular cue, or simply retire from playing altogether. Buy yourself a nice brand spankin new Dufferin two-piece or (if you are feeling spendy) a sweet McDermott Cue, mass produced right here in the US of A and GO GETTUM!

So take your Rambow, Balabushka, Paradise, Searing, Stroud, Bloodworth, Arthur, Rauenzhanenzazenhouzen, Black Boar, Gina, Diveney, TaD, Bender, McDaniel, yadda yadda yaddahhhhh cues and stick to your beach houses and mansions... invite over your blue-blooded oxygenarian one-percenter buddies and have a blast. Maybe you can have an unemployed customer service professional rack the balls and pour 50 year old scotch for the evening. Harrumph!

Bacon flavored Pickles,

Lesh
 
I like to personally play with a different cues in tournaments to test them out. I might have gone through over hundreds of cues already. It's more fun and challenging to tournament test my cues. The one I keep are usually that one that I've won tournament with or beaten a world champion with...:).

As far as values goes for not playing with a cue....probably one of the crazy fantasy cue that you couldn't play with anyhow. I play with all my cues as well...don't you have too to find out if they are any good? I can't understand how an un-chalked cue has a premium....I would add a premium for tournament tested cue. LOL.

SW and Gus..is probably my top rank for cues that I would play with that will hold their values. Although, there are many other Scruggs, Tascarella, Bender, Mcworter, Thomas Wayne, Richard Chudy, BS, Gina, etc..etc...that are not bad as well.


I have to say this thread raises questions for me. Here in the UK players tend to play with one cue and one cue only for each given sport. Players will absolutely not swap around - unless it might be to bang around in a bar or something on a night out.

I would not even consider playing a tour match or even a league match with anything but my primary cue.
 
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The money in games have changed drastically, you have pro players living on the street literally now...before that they could at least make a decent living. Most of these custom cue markers probably can't afford to sponsor a player now with the way the market is right now for cues.

Thanks for all the Replies everyone !
I wasn't. Sure also because the real fancy decorative cues don't seem to be in use by the top players as much as they were say even 20 years ago
The cues seem much more on the plain side today and wasn't sure why
Maybe also sponsorship of cues like OB and Mezz and cues like that and years ago there seemed to be a lot more cues in use like Josswest and Szamboti's and cues with fancier inlays like that. I wasn't sure if the general attitude was that if they are in the thousands, they would depreciate faster by using them more. I love Palmer 14's and up for example, but where they are cues that have been gone for years, why risk the possible deterioration and depreciation. Am I wrong in thinking that the top say 20 pro's today, use cue's that are far less fancy and expensive than the top 20 pro's of say 1995 ?
But... Points very well taken. No matter what cue... Even if real pretty and expensive
What good does it do to just stare at it .
 
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