Chris, one thing I noticed at a recent BCA western 8 ball championships tourney in Lincoln City, Oregon. Within this tourney was a seperate invitational called "grand masters challenge". The top level Pacific Northwest players were in this round robin invitational. Glenn Atwell, Rich Geiler, Matt Horner, Dan Louie, Todd Marsh, Eddie Mataya, Don Wirtaman, & Bob Zack. Any of these guys would demand respect in any hall in the country!
Their cues? They may have been customs, but for the most part they were very plain Jane cues..
To see fancier cues, I had to go to the lower division matches. That's where I spotted the really expen$ive wood.
My conclusion? High talent players buy low profile cues, but cues that work for them. It's we lower talent guys who make the cash registers ring because we search for that magic arrow while knowing deep inside there really is no such thing.
Of course, there are exceptions to any rule of thumb...