I do not own one of his cues, never have, and have never personally examined one. So...I am as ignorant in the matter as most people. These are just my thoughts.
The reviews are always mixed. Clearly he created a lot of controversy when he changed his business model. Clearly he adversely altered the value of his older cues and that ticked people off. But I think moving to Ebay ticked off the cue dealers even more.
I think it's clear from reports that the quality is now inconsistent.
Whether or not the cues are "custom" is a debate. That term is often debatable. Many Gina cues were catalog cues and nobody questions that they are "custom". I often use Gina as an examples in discussion on this matter.
At the moment it seems all Perry produces are 1/1 cues, never repeating a design. Does that mean "custom"? That is open to inter[retation I think. Granted in some cases the differences might be slight and he does repeat many CNC design elements.
As far as I know, Perry will still custom build a cue to order.
As far as I know his cues are still produced by himself and an assistant.
I have a friend who is curious, a long time player who is just getting interested in cues. He asked, and I filled him in on the history. Since we are in the area we plan to visit Dale Perry at his shop. When we do, I will post what I find. I have been planning to do this for several years and have not gotten around to it. Having a friend that is curious gives me new motivation.
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