Is Stupid Stamped On My Forehead?

Purdman

Purdman

Banned
I was going to buy a cue from a friend of mine for $2,000. He has a rather large collection of highend cues and he is a little tight on cash. I was going to help him out. We made the deal last Saturday a week ago. He calls me Friday and says he has $2,200 in the cue and that is what he wanted. I took the cue back to him this Saturday and told him I didn't want it. He told me he needed the cash real bad. I told him that I would be more than willing to unconditionally loan him $2,000 to keep him afloat. All of a sudden, he just wanted the cash as a cushion and didn't want to borrow it. He also was going to sell a cue to a friend of mine for $2,500 and kicked up the price $200 on him also. My buddy said no way and ended up buying the same cue from the guy my friend traded it to for the origional price of $2,500. Is this guy a friend?
I would like to help him out if he is. He should take the time to collect the data, (weight, length, tip size, etc. and write down his price. Stick to it when he makes a deal. What he is doing is disturbing to me. I will never buy a cue from him! That is the result of his action. I was also gonna buy a couple of cues from a guy I met at the US Open. $3,500 and $2,500. Next thing I know, they are $3,800 and $2,800. I ask again, Do I Have Stupid Stamped On My Forehead?
Purdman:rolleyes:
 
Purdman said:
I ask again, Do I Have Stupid Stamped On My Forehead?
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I'll have to check the fine print. :D

Sometimes, if you agree to a price too easily, people think they should have asked for more, then try to kick up the price. You did the right thing by not buying the cues.
 
You are a better friend then most just by offering to loan him the money in the first place. I need a friend like you, any openings?:D
What kind of cue was it?
 
You don't have Stupid written on your forehead, you have MONEY $$$$ and others want it. You should start off by offering a few hundred LESS than your 'friends' in need are asking. You can always go UP to the fair price.

Doug
( I'll sell you my $500 cue for $1,500 if you act immediately.... and I really can use the money. Please, pretty please... )
 
Rich R. said:
I'll have to check the fine print. :D

Sometimes, if you agree to a price too easily, people think they should have asked for more, then try to kick up the price. You did the right thing by not buying the cues.
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+1. Also don't Loan a friend Money. This leads to the end of the friendship very quickly in my experience. Don't get me wrong, if a friend was in town and lost all his money on a bad game or a room trap, I would give him money to get home on. I would just be a gift, as I have done this in the past.
:)
 
Purdman said:
I was going to buy a cue from a friend of mine for $2,000. He has a rather large collection of highend cues and he is a little tight on cash. I was going to help him out. We made the deal last Saturday a week ago. He calls me Friday and says he has $2,200 in the cue and that is what he wanted. I took the cue back to him this Saturday and told him I didn't want it. He told me he needed the cash real bad. I told him that I would be more than willing to unconditionally loan him $2,000 to keep him afloat. All of a sudden, he just wanted the cash as a cushion and didn't want to borrow it. He also was going to sell a cue to a friend of mine for $2,500 and kicked up the price $200 on him also. My buddy said no way and ended up buying the same cue from the guy my friend traded it to for the origional price of $2,500. Is this guy a friend?
I would like to help him out if he is. He should take the time to collect the data, (weight, length, tip size, etc. and write down his price. Stick to it when he makes a deal. What he is doing is disturbing to me. I will never buy a cue from him! That is the result of his action. I was also gonna buy a couple of cues from a guy I met at the US Open. $3,500 and $2,500. Next thing I know, they are $3,800 and $2,800. I ask again, Do I Have Stupid Stamped On My Forehead?
Purdman:rolleyes:
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Well Don sometimes being a good person is the hardest thing to do. Freinds dont take advantage of friends. You have proved to be a great friend to many. This guy is no friend, just a guy who sells cues.
 
Realizations ...

Don, ole boy, you have to keep a few realizations at hand.

1) Some people are friends EXCEPT when it comes to _________ (fill in blank with trait of choice, like money, sex, drugs, their welfare, whatever).

2) You seem to have a caring heart, which can be interpreted to mean that you are naive in certain situations, and easily fooled into purposes which are not as they appear to be. (this one hits home with me a little, especially concerning women ... lol). This arises from believing that all people are good, and would do as you would in a situation, which is not true. But, you already know this, you just don't act on it with due caution.
 
If someone agrees to sell me a cue at a certain price and then all of a sudden jacks up the price right in front of my face, i might have to smash the cue into splinterwood, and just walk away. Then he's getting ZERO, and if he thinks that he's gonna get a dime from me for any damage, he won't. Believe me he won't.
It is one thing to show the cue around, and try and get the best price, it is another to advertise it at a certain price and then try and bump it up because someone might really really like it, or "LOOK" like they can afford the extra.
It's just like when i see certain cues at pool halls that are rare, and then because of a few people looking at it, and then a similar cue gets sold for an alleged higher private sale price, the next time i walk in, the cue is like $500 more then before. I always laugh in these situations cause i know i'm not stupid, and have to wonder if the owner really thinks that someone is that dumb.
Obviosuly, there are people who might have never seen the original price, but for those who have, it's like a slap in the face with the "i think your stupid glove"

It reminds me of when i was 6, and my dad took us to get a puppy from a kennel, and of course the price stated over the phone got tossed out the window as soon as the frontman saw us roll up in a BMW.

My dad ended up arguing with the guy about driving all the way out there after the agreed upon price, and then when the true owner came out and asked what the problem was, my dad explained the situation.

So the owner asked the guy what he had said over the phone, and they guy blatantly lied, at which point, my dad went back to the car, and got out a microcassette on which he had been doing dictation at home, which he just happened to have record the whole phone conversation including the prices for the litter we were looking at.

Once he played it, the owner fired the other guy on the spot, and offered us a discount on whichever puppy we chose.
I had the BIGGEST smile on my face the whole ride home. No so much because we had a new puppy, but because they guy got what he deserved.

It was so sweet.

So when i see cuepeddlers doing the same thing, i am just waiting for them to get the shaft, but GOOD.
 
SUPERSTAR said:
...I always laugh in these situations cause i know i'm not stupid, and have to wonder if the owner really thinks that someone is that dumb.
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Sadly there are people that, while not stupid or dumb, are totally clueless to the market value of cues.

My local room owner for example. Nicest guy you could ever meet, would give you the shirt off his back, but unless it has a McDermott clover on it or has a picture in the blue book, he has no idea of the value.
Custom cue makers are foreign to him. Ive seen him pass up trades where guy where offering Motteys, Westons etc. for production cues because he had never heard of the maker..:eek:
He sold a mint early 80s Tulipwood Scruggs Saturday for $700...just don't know what he has I guess.
 
Sore_Aintya said:
You are a better friend then most just by offering to loan him the money in the first place. I need a friend like you, any openings?:D
What kind of cue was it?
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Andy Gilbert Titlist conversion. Ivory and abolone inlays. I really didn't like the way it played either.
Purdman:cool:
 
I get in the same deals.....

I have the same deal here. People come to me to buy their cues when they need some bucks.

They dont like me, and they dont like it that if I buy their cues, I usually put them on ebay, or get another shaft made, or get them refinished then put them on ebay or somewhere and sell them.

Yes, I make a profit on them. But I dont hold a gun to their heads, I offer to list them on ebay and split the profits, but usually they want cash immediately, without risking potential payoff.

But friends are friends, and business is business. I dont hide what my intentions are, and if they ask what I eventually sold their old cue for, I tell them honestly.

I also notice that if they have a cue, they will try to sell to everyone and their brother before bringing it to me. They will try to sell it for less to others before selling it to me. I still have the option of buying it or not, and like them they are not holding a gun to my head.

My ramblings,

ken
 
Smorgass Bored said:
You don't have Stupid written on your forehead, you have MONEY $$$$ and others want it. You should start off by offering a few hundred LESS than your 'friends' in need are asking. You can always go UP to the fair price.

Doug
( I'll sell you my $500 cue for $1,500 if you act immediately.... and I really can use the money. Please, pretty please... )
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He had $3,500 on it. The condition was that we do not make money on our friends. IE, each other. I was going to just give him what he had in it. Period. He is to smart to not know in the first place.
Purdman:D
 
CaptainHook said:
+1. Also don't Loan a friend Money. This leads to the end of the friendship very quickly in my experience. Don't get me wrong, if a friend was in town and lost all his money on a bad game or a room trap, I would give him money to get home on. I would just be a gift, as I have done this in the past.
:)
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Unconditional pretty much mean a gift my friend. The guy has close to half a million in cues! I am sure he would give it back sometime. I just wasn't worried about it. I cetainly ain't rich buddy. I am sitting here at work right now. Up at 5 am off at 2:30 pm. Got to do it man. I think I am fortunate in that I like my job!
Purdman:cool:
 
some people are traders

Some people I call traders for lack of a better name. They buy cheap any way they can and sell high. I have given a few a deal simply out of friendship and believing the claim that they wanted something for themselves. Within a week the items are for sale for what I knew they were worth to begin with. These guys are well off but it is a way of life with them.

I'm still friendly with these people but knowing what they are I am not really friends with them. I don't care for people who are always out to make a buck, even off of their friends and own family and I have seen people who didn't hesitate to try to make money off of their own parents or siblings.

Hu
 
SUPERSTAR said:
It reminds me of when i was 6, and my dad took us to get a puppy from a kennel, and of course the price stated over the phone got tossed out the window as soon as the frontman saw us roll up in a BMW.

My dad ended up arguing with the guy about driving all the way out there after the agreed upon price, and then when the true owner came out and asked what the problem was, my dad explained the situation.

So the owner asked the guy what he had said over the phone, and they guy blatantly lied, at which point, my dad went back to the car, and got out a microcassette on which he had been doing dictation at home, which he just happened to have record the whole phone conversation including the prices for the litter we were looking at.

Once he played it, the owner fired the other guy on the spot, and offered us a discount on whichever puppy we chose.
I had the BIGGEST smile on my face the whole ride home. No so much because we had a new puppy, but because they guy got what he deserved.

It was so sweet.

QUOTE]

I think at 6, you were just plain glad to see someone else get a spanking besides yourself. :-)
JoeyA
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Supper Star sed:
....the owner fired the other guy on the spot, and offered us a discount on whichever puppy we chose.
I had the BIGGEST smile on my face the whole ride home.

It was so sweet.


You ATE the puppy ?
Doug
 
I've always had a firm belief in right and wrong. That was just a clear example where the wrongdoer got what he deserved.

If i was bad and getting spanked, then i wouldn't have been getting the puppy now would i.
 
I would have passed too. Nice of you to offer the loan. Personally only loan out money to very select few, who have shown they will pay it back when they can. Not in a position to offer such a large loan, but would if I was.

Some people are just going to look out for themselves, without thought to what its actually costing them.


To be perfectly honest, I just jacked up my price on a cue from what I had it listed for. But its having a new shaft made, and being refinished and I'm out the shipping and time.
 
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Like a used car dealer this guy is trying to squeeze every last cent he can get out of you. Thats part of the thrill for some people. Just walk away like you would at the car dealership.
If you didn't know this about him then I wouldn't consider him a close friend.
 
You don't have stupid written on your head but other people just can't read.

A deal is a deal. This just goes to prove what I have learned from years on the road. Cues don't taste good when they are all you have to eat.

Your fellow collector doesn't see you friendship in the same light that you do. If he agreed to $2000 then that is what he should have accepted. If he had $2200 in it then he should have informed you of that fact and asked for $2200. If you and he are good friends with an agreement not to make money off of each other then you would have paid the $2200 as you don't want to steal the cue while the guy is down.

Cues are worthless in the grand scheme of things. The value of them has more ups and downs and twists than most rollercoasters. When things get tight, the value of cue becomes readily apparent. In fact, this applies to most things.

The friendship is worth more well than the cue. You offered a loan without collateral instead of being taken advantage of for $200. This is what a friend would do. The story as reported by you has that friendship weighted heavily to one side.
 
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