It doesn't matter if it is a watch, a car, a pen, a guitar or a pool cue, there will always be someone that is top of the heap. Dennis has the ability to fill that position. While a few of his earlier cues are not my cup of tea, overall his cues rather pleasing to the eye.
If you look back at greats, George, Gus, Balner, Ernie, Tad, Herman, DPK, Peterson, Runde, Spain, all the influential makers from the time span between the 50's and the mid 80's, beside crafting outstanding playing cues, they all have built cues with great aesthetics.
Most people don't like points where the gap is too wide, something as small as a 1/16", and it can look disproportionate. Inlays too large or too small, look odd. Busy cues are generally ugly to most, but when Tad did a cue to the hilt, it looked amazing, as his inlays where in the correct proportion to be found pleasing and well executed. George's short snubbed nosed pins from his early cues are nowhere near as good looking as the gently rounded pins he came to use as a standard, with a specific length to boot.
While I have never laid hands on a Searing, or through unfiltered eyes, but it would seem that his execution is exceptional, using the highest available quality of materials, built under the precise eye of a true professional to the highest calibre, and he has an eye for pleasing proportions and understated elegance. On top of that, they apparently do their job of being a pool cue quite well too.
The statement regarding 80-90% of pool players not knowing who Dennis is, well, ask 100 people who wear watches if they know what Vacheron Constantin or Patek Phillippe is and I'm sure you will get a lot of shoulder shrugs and blank stares.
So, while I can not afford a Searing, I won't bash the prices that the cues demand. There are some exceptionally DEEP pockets in this forum who wouldn't bat an eye at dropping 10-100k at an investment, which is what the custom cue market has been for quite a while.
