Riddle me this Batman:...Dale Perry cues..?
- Thread starter tjlmbklr
- Start date
try the search button, I was curious too. searched and read a bunch of threads about him a few weeks ago.
nutshell = dale appearently opted for quanity over quality and lacks in the customer service/people skills department.
theres nothing wrong with them, i mean the same to walmart cues, theres nothing wrong but the quality is different, along with the material. another reason why people opt to not use them is because of the name which is plastered all over ebay. also i hread they just dont hit well. it mostly has to do with the shaft though.
I thought I read about his cues on another thread a few months ago. Now correct me if I'm wrong, yeah it happens, aren't Dale Perry cues being mass produced in China now? That is how he seels em so cheap. Like I said I could be wrong, but I beleive he is importing them. Maybe somebody who knows for sure could chime in.
That is not totally true. Some might have had a negative experiance but I have had several experiance with dale and his cues. I have nothing but positive things to say. One, customer service has been great. I have never had a problem getting him on the phone, making special requests, and getting answers to all my questions.
I have owned 2 of his cues. One that was north of $1500 before he starting selling cuesw on ebay and an ebay cue from about 5 years ago. This was right about the time when he was new to ebay. Were they the best hitting cues? No. Are the cues he is selling now a tremendous value, YES!!!.
Ugh -
Here is the rub fellas.
Dale was making cues and selling them mostly through a distributorship of dealers, some of who had a considerable inventory. Secondly, over the years many of Dales cues were bought from him for $2K+.
Dale started making more cues and selling them through ebay on his own for maybe 10% of what his "old" cues were selling for. This made the cues in distributors inventories and collectors worth about 90% less than what was originally paid for them. Dealers were stuck, individuals were stuck (me included).
Quality less? Maybe, but the bad taste in everyones mouth made them the bad guys and values plumate like the recent stock market.
Today, the "ebay" DP are a value IMO, for the little being paid for them. I dont want one, but thats my opinion.
Ken
As I said in another thread on this. I bought one of Dales cues off his site on EBay for $149 with free shipping, handling, and insurance, and he had great service, one day delivery, the cue looks very nice, and it hits as good as any $500 Viking that I have ever owned. I can see the people that bought his expensive cues for resale and collecting being pissed at him now. But I would think that they would be selling $5000 and up cues to mostly collectors. I would also think they would know the difference between his $150 cues and his $5000 and up cues. I'm buying two more to put away for gifts to reatives and friends that play pool a lot. Johnnyt
A pair of guys I play with on occasion purchased DP cues from ebay. I'd say they are nice cues for the money. If I was looking for a cue with a Radial pin, I'd probably pick one up. The 2 cues I used have(had...) a small weight bolt in it, that when removed made the cues balance forward, which is a preference of mine. You get a lot of design for the money.
Ok i stand sorta corrected. I did read about someone b*tching about a faulty cue that Dale claimed no responsibilty for... Also read he and his shop helpers were now pumping out cues at a blistering pace for "custom" cues.
FWIW I bought a Dale Perry plain-jane when he started selling on Ebay. I'd seen the same cue at a show a few months before for $800 and thought it looked great, so buying direct from the maker for $250 with two shafts seemed a bargain to me at the time.
However there were some issues. Despite me sending it back the linen wrap was never done as well as I would have liked. Also later on it developed a "buzz" from the joint between the handle and the forearm. I had believed in the original listing there was a lifetime warranty, but Mr. Perry said not and I could not find the old Ebay listing by then to prove it. He wanted $300 to repair it, which made no sense at all. He also tried to sell me Uniloc joint protectors for $50 "dealer cost". I just went and ordered a set from the Uniloc website for the actual cost of $25 instead.
It is fascinating how exactly the same goods can change totally in the market place perception based purely on price in many markets, Art most especially. Basically some people pay more to show off the fact that they could afford it, and that they have the taste to recognize the artistic quality that makes it worth paying so much for. It has little to do with the actual quality of the goods themselves, although they will never admit this. Many don't even understand this consciously when they are buying. If the market is suddenly flooded with the same goods at a much lower price people like me can afford to buy them, degrading the perceived social value to the original buyers. As many of the decisions to buy things like high-end pool cues are emotional and sub-conscious, it causes a weird feeling of disconnect in the perception of that item as people cannot reconcile the old price with the new one.
However there were some issues. Despite me sending it back the linen wrap was never done as well as I would have liked. Also later on it developed a "buzz" from the joint between the handle and the forearm. I had believed in the original listing there was a lifetime warranty, but Mr. Perry said not and I could not find the old Ebay listing by then to prove it. He wanted $300 to repair it, which made no sense at all. He also tried to sell me Uniloc joint protectors for $50 "dealer cost". I just went and ordered a set from the Uniloc website for the actual cost of $25 instead.
It is fascinating how exactly the same goods can change totally in the market place perception based purely on price in many markets, Art most especially. Basically some people pay more to show off the fact that they could afford it, and that they have the taste to recognize the artistic quality that makes it worth paying so much for. It has little to do with the actual quality of the goods themselves, although they will never admit this. Many don't even understand this consciously when they are buying. If the market is suddenly flooded with the same goods at a much lower price people like me can afford to buy them, degrading the perceived social value to the original buyers. As many of the decisions to buy things like high-end pool cues are emotional and sub-conscious, it causes a weird feeling of disconnect in the perception of that item as people cannot reconcile the old price with the new one.
I was actually able to look and play with a Dale Perry last night. I met a guy at the tournament I was in last night who had a DP. It was nice looking cue. He paid almost $500 for it on eBay several years ago. It had a Predator shaft with a Moori Medium Tip. The guy who owned the cue commented that he didn't like the shaft that came on it but once he replaced it with the Predator it was much better.
The cue seemed well balanced and has a nice hit to it. I didn't get to play a lot but I did hit a few balls around. There is one on eBay right now I am watching and I figure to try a get my hands on it right at the end of the auction if the price is right.
The cue seemed well balanced and has a nice hit to it. I didn't get to play a lot but I did hit a few balls around. There is one on eBay right now I am watching and I figure to try a get my hands on it right at the end of the auction if the price is right.
Just keep in mind that bushkas and szambotis used to sell for a couple hundred bucks. The reason they're now much more expensive isn't just because they hit better. A lot if it has to do with how collectible something is. Dale's cues are cheap now because they're no longer collectible- quality has little to do with it. My 250 dollar DP cocobolo/malachite cue hits just as well as my Cory Barnhart PJ, provided I am using my Barnhart shaft on it. (Both use radial pins). I have to say, IMHO, the only thing that makes a DP hit weird for some people is the taper on his shafts coupled with the type of finish he uses on them.
from my recall i played with a dp from a fews years back and it played very well ...... good cue.... but my buddy just bought one a couple months ago and it didnt play so well .
has ivory and all the bells and wissels of a good cue but felt production... kinda like a viking .. he still makes nice cues and if thats what you like ok, but for not for. me i dont know what he is doing but its just not the same cue....I have three that I bought on ebay.
I am starting to see some quality problems now,
but as for playability, they are among my best hitting cues.
And I have some pretty nice cues: Mottey, Bender, Scruggs,
Kikel, Olney, Josey, Diviney, etc.
I didn't say that.
I like the hit better than my Bender
and maybe the Mottey.
Ranks right up there with the others.
I got to shoot with one a couple of months back and after having read about them I will say it hit better than I thought it would. It wasn't real solid and something did feel different so I would not say its a great hitting cue. But I wouldn't call it a really bad hitting cue either. The cue ball reaction was pretty good, just the feel from the cue was off.
This is just my personal experience, but I played with a few of his older cues about 8 or 10 years ago, and they were very nice. Hit, feel, looks, finish, etc. I have since had the chance to play with and inspect a couple of the newer, "ebay" cues. In a million years, I personally wouldn't have ever associated the two types. They are totally different. The newer cues seemed, to me at least, to be inferior in pretty much every way. This may have been just the two that I played with, but the finishes, and hits were waaaaay under the old quality. And I know that hit is subjective, but it was a large difference to me, regardless of the quality then vs now. Some may even like the new hit better, but I am fairly sure they would notice the difference.