Rarest Exotic woods
- Thread starter Dwalk70
- Start date
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Doesn't really work that way. The wood is a pretty insignificant part off the cost of a cue.
middleofnowhere
Registered
It could be if the cuemaker used a certain wood in just a few of his cues. I have a rosewood Balabushka. I haven't checked but I don't know how many there are. It is a Spain blank.
Dalbergia woods are the most common for upcharges. Ask someone to build you a Brazilian tulipwood forearm and back sleeve (a nice strawberry colored one
)! Last ones I looked at were going to cost me $300 a stick. That means I would need to upcharge $900 for just the wood before I even start the build.Why you ask?
Because the wood is highly sought after and very seldom available in the sizes/color I need, I will need to upcharge for cost of the market bearing price.
The list continues to grow with the sparsity of "quality" true dalbergia rosewoods becoming harder to acquire. These are the woods that quality, solid cues can be built from. Granted, there are other quality woods.....your Hard Maples, PH, Bubinga, Ebonies, Chechen, Grenadillo, etc.
I'll throw a few burls in that group, however, a quality piece of Amboyna is going to create a bit of an upcharge.
So choosing the correct wood does enhance the value of your cue as much as the person who has built it.
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Do a Google search on the details of the Gibson Guitar raid. That will inform you about rare or protected species of Ebony and Rosewood in particular.
Not quite.
They were raided of Indian Rosewood. Not an uncommon wood . People in India pulled a move on Gibson. They wanted to export pre-made frets . Gibson insisted that they get the raw lumber because they wanted to keep their guitars 100% made in the US.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Dalbergia woods are the most common for upcharges. Ask someone to build you a Brazilian tulipwood forearm and back sleeve (a nice strawberry colored one
Why you ask?
I need to be reimbursed for my original $300 purchase.
I need to replace the piece I just used for your cue which will cost me $300
Because the wood is highly sought after and very seldom available in the sizes/color I need, I will need to upcharge for cost of the market bearing price.
This is just one example......
The list continues to grow with the sparsity of "quality" true dalbergia rosewoods becoming harder to acquire. These are the woods that quality, solid cues can be built from. Granted, there are other quality woods.....your Hard Maples, PH, Bubinga, Ebonies, Chechen, Grenadillo, etc.
I'll throw a few burls in that group, however, a quality piece of Amboyna is going to create a bit of an upcharge.
So choosing the correct wood does enhance the value of your cue as much as the person who has built it.
Uhm, the reason you had the original piece was to sell it, so the up charge should be there current market price plus your profit.
The way you are stating it, the guy is being sold three pieces, not one.
Good for you if you can get it, but only an idiot would buy that explanation.
Your rebuttal is a mere assumption on your part.
My customer is purchasing one cue, not 3 pieces of wood.
So now you are calling my customers that understand this reasoning an idiot?
middleofnowhere
Registered
Aren't some woods misidentified? I remember reading about people being screwed thinking they were buying Pink Ivory and there is a another wood that can fool you.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
You are the one who said you upcharge 3x for one piece of wood. If you told me that, I would chuckle and that would be the end of our business relationship.
Your explanation for charging $900 for a $300 piece of wood does not make any sense.
If that is the case, then you should be charging your customer $300 for that piece of wood. Of course, no one would expect one of your finished cues to be priced equal to the sum of the materials used in the cue, so it's expected that you would mark up the finished price to whatever price was appropriate. If you mark up your finished cues to 3x the price of the materials used, then the $900 price for the $300 piece of wood would make sense.
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DryFlyTrout
Well-known member
I was confused by that too. He is only selling 1 piece but wants to charge for 3.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Yeah, like if I sell you my car.
Hey, you have to pay me for the car.
Now I don't have a car, so you have to buy me one.
Oh, you can afford it, so pay me again for the car.
Utter nonsense.
Buy a piece, charge an extra 20percent. I'm good with that.
Do you make cues ?
You're gonna up charge 20% for cost of Brazilian rosewood or Honduran Burl you had to search all over ?
Why would you charge 20% over when another person or several persons is/are willing to pay a lot more ?
If a named maker charges that little, you'd see that cue flipped in a hurry and the guy who got would bank.
THat's why SW charges a lot more for ebony now .
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Goes back to my original point. The wood isn't the major cost. The time, knowledge, and machinery is.
It isn't the major cost but the time spent and cost of replacement of some woods is worth 3 times the price of purchase now .
If you find a Honduran burl piece for $300, you'd be an idiot to up charge $360 if you are a named maker when that cue can be flipped for over 1K + more.
Well Wood like everything else is going up in price, exotic stuff being premium prices.
Friend make Pens, he say exotic have gone up 40%.
Friend make Pens, he say exotic have gone up 40%.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
I already said, charge for the time finding the wood.
Charge for the desirability of the wood.
Don't tell a guy that he has to buy three pieces of wood because he wants one.
There are plenty of ways to justify a price and a premium. Mr. Barrenbruge's explanation was bs.
In reality, the customer doesn't need anything line itemization for a cue. If he'll pay the asking, great. If not, there are others who might.
The cue maker would charge fair market value for the wood. But the poster essentially said he would sell his piece for $300 but now he doesn't have that wood on the shelf anymore so the customer needs to replace that piece of wood which will cost another $300 then the final $300 I'm assuming that would be his mark up. When you sell inventory the customer should not be expected to pay for the replacement inventory. The cue maker traded 1 piece of wood for cash, transaction over. If the cue maker wants to buy another piece of wood for inventory he does so with money out of his pocket because he will presumably also trade that piece of wood for cash. The cue maker or anyone in business obviously needs to charge enough money to be profitable but not so much money that they cant get customers. People can charge whatever they want for the stuff they sell but the market will eventually determine a fair price, kinda like some of the cues you see for sale for years.