Current Cue Maker Wait Times

lfigueroa

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A friend of mine just recently asked what was going on with my new five-point Ginacue and I told him I had just spoken to Ernie and he said, "The butt is done, I'm doing the shafts now, so another month and a half."

And he asked how long it's been total, and I told him that another month and a half would put things at nine and half months total and he was like, "Wow, that's a long time." And I'm like, "No, no, no. That's great." And then we started talking about other cue makers and "cue maker time" in general and we got to wondering: what are the current wait times for the top end cue makers in 2011.

So, what are the wait times you're encountering from your favorite cue maker nowadays?

Lou Figueroa
 
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lfigueroa said:
A friend of mine just recently asked what was going on with my new five-point Ginacue and I told him I had just spoken to Ernie and he said, "The butt is done, I'm doing the shafts now, so another month and a half."

And he asked how long it's been total, and I told him that another month and a half would put things at nine and half weeks total and he was like, "Wow, that's a long time." And I'm like, "No, no, no. That's great." And then we started talking about other cue makers and "cue maker time" in general and we got to wondering: what are the current wait times for the top end cue makers in 2011.

So, what are the wait times you're encountering from your favorite cue maker nowadays?

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...


Lou,

Thank you for bringing up this topic.
I am awaiting a new cue from a highly regarded cue maker. Many people told me the waiting list for one of his cues was 2-3 years. When I called the cue maker, he said about 3 months. In reality it's supposed to ship this week and will have been about 5 months in total from the day I ordered it.

Sometimes I think some (certainly not all) sellers inflate the wait time in order to create a false sense of demand and inflate the price to maximize their profit. I guess that's good marketing. When I purchase cues, I like to deal with the cue maker directly. More often than not, I get exactly what I want at a fair price with a reasonable wait time.
 
Wow wow wow what a topic

Let me tell ya.... the wait list of most cue makers is not what is all hyped up by the cue flippers.

Example - I now am on the "Short" list (1 yr vs. 6 - 7 years) of a super regarded cue maker (name I will not reveal).. All it took was a simple phone call and some plain ole person to person conversation and of course a bit of premium monies. Lets face it, some guys get on a cuemakers list just to flip the cue 1 week later for a 30 to 50% profit. This doesn't really sit to well with the cue makers.

Lets be honest there are 1/20th the amount of players around as there were 20 years ago and also most of them just don't have the cash to lay out for a great custom cue. Also the production made cues today really aren't that bad. Plus we have the technology shaft issues...grrrrr

Don't get me wrong, there still are allot of guys out there (myself included) who just love the craftsmanship of a custom cue. The thought of a man having his personal attention and will for shear perfection is true'ly elegant.

We all are a little driven by supply and demand, with that said the price of a cue can be whatever the buyer is willing to bear.

I am not trying to bash my fellow AZ cue sales guys here selling older, rare and vintage pieces of cue art, most/almost all of them are great guys. There commission is based on "a finders" fee. Which is usually pretty darn fair.

So do yourself a simple thing. Find the number of the cue maker you want to work with and just ask the basic simple questions. Remember there "custom" cues, so you can do what ever you want in the design and call it your very own personal piece of wood art that reflects your personality and never misses a ball................
 
Time

dr9ball said:
Lou,

Thank you for bringing up this topic.
I am awaiting a new cue from a highly regarded cue maker. Many people told me the waiting list for one of his cues was 2-3 years. When I called the cue maker, he said about 3 months. In reality it's supposed to ship this week and will have been about 5 months in total from the day I ordered it.

Sometimes I think some (certainly not all) sellers inflate the wait time in order to create a false sense of demand and inflate the price to maximize their profit. I guess that's good marketing. When I purchase cues, I like to deal with the cue maker directly. More often than not, I get exactly what I want at a fair price with a reasonable wait time.
Click to expand...

Time is relevant. Certainly some of the greatest have a long list of customers and you would like to think they do them in order. I imagine they skip around and make some less time consuming cues like sps just to generate revenue. My custom cue from Bob Dzuricky who is very talented but not in the top ten of greatest ever in the world type cue maker took about nine months. He delivered on every aspect of the build. Pics of every stage. Even with a few stumbles caused by wood which doesn't always behave he met the timetable. Unless they are making a sneaky which are many times wood that didn't work out just right for a customer and was somewhat ready to go because of color or customer changing their mind, that butt could be ready pretty quick. If your cue is truly custom/intricate/one of a kind type cue I would run fast from anyone who's says it will be ready in a few weeks. Wood has to rest and stabilize between cuts. I would say one year is very reasonable for a build. If you were having your custom street rod painted would you choose the guy that says more than a month or the guy that says he can do it in three days?
 
currently im at 3-6 months plus depending on complexity also i have alot of guys who like to come and pick out blocks of wood in that instance i quote 12-16 months since im not starting with wood ive been turning for a while.

i think anything under 6-9 months is good especially if theres alot of inlay work to do.
 
I am out 14-16 weeks now. Been realy hard to keep up with the demand since I started a few years ago.
 
I'm currently going on 20 weeks for one, and 16 weeks on another. Both are from Jacoby. I would expect to see them both in the next 8-12 weeks.
 
I personally ordered a custom cue from Schön (6 months) Then I ordered a custom design from Jacoby, I was told 5 months and I received it 5-1/2.
 
there are some cuemakers that no matter how much money you have still wont take your order....:frown: they just have to much work to do...i guess.....i hope its not me....
 
3-6 months usualy is a completly usual amount of time-if the cuemakers really start to manufacture ALL of your cue from beginning. Furthermore you have also to see, what kind of cue he s building. If you order a totally High-end Cue with tons of inlays etc...that cannot be don in a few weeks (talkin just about the inlays). You can also order Full-Splice Cues...if you ordered by one of the rare cuemakers who really make their own splices....this takes also a lot of time.


If you order from a *normal* cuemaker 3 months to 9 months is a normal amount of time. If you re going to order a cue, who s let me say a top 20 cuemaker-the waiting list can be sooooooooooooooooooo long :) that s why ppl paying a lot of money and buying them "ready built" from other guys :)

Be patient if you order what YOU REALLY want,

lg
Ingo
 
I ordered a cue from a cue maker that frequents this forum, a pretty simple design, no fancy inlays or anything. 10 months is the lead time.
To me that sounds reasonable.
Several years waiting time would put me off, unless i was a collector and wanted something really spesific.
 
I have had my custom cue (it was only the butt at the time that I wanted) done last year and he said it would take about 6 months if I remember but he did it a lot faster :)

The thing that we have to know is that he doesn't build cues for a living but as a past time. He's a farmer and he said after he had done his day of work, he would work on my cue until the hours in the morning and my cues has A LOT or details, really high end materials and design.

I asked him why did he work so hard on it and he said that he was putting as many hours as he could because he knew I had an important tournament coming up in the following months and that he was happy that I was a returning customer because I had bought a used cue that someone won that he made for a gift prize for a tournament (guy decided he wanted cash instead) and decided to go to him to have MY custom cue since I liked the one I had.

He does my tip changes too, really nice guy and his cues are perfect in my opinion.
 
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