Sorry ... Long post -- a bit of a rant really
cueandcushion said:
As a buyer of guns on the secondary market I strongly believe in it's premise. If a cuemaker (or gunsmith) makes X amount of cues/guns; you have the choice of spending one price and waiting 5 years or spending 3 times as much and moving up the list. I dont see anything wrong with that. It truly seperates the people who are serious about a sport/game/collection and the ones that are only half way invested. Sure...everyone WANTS a Searing for $500 or a Scruggs Sneaky pete for $200. It is realistic by ANY stretch of the imagination? Not really. Deals will occasionally come along now and then but the typical market value is still supply/demand. If Searing ever decides to make crappy cues then his cues will only cost $500. In a free market, RARELY, IF EVER is anything overpriced. People just don't like to pay over a comfort zone price.
I dont always agree with what a secondary market price is...so I just dont buy it. THAT tells me it obviously not a priority for me. Tells me I am looking for a DEAL, NOT a fair market value. If I wanted it bad enough I would take out a home equity loan and buy it. I like Dennis Searings meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail. In a class all by himself. Would I buy one of his cues for $6000? Nope. That tells me I am not a serious enough collector, so I will stick with less expensive cues. I will never knock people for spending their own hard earned money on them tho. I will congratulate them on a fine cue purchase.
Very well said! It is amazing how people will knock what other people will pay for something like it is coming out of their pocket!
I have a great appriciation for high end custom cues. Unfortuneately, my finances do not let me indulge as I would like to. I do "get it" though. If it makes you happy to purchase a $6000 cue, and you have the means, then do it and make yourself happy. Do you not realize that just about any non pool player would look at you crazy if you tell them you spent $250 on a cue stick? The only cues they know about are the ones for $30 at wal mart. They will ask you "is it really ten times as good?". If you do not understand what makes it better, than you are paying too much! You could explain the differences for hours, and they still will not get it. The discussion here is THE EXACT SAME THING, just a few notches up the scale.
Market value is market value. If a cue's ( or any item's) market value is say $1000, what it sells for does not change it's market value (at least not just one isolated sale). If I am fortunate enough to buy it for $200, does that mean its market value has diminished? If I impulsively paid $2000 did the market value change? The answer is no!! The fair market value will stay about the same, even though there will be examples of the item selling above or below it. Only if there is a history of low or high sales (usually due to an outside factor) will it make a lasting change.
Example: a new chevy's market value is say $35,000. A new porche's market value is say about $80,000. You can argue all day long about how no car is worth $80,000 and that you would NEVER pay that much, and anybody who does is crazy, etc, etc. None of this changes the fact that the porche is still worth more than the chevy! Even if I buy a porche for $25,000 by some miracle it still does not change the fact that the porche is worth more! The market as a whole has not been affected by my bargain purchase because there are still many more people who WILL pay the $80,000.
Supply and demand. The fact is there will ALWAYS be more people who want Searing cues than people who have them. That's why a waiting list grows and grows. The demand greatly outweighs the supply. As this gap grows more and more the price goes up and up.
So while there is truth to the saying "it is only worth what someone will pay for it" it is also a misleading statement at times. This phrase is usually used when a potential buyer wants to negotiate a lower price. They say this when they happen to be the only person in the nearby vicinity making an offer, and because THEY are only willing to pay a certain amount, then that must be all the cue is worth. You never hear that same person use this saying when the cue you DID NOT sell them (at their meager offer) DOES sell for many times their offer. In that paticular case "that buyer was nuts". Perspective is everything!
I rememeber trying to sell a nice custom cue awhile back, and a potential buyer was trying to deflate the value by saying how they paid x amount for a cue by cuemaker x, etc, etc, implying that that is what a fair price is. I turned around and said " that sounds good, I'll take two at that price!" A bit of a pause followed, "well, I can't sell you them for that much, don't you know how much they are worth?". "Yes I do, I also know how much MY cue is worth, when you are ready to make a REAL offer, call me!".
I guess what I am saying is that market value is market value, even if you do not want to pay it!
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