oceanweb said:
I think you hit the nail on the head! CueTec markets their product to beginning players that simply don't know any better. If their customers did a little research before making their purchases, they may not have any customers.
That's a very interesting idea, OW, about the research, that is.
When I first started playing seriously, a little less than 4 years ago, I was in a pool hall that had regular Dufferin house cues on the wall, for free. They also had a sign listing Meuccis as available for rental for $2.
I had already bought a really cheap cue on eBay for $15, and was sold by the use of buzzwords like pro-taper, custom, hard rock maple, yada yada. The sucker came with a nylon wrap, no less. That cue helped hook me. I got better, if for no other reason the cue had a decent tip, and the cue was mine, and played the same day in and day out, helping me develop some consistency. After about a month, the wrap came undone, the shaft warped, you know how those things happen.
So I did a bit of research into my next cue, and I wanted it to be a good one.
I checked out the Meucci website, read the articles on squirt and deflection and all that, and then went over to eBay where I found Meucci cues in abundance, right now there are something like 50 of them available, and the
selling prices are usually well over $100. So, I figured if I were to buy one, and didn't like it, I'd be able to unload it reasonably easily. Plus I knew that many top players in the past had played with them.
Guess what? I bought one. New. Not on eBay, but from an online dealer. Paid $350 including shipping for it. Loved it, for a long time. Liked the looks, liked the hit and feel, back then. No longer like the hit and feel. So what, things change in life, and in pool too.
I've never tried to sell it though, although I do lend it to friends if they ask for it. Recently a friend mentioned to me that someone I shot some pool with over one year ago was interested in buying that cue. Said he liked the way it plays. Imagine that, the fellow remembers how it plays, and it's been over a year. It's available for sale, and the next time I see him perhaps we'll make a deal.
Was my "research" up to snuff? Well, based on what I wanted to get out of a cue, I'd say so. Perhaps not to others.
My point is that people will do those things that tend to suit them.
There was a fellow who tried his best to sell me a Southwest cue, telling me the Meucci wasn't the one that someone who was going to shoot a long, thing cut shot would choose. Balderdash... There are so many ways to change the way a cue plays, based on tip choice alone, that his sales pitch to me now says "hustler"...
If someone wants to buy a Cuetec, or some other cue, and likes the looks of it, the way it feels in his hands, the freakin' spin he sometimes gets when he jitterbugs the cue ball, and so on, the more power to him.
Kinda like buying your first car, I guess.
Some people are happy with having their own cue, just because it's theirs. Others want more, they want more beautiful wood, or workmanship, or they want to buy something that's very expensive, or that wows the girls, whatever.
Which is right, which is wrong?
Philosophical questions, I know, but they are pertinent.
Flex