To be fair, I think it's common to buy a playing cue without trying it today.
If you order a cue from any of the big makers like McDermott, Viking, Joss, Pechauer, Jacoby, Meucci, etc, you don't get to try it first. We trust the makers, maybe played with their cues before, and the makers have reputations for a certain "hit", but there is still variation.
If you order a custom, you buy it without trying it first. We trust them to produce a certain consistency, but again there are variations. The best tend to be very consistent. If you ordered a SW you got it many years later without trying it, but we trust it will play like a SW.
Plenty of people buy new cues without trying, and used cues without trying, while they are looking for a player. We see them for sale here on AZB every day. People say outright they have the cue or cues for sale because they bought them while looking for their player and the cue or cues for sale were not it.
The online retailers are huge. People buy without trying first commonly, more common now than ever.
This is true of shafts as well. We see lots of discussions here when people ask about a shaft before ordering one.
Yesterday I played for five hours with my block letter Joss, a Joss I got from a pawn shop, an E series McDermott, A Pechauer, and three different ebony full splice conversions with several different shafts. I enjoy doing that. I played most of the time with an ebony full splice conversion with an unknown shaft I got recently that has an ivory ferrule, When we put some money on the games, I used my Joss with a Scruggs shaft.
Of all those cues the only one I tried first was my block letter Joss back in 1985 when I bought it used. Honestly, they are all excellent players, though slightly different.
Even when you try a cue, there is an adjustment period anyway.
So, I don't know for sure but is it really so different or unusual for people to buy a player without trying it? Is it really crazy?
