A set of 16 ivory cue balls in a rickety wood box with wood dividers sold this week in a poorly publicized auction but still sold for about $1,000. They have no color or numbers, but they are still 16 matching ivory balls. There is a dealer on ebay who takes plain ivory balls and dyes them all red to match then sells them as an original set. Beware, because this set IS REALLY A MATCHING SET so someone is going to be fooled. My original 2 5/16" Brunswick tournament set cost $6k because ivory pool ball sets really are extremely rare unllike billiard balls. I imagine it will take the dealer a few weeks to get numbers scrimshawed onto the balls and dye them, but I assure you these will come onto the market. The set is a little undersized, and he cannot make them larger, so that is the key. I do have a friend that found a real set of smaller ivory pool balls so I want to be careful and go on record here and now in case he ever needs to sell his set for whatever reason, but his ivory is really white and clear. The balls that may be faked have a nice brown patina to them and the funny thing is, about half of them are darker than the others so they will probably be separated that way into stripes and solids. Pool ball collectors call me from all over the country to ask me things constantly so I am just putting this on here so that I do not have to have this conversation fifty times. Beware. ... I know where my set came from ~ they sat in the shop of one of the oldest billiard dealers around, Laner's, probably because the cracks were really deep. Since the balls do not appear to be used much if at all, they probably were bought by the dealer in the 1920s-1930s to sell and cracked in transit. Brunswick did not cover balls damaged in shipping, so the dealer had to eat the loss if they bought ivory balls to display for sale. This, and the expense, is yet another reason for their rarity. Anyway, I hope this thread keeps someone from getting ripped off. The dealer in question has admitted to dying a set red, and it is just a matter of time before he figures out how to dye solid/stripe, traditional colors because that knowledge is on the internet if you look, down to what the actual dyes were made from. Good luck finding a real set guys. I heard a rumor that many years ago when ivory was legal that Playboy sold an ivory pool ball set in their magazine... does anyone have an issue showing this???? I WILL ADD A PHOTO SOON OF THE AUCTION BALLS IN QUESTION
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