Custom cues are pretty and some play great but some play like crap. The finish on some custom cues is made by hand and is no way near the finish of the high level production cues that uses the same type of finish that is used in the car industry. The costruction is not always greath either, you can see that after a few years when you can acually feel the inlays, rings and the points through the finish. Some even pop through the finish. Some of those nice custom cues don't stay straight after 20 years...
Now all these issue could occur with production cues as well, but then you lose a couple of hundreds and not a couple of thousands.
I have a bunch of cues (over 20), some high end production, some by custom cue makers. I really like pool cues, I consider them to be "functional art" pieces. but to be honest, if I was living in the US where there is a market for cues, I would probably sell them all and keep like 3 cues to play with. And if I was just starting, I would get a nice set of production cues (player, breaker and a jumper) and that's it.