I had a talk about this the other day.
It seems to me, that the majority of players (not collectors) that own black boars and actually play with them, acquired them before Tony's prices went through the roof.
And the majority of those cues are not ridiculously crazy with inlays, but are instead much simpler then any of Tony's recent work.
Someone mentioned Maidhof.
His is the same way. Started out as a 6 point player.
Basic. 6 points and a wrap. Then later, has some of those leafy thing rings added, and finally, he had a "fish hook" added to the butt to personally identify it as his.
And after all that, it's still a simple 6 point playing cue.
And Maidhof plays with it every day.
Tony had made him a cue before that one, with a couple of rings composed of Diamond shaped inlays, but that cue and Maidhof didn't match up. Something off with the balance or weight...I forget. But that cue was then sold to a guy that comes into the pool room, while Bob waited for Tony to make him another.
And all of this was before Tony had deals with Lucky, or whomever afterwards, at regular custom cue prices.
Same exact thing with my BB's.
All of them are pre skyrocket prices.
And that's one of the reasons they don't get played with much anymore. When one ding, dent, or scratch is going to ultimately cost you more then the cue cost you, and getting a hold of Tony is a pain in the ass, why bother?
I mean, I personally love how his cues play, but that's me. I know plenty of people who hate the way they play, and plenty of people who are hooked on all the LD shaft tech out there, who basically miss every ball they aim at when testing out a boar or other regular shafted cues anyway, so what difference does it make who likes them or not.
That being said, I'd be willing to bet that the majority of "players" that play with his new stuff, are wielding pretty simple basic cues. Nothing fancy.
I've never seen a high end super ridiculous fancy boar in the hands of someone that can actually play.
Funny how that works.
