For a very long time I was shooting with a house cue. I was just too broke and lazy to get a stick, and I pretty much went by 'it's the indian not the arrow' to borrow someone else's phrase.
But my buddy took pity on me and lent me his McDermott sneaky pete. It's exactly like a house cue except for being in obviously better condition. When he told me it was almost 300 bucks I thought he was shitting me. But having played with it for months now, I'm really liking it, and I want to buy it from him (and the jerk won't sell haha).
I'm not a cue guy, I don't know anything about them except what I like and don't like, and I like the hit on this cue a lot. I think what makes it seem so good is I just don't ever notice it when I'm shooting. It feels natural and smooth and I don't ever think about the existence of the stick. With other cues I will sometimes notice the tip vibrating rapidly after a firm hit with a lot of english, I can sorta see it bend and deflect out of the corner of my eye. Or I'll hit the ball and get some sort of feedback or jitter, sometimes from a joint that doesn't screw tightly together. With this I just don't notice or feel a thing. I just play with it and it never lets me down.