onepocketchump said:
1. Dale Perry builds great cues.
2. Dale Perry sells the cue direct to the consumer.
3. Dale Perry is not concerned about the resale value or possible future collectibility.
John,
You are not reading his auctions if you believe this. He clearly tries to sell his 1/1 cues as possible future collectibles and it says so right in the auction. Right under the certificate, under DP cues.
onepocketchump said:
Dale cannot be devaluing the cues he builds through his Ebay sales. Ebay is a sales channel, nothing more and nothing less. Dale Perry is bringing his cues to a market with a hundred million visitors.
Not true again, this auction
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21212&item=3690411059&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW has a starting bid of $ 250.00 with a buy it now of $799.00. So which price is it?
If he is saying the cue is a 799 dollar cue but he is willing to take 250.00 for the cue than he is devalueing his own merchandise. Totally killing the secondary market. Which I probably know more about than any other poster on this forum.
opepocketchump said:
It is every cuemaker's goal to sell everything he can make at a price which will support his family and his business. Almost all of the resellers in the billiard industry that I have dealt with in my 14 years in the business are disloyal and will switch brands in a heartbeat if they think they have a better price.
I think your loyalty statement is true with generic products. I know from experience if I have a good relationship with a custom cuemaker and the relationship and feeling is mutual I would never think of switching. But the flipside is I have seen and created monsters by helping develop a cuemakers name and then having them want to adjust (see lower) my discount after having busted my a$$ at making a name for him so we could both reap the rewards. It is a two way street.
onepocketchump said:
I would like to hear from all of the dealers on this forum and ask which of you would commit to selling 3 Dale Perry Cues per month at an average price of $500 for a year? Would you guarantee Dale that he has 36 cues sold to you for the next year? Let's assume that Dale's capacity is 1 cue per day on average. He would need just ten dealers to commit to 3 cues a month to fill his capacity. I am willing to bet that there are not ten dealers in the country who will step up and commit to selling 3 Dale Perry cues a month. Which of you will get out there and try to push his cues above all others? The truth. None of you will.
First off, its very hard to sell 3 of any one's cues a month. Mainly because there are so many cues to choose from. In the 500 dollar range, to a consumer, they would take a fancier Schon over a plain DP any day. How could I guarantee 36 cues sold for a guy at full retail when he isn't even selling them above dealer cost? Are you nuts? $ 800 to 250.. thats 70% off. How can a dealer compete with the cuemaker at this point? Just ten dealers? How many custom cue dealers do you think are in the country? Better yet, how many custom cuemakers want generically designed CNC cues that can be found anywhere? None of us will because he created his own market on Ebay.
onepocketchump said:
I applaud Dale for selling direct on Ebay. No middlemen, no bullshit. Dale doesn't build cues for their speculative appreciation value, or in other words what they MIGHT be worth in 20 years. He builds cues to play pool with today. Check it out, buy it now and be hitting balls tommorrow.
Again his auctions state differently on the speculative statement. As far as his ebay selling, thats fine. He is entitled and I also applaud him. Thats his niche.
onepocketchump said:
If I ever start making cases again the DEALERS that get them will be a VERY select few. All other cases will be sold DIRECTLY to the player via Ebay, tournaments or whatever way is available for one-on-one transactions.
Just my 02cts,
John
Now lets visit the secondary market. There was a DP cue listed here recently which I was asked to take in on trade. It can't happen with the 70% discount that is being offered on ebay. So thats it in a nut shell. You reap what you sow, so if it is a DP you want I highly recommend you buy it from him off ebay. You won't get a better deal anywhere on that particular cue.
Joe
