Question for cue dealers/brokers

[Shorty]

How long do you sit on a cue before you decide to take a loss and sell it? In other words, let's say you buy a cue for 1500, then turn around and try and sell it for 2000. It goes six or eight months without selling and so you decide to come down off the 2k price. Where do you stop coming down? Do you lower the price til you sell it? How much of a profit margin do you try to get off a cue realistically? I mean there is no way you can take every cue and double the price, so what is a reasonable markup that allows you to make profit but still move product.

Just looking for marketing advice is all,
Shorty

 

[cornerstone]

shorty

How long do you sit on a cue before you decide to take a loss and sell it? In other words, let's say you buy a cue for 1500, then turn around and try and sell it for 2000. It goes six or eight months without selling and so you decide to come down off the 2k price. Where do you stop coming down? Do you lower the price til you sell it? How much of a profit margin do you try to get off a cue realistically? I mean there is no way you can take every cue and double the price, so what is a reasonable markup that allows you to make profit but still move product.

Just looking for marketing advice is all,
Shorty

I dont have very many cues i sit on for more than 4 mos. but every once in a while ill run one on e-bay like i did with the cognosenti, because the market got flooded with them all at once! and i did take a 400 .00 loss on that one. but very rarely! my mark up ( because I pay cash for every thing on my site) and i own everything but 2 pieces on my site! mark up is any where from15% to 30% " BUt of that 10% of gross sales goes to a charity or non profit org -of the buyers choice. so when i recieve a check from a buyer of $5000.00 I give the buyer a choice ,he can choose the charity / pick one from my links on my back page /or we will pick it and send it/and we send the $500.00 check to the charity with the cue and they mail it in! one thing is it has to be a non profit org not the charity fund of shorty . but it has to be run like a buisness and if i have to sit on a cue I dont mind because I only buy what i like and if i have to sit on it no big deal! Iam very picky as to what i buy and what i sell . alot of it never makes it to my site before being bought! If you are thinking on getting started in sales I wish you all the luck its alot of fun to turn your hobby into a buisness that is profitable!and you get to stay at home with your family wich makes it a true blessing ! Best wishes shorty HOPE THAT answers your ?

 

[classiccues]

How long do you sit on a cue before you decide to take a loss and sell it? In other words, let's say you buy a cue for 1500, then turn around and try and sell it for 2000. It goes six or eight months without selling and so you decide to come down off the 2k price. Where do you stop coming down? Do you lower the price til you sell it? How much of a profit margin do you try to get off a cue realistically? I mean there is no way you can take every cue and double the price, so what is a reasonable markup that allows you to make profit but still move product.

Just looking for marketing advice is all,
Shorty

One question at a time

1- Never.. lol
2- We have let a few go at "cost"
3- Depends on the cue
4- Depends on the cue

First off, I want to address some things that always come up. There is a large difference between buying new and buying pre-owned. When we get a new cue from Mottey or Skip or whomever there is a "retail price". Depending upon the wait or popularity of the cuemaker at that moment their maybe a slight stocking fee. But realize these wholesale prices are not discounted that highly. We have agreements about how low we can go, we also have certain trade back agreements in case a cue sits for a long time for what we call design issues. (UAC syndrome)

When you buy a South West, new unchalked, you pay a premium. Maybe 50-100 / year of wait. This is not uncommon with Barry Szamboti cues, SW, Searing etc.. There is one cuemaker that is starting to price his cues to his secondary market status and IMHO it will bite him in the a$$.

Used cues are a totally different animal. We can discuss buy prices, sitting on them, all day. How people get insulted when you don't offer "book" on trades, etc.. Why we don't do it, etc.. No dealer wants to get stuck with a mutt in an AKC dogshow, know what I mean? It would make for an interesting discussion, depending upon the amount of honest input it received.

Joe

 

[Shorty]

Used cues are a totally different animal. We can discuss buy prices, sitting on them, all day. How people get insulted when you don't offer "book" on trades, etc.. Why we don't do it, etc.. No dealer wants to get stuck with a mutt in an AKC dogshow, know what I mean? It would make for an interesting discussion, depending upon the amount of honest input it received.

And this is what I was hoping to discuss precisely Joe. The used cue market/trade/sell area. A for instance, I am always looking at your PFD titleist there...I keep eyeing it every week. I don't think it's worth what you are asking. Not insulting you or anything at all...I just think the price is out of line. I am not insulting your site or your pricing...just on that particular cue, I feel it is overpriced. I am buying a brand new titleist conversion made by a more prominant pool cue maker for a lot less than that price. I am not allowed to say who or for how much, because I am a man of my word. I think alot of cue brokers/dealers here have prices that are way inflated for certain cues, not meaning to single you out at all. Heck, even myself I will get happy and overprice a cue trying to turn a profit for once every now and then. I have actually only profitted on two cues in the last year and a half I have been doing this now. If I had to add up all I am in the red, I would be well over 1k in debt. My point is, I am not a good cue businessman...so I want to learn to be a better one.

Thanks,
Shorty

 

[Ken_4fun]

Cue Prices

Shorty -

I have bought and sold probably 20K in cues in the last few years. My advice is try to buy them better than you sell them. What I mean by that is look for a real deal if you are going to try to resell. I wanted a Gina and I have paid pretty much list or retail for that cue, but that cue isnt one I was going to try to turn.

Meucci, Joss, Scruggs seem to turn well for me and I can usually buy very cheap, usually do some tip work, clean shafts and sometimes even have them refinished. Giggle all you want, I can turn a Meucci in less than a week and make 100+. No, I dont play with them, but they sell pretty easy.

I never have lost money on a cue. Broke even at worst, otherwise I will hang on to cue. But for me the key is to buy them right. Selling to make a profit is realitively easy. If you pay too much, you will lose. Trust me someone trying to sell a cue is much more motivated than I am buying it otherwise I walk away.

My thoughts, and good luck.

Your friend
Ken

 

[TATE]

How long do you sit on a cue before you decide to take a loss and sell it? In other words, let's say you buy a cue for 1500, then turn around and try and sell it for 2000. It goes six or eight months without selling and so you decide to come down off the 2k price. Where do you stop coming down? Do you lower the price til you sell it? How much of a profit margin do you try to get off a cue realistically? I mean there is no way you can take every cue and double the price, so what is a reasonable markup that allows you to make profit but still move product.

Just looking for marketing advice is all,
Shorty

I don't do it for a living, so I just get rid of them.I just dump them on E-Bay with a no reserve auction. If I don't get as much as I hoped, I just move on.

When you buy and sell in that fashion, sometimes you get more than you expect and sometimes less, but the cue always sells.

No matter how low or high a cue goes for, I give excellent service to the buyer. Sometimes when a cue goes low, I sense a "sour grapes" attitude in the seller. I ship FedEx 2 day insured and e-mail the tracking number and full shipping details. I pack the cue well and give a money back guarantee (no questions asked) and always follow up to make sure the buyer is satisfied. There are times when I agree to pay for cost of repairs if they notice something wrong that I didn't.

Chris

 

[TATE]

Shorty -

I have bought and sold probably 20K in cues in the last few years. My advice is try to buy them better than you sell them. What I mean by that is look for a real deal if you are going to try to resell. I wanted a Gina and I have paid pretty much list or retail for that cue, but that cue isnt one I was going to try to turn.

Meucci, Joss, Scruggs seem to turn well for me and I can usually buy very cheap, usually do some tip work, clean shafts and sometimes even have them refinished. Giggle all you want, I can turn a Meucci in less than a week and make 100+. No, I dont play with them, but they sell pretty easy.

I never have lost money on a cue. Broke even at worst, otherwise I will hang on to cue. But for me the key is to buy them right. Selling to make a profit is realitively easy. If you pay too much, you will lose. Trust me someone trying to sell a cue is much more motivated than I am buying it otherwise I walk away.

My thoughts, and good luck.

Your friend
Ken

I totally agree on the buying issue. However, I too will pay full bore if I want a cue for my collection. You can't bargain-hunt and get everything you want.

I no longer buy to turn over for a profit - it takes too much time. However, some things come up that are just too good, for example a "buy-it-now' might be drastically underpriced. I've bought cues that way and made a 100% profit overnight. The greed gets the better of me.

I firmly believe that if someone were an expert in antiques, such as collectibles, billiard stuff, books and and musical instruments, they could make a reasonable retirement type of living on e-bay scanning the new listings all day and using "buy-it-now" or making offers to buy undervalued items.

I used to do that with billiard stuff for fun and almost every day would buy stuff at half the auctionable rate. I know a guy who bought a package of Tim Scruggs sneaky petes and other stuff on e-nbay and made about a $2000 profit on just the one deal. I've made $1000 profits on single cues and a lot in the $500 profit range on single cues.

I've also overpaid for what I though was a good deal. The most I lost on a single cue was $300. It was one of theose re-issued McDermott Masterpieces. When they first re-issued them, I didn't know they had done it and paid about $750 for it. I went to re-sell it and found out it wasn't an original one, so I sold it for $450 with an updated description.

I took some real risks too. I bought poorly advertised cues from people that couldn't be recognized by the photos. I ended up with a garage sale Palmer "I" with a Szamboti splice that was barely recognizable under all the crud. My Palmer 1st catalog Model 11 was not recognizable because the finish was so bad. I have not seen another one for sale. My model 9 1st catalog with the ebony Titlist I picked up for $550 in an auction with two shafts and a case because the photos were not recognizable and it is a great cue.

Then every once in a while you get derailed. I've also bought some cues that needed too much work or were modified or had poor reapirs done to them.

It's all part of the gig.

Chris

 

[classiccues]

And this is what I was hoping to discuss precisely Joe. The used cue market/trade/sell area. A for instance, I am always looking at your PFD titleist there...I keep eyeing it every week. I don't think it's worth what you are asking. Not insulting you or anything at all...I just think the price is out of line. I am not insulting your site or your pricing...just on that particular cue, I feel it is overpriced. I am buying a brand new titleist conversion made by a more prominant pool cue maker for a lot less than that price. I am not allowed to say who or for how much, because I am a man of my word. I think alot of cue brokers/dealers here have prices that are way inflated for certain cues, not meaning to single you out at all. Heck, even myself I will get happy and overprice a cue trying to turn a profit for once every now and then. I have actually only profitted on two cues in the last year and a half I have been doing this now. If I had to add up all I am in the red, I would be well over 1k in debt. My point is, I am not a good cue businessman...so I want to learn to be a better one.

Thanks,
Shorty

Shorty,
No offense taken. It is a consigned cue and I have no idea of resale value on certain cuemakers, PFD being one of them. I was asked to put it up and I did. I do think the whole market is soft but, thats another story. I checked my sheet and he is into the cue close to the asking price. So in all likely hood he bought it a few years ago when the cuemarket was better.
Look at the PFD titlist on ebay right now (no offense Bogey) its a steel jointed cue without the inlays on the prongs. So comparatively speaking 400 for the ivory joint, PFD would probably charge 75 / inlay on the points, so really I don't think the cue is that out of line. I don't know if the radial pin makes a difference.
Its a shame your not allowed to say who, because I frequently get this story from people then find out that the more prominent cuemaker is someone that the only people who know the cuemaker are immediate family and 3 guys at the local watering hole. The other thing PFD is pretty prominent, and if you don't believe it, just ask him. There aren't to many cuemakers above him.
As far as overpricing, I think its all relative. The one thing I notice is everyone wants something for free. Hence all the people who get pissed when a good deal gets yanked off ebay prematurely. You also have to realize when we dissipate a collection the initial buyer would like to either make some money or break even. No matter how much you explain to people that in this market it might not be possible, it falls on deaf ears. I see alot of people selling in this market and its a buyers market, so what do you expect?
Pool may never seen 1994-2001 again, so if you bought hi in this time period, and now try to unload you are in for a surprise.
One other thing is we limit our buying and trading. If you take in mutts chances are you will be putting them to sleep.

Joe