Market Predictions
- Thread starter Stew boo
- Start date
First you supply, then you demand.
All the new cues I see for sale from vendors have gone up 20-25% in the past couple of years. A Lucasi that has been $350 for a while is now $420. The Players HXT/PureX line has gone up about 30%-40% in the past several years.
He may mean the minimum street prices that the manufacturers set not price control in the industry which would be illegal per the monopoly and price collusion laws. Apple does the same thing with their products, you can't set a lower discount than your competitors for the most part unless you become a grey market seller and lose the warranty benefits. An iPad that is $400 to buy direct would be say $600 in Amazon and $600 at Best Buy, but if some guy happened to get a hold of some on his own he can sell it out of his van for $500 but it could be an issue if the buyer wanted to get some warranty work done by Apple since the S/N of those devices would not be properly registered with the valid receipts from an authorized seller. I'm guessing many of us already know how that stuff works though anyway.
Cues seem to be holding up ok.
Cars, watches are a disaster right now. Wow are they down.
This is in Budapest, the market is the same here.
Back to pool equipment, I don’t see it going down-inflation will offset that.
The exception will be used equipment from rooms closing.
That’s how I see it, also it might take longer to sell cues. Liquidity might suffer, but not the prices.
Fatboy
Cars, watches are a disaster right now. Wow are they down.
This is in Budapest, the market is the same here.
Back to pool equipment, I don’t see it going down-inflation will offset that.
The exception will be used equipment from rooms closing.
That’s how I see it, also it might take longer to sell cues. Liquidity might suffer, but not the prices.
Fatboy
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Prices for tables will come down, as sales slow, and inventories increase. Just like every thing else, that took a big jump.
Das Cue-Boot
Active member
My opinion, which is of course an educated guess, but still an opinion . . .
Portions of the market highly dependent on labor or limited material resources (like high quality wood billets or tropical hardwoods) will probably remain high, but are at the same time subject to demand saturation. How many beautifully inlaid, handmade cues will the market support? (as a matter of disclosure so you don’t think I’m just another tradition hating curmudgeon, I own several and love them, much to my wife’s chagrin and lack of understanding) At some point the bulk of the market may move away from the hand made artwork and toward the industrial, automated producers, who will have no problem cutting prices to raise market share.
The category that is at huge risk are shafts. Carbon fiber shaft production is relatively easy to automate, not dependent on limited resources, and right now way, way overpriced. I would estimate that actual cost could be in the sub $40 range, which gives reasonable margins for a $100 product. I hear all the talk about feel and sound, but there is no performance aspect where the engineering won’t easily surpass wood, just like it has in almost all other sports. I grew up with wooden tennis racquets, skis, baseball bats, hockey sticks, leather running shoes and tonkin ski poles, and have watched them all go by the wayside. I believe we are going to watch the same with even the best of the wooden LD shafts. Just a matter of time, engineering and economics.
Portions of the market highly dependent on labor or limited material resources (like high quality wood billets or tropical hardwoods) will probably remain high, but are at the same time subject to demand saturation. How many beautifully inlaid, handmade cues will the market support? (as a matter of disclosure so you don’t think I’m just another tradition hating curmudgeon, I own several and love them, much to my wife’s chagrin and lack of understanding) At some point the bulk of the market may move away from the hand made artwork and toward the industrial, automated producers, who will have no problem cutting prices to raise market share.
The category that is at huge risk are shafts. Carbon fiber shaft production is relatively easy to automate, not dependent on limited resources, and right now way, way overpriced. I would estimate that actual cost could be in the sub $40 range, which gives reasonable margins for a $100 product. I hear all the talk about feel and sound, but there is no performance aspect where the engineering won’t easily surpass wood, just like it has in almost all other sports. I grew up with wooden tennis racquets, skis, baseball bats, hockey sticks, leather running shoes and tonkin ski poles, and have watched them all go by the wayside. I believe we are going to watch the same with even the best of the wooden LD shafts. Just a matter of time, engineering and economics.
Haven't worn a watch for over 30 years, just don't see the actual need for one. Remember when I quit, I was at a bar, and realized I was always looking at my watch, for absolutely no reason. Didn't have to be anywhere, just kept looking at it. That was the last time I ever wore a watch. When you free yourself from that crutch, you find out that it's not all that hard to keep tract of time, plus now days with cell phones there really is no need for a watch anyway. Maybe that is why prices are dropping.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
Ye I mostly just wear a watch to show ppl I have 200k on my wrist. But with the latest price drops I have to wear 2.
Some people will always prefer to get the time from a precision-built watch as opposed to 5bux worth of chinese plastic.
When did tell you that? I thought I told Dead Money when we were talking high level business the other night. I told you too?Hookers and blow markets are fairly stable. Heard that from a friend.
Cats out of the bag,
Fatboy
I just bought a 2022 160mm Fox 36 fork with Grip2 damper, which retails for $1,049, for $480. Whoot!
I wear a watch and never look at it. I was around 30 when I got my first watch. I can just “feel” the time. I just wear a watch because I like how it looks. I never look at my phone for the time(rarely).
I can’t get on board with the nautilus PP’s. They are fashion statements that couldn’t sell 15 years ago for 60% back of retail. Also with CNC equipment watches are printed these days, so they aren’t limited by a small pool of skilled watch makers. Bad store of value, unlike 20 years ago-where the prices on grand complications were stable no matter the economy.
Back to pool,
Fatboy
I'm a watch guy. Explained to my wife last year (we were in Hawaii on vacation) that if I wanted the privilege of a Submariner I would have to buy her a less wanted watch (or two) in order to get it and might pay OVER retail. She didn't believe me until we walked into the Rolex store and enquired about one in ANY COLOR/Date or No Date version. This was to buy a 10K+ watch that they make for less then $1000 and supply in a green plastic box.
Today watch prices a plummeting and like a new car you take a 40% hit when you walk out the door.
Ah there you are mistaken. It's male jewelry.
Unless it’s a Stainless Daytona. Those are bullet proof if purchased at retail(good luck).
But yes paying full pop for 98% of the watches out there is a bad idea and you’ll take a huge hit.
I flipped watches for about 5-6 years. Was great fun and paid for a pile of cues.
I haven’t bought a watch in 4 years. And that was the first watch I bought in 7-8 years at that time. Was a new model of an old watch I wear daily. A Sea Dweller. I paid €11,400 for it (retail) I haven’t looked as I’m not selling but it’s trading over retail.
I never wear the fancy stuff anymore
Also works well in biz when you show up with the correct watch on. However that’s fading into a thing of the past as well. It’s not as important as it was.