well considering that Kersenbrock isn't making many cues under $10k these days, I would say he is doing all right. Although, his successes can certainly be partly credited to Ed Young who has provided David a pretty consistent work arena.
There is some confusion as to the design origin of the SW cues versus the Kersenbrock cues. SW will have you think that the desing is original, but there are an aweful lot of authentic Kersenbrocks out there with the same design. I think the desing probably evolved and they both used it liberally. Part of the problem is that when SW got started when David was around, many of those cues were sold in the mid west from a certain person who told people they were buying Kersenbrock cues when they were really buying SWs. There were tons of them around Chicago and there still are. I have an interesting situation. I have a cue that was supposedly made by Kersenbrock (supported by Ed Young and David himself) that is quite old. I sent a pic to Laurie at SW and she said that she thought it was made by her late husband. I was in the process of selling it on Ebay when I discovered the problem. So I took it down and decided to keep it for now. I would like to get both of them to give me an authentication letter. I think it would be wild to have cue that is claimed to have been made by two different people. I am pretty sure it is a Kersenbrock because the taper on it is different than any Franklin-era SW, and is very old school. That doesn't mean that Franklin didn't make it...which is why I didn't think it was right to sell it as a Kersenbrock without question. It is on my web site, but I have not updated the story about the cue yet. Take a look at it and let me know what you think:
http://www.3cushion.com/On Line Collection/Cues/kersenbrock.htm
As far as the Satin cue goes, I think I have an outstanding collectible cue which was total luck on my part. I originally bought the cue to use it since it was already beaten up pretty badly...and since I don't play much pool at all annually, I thought it would be cool to have a beat up SW with which to play. Of course, as things go sometimes, I stumbled into a really rare cue. Now it has two shafts and looks brand new thanks to SW.
Deno