selling your personal playing cue??

T

Trent

Banned
i posted pis a while ago in the gallery of a cue i made for my self and yesterday i was out playing pool with a friend and he asked if i would be willing to sell my cue and i was reluctant but in the end sold it.

now im back to playing with the first cue i ever made which is not the greatest example of what im making now lol

so the question is, how often do you get asked to sell your personal cues? and what is your typical response??


thanks in advance.
 
I have limited time to work on cues right now, with school and kids but I'm always wanting to take the next step or try something new. Sometimes I just lack the time or motivation to get started, so when someone has cash, I usually say here you go. It puts pressure on me to get to work on my next idea, so I have something nice to shoot with again.
 
Trent said:
i posted pis a while ago in the gallery of a cue i made for my self and yesterday i was out playing pool with a friend and he asked if i would be willing to sell my cue and i was reluctant but in the end sold it.

now im back to playing with the first cue i ever made which is not the greatest example of what im making now lol

so the question is, how often do you get asked to sell your personal cues? and what is your typical response??


thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
i've sold two i swore i'd never sell :rolleyes:
what can i say, i'm weak
one advantage trent>
now i can blame my shooting crappy on getting used to another cue :thumbup:
 
BHQ said:
i've sold two i swore i'd never sell :rolleyes:
what can i say, i'm weak
one advantage trent>
now i can blame my shooting crappy on getting used to another cue :thumbup:
Click to expand...

lol always good to have a excuse to fall back on.

now im wonder what i can throw together for another cue of my own im thinking maybe a all curly maple cue with 4 points and the only thing not curly maple would be the vennerrs and the joint and butt cap......:thumbup:

i gotta get a day off work first tho.
 
I've sold nearly a dozen of my own players.
Sold my latest one two days ago! I tend to stick to oil-finished sneaky petes, that way when someone just has to have it, I can make another one real quick.
 
so the question is, how often do you get asked to sell your personal cues? and what is your typical response??


I usually keep a cue for about 2 years & then sell it. I've had my present player about 8 years. I have a new one finished & ready for clearcoat, so I will be retiring another one. My present cue is #15 on my web site. # 21 & #26 were former players of mine...JER
 
A builders personal cue is wanted and saying no makes them want it more.

My cue is not for sale!!
Offer me double and you'll get the same answer. NOT FOR SALE!!

I've regretted selling my player and will not do it again. The quick cash isn't worth it.

If you have customers waiting on a list selling cues outside that list is asking for problems.
 
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Trent said:
i posted pis a while ago in the gallery of a cue i made for my self and yesterday i was out playing pool with a friend and he asked if i would be willing to sell my cue and i was reluctant but in the end sold it.

now im back to playing with the first cue i ever made which is not the greatest example of what im making now lol

so the question is, how often do you get asked to sell your personal cues? and what is your typical response??


thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Yes and no. I have sold lots of cues I was playing with but I have a cue I made maybe 10 years ago that I have tinkered with and refined over time, a nice luxury when you can do it yourself. Experimented with shafts, tapers, ferrule lengths, and so on. About a year ago I even took down the butt just a hair and love it. I could never sell this cue it was too hard to come by through trial and error. No matter what a cue maker says, no two cues come out exactly the same. When you have one you really like you can't sell it. The poor cue buying public who order cues are just hoping and gambling it lives up to their expectations. The cue maker on the other hand can make their own cue everything they imagine it should be but it often takes time and tinkering.
 
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it seems that everytime i build myself a new player someone wants to buy it. i usually hold off for a few months then end up letting it go. Because I work a full time job its hard for me to find time to build a new one. But the whole cash in hand thing makes it a little easier :)
 
Not a bad problem to have. I know a new builder who has a whole dealer case of cues to play with. No one wants to buy them. If you can't keep a playing cue, it's time to raise your prices! JMHO

Larry
 
Not that I've been doing this for 20 years and have dozens of examples...But...

My butterfly cue is my one pocket and banks cue...and my "not so" sneaky pete with the rings and MOP dots is for rotation style games or 8 ball.....I can use either for either but Each has its own unique characteristics that make more like each for the games I stated.

My first cue that I built as my personal player (actually the first cue I ever build from start to finish) while working in the weinstock shop....WAS STOLEN....

(my not so sneaky is similar and is kinda like a tribute cue to my first cue that got stolen in combination with qualities of the first cue I ever built with Joel)

I wouldn't have sold it anyways, it was a really good hitting cue and it was my first so NOT FOR SALE.....so they got it with the 5 finger discount....

When i got my own equipment last spring I finished the butterfly cue i had started up in tulsa, and completed the sneaky as my birthday present on July 23.......

The sneaky would only cost oh I dunno 500.....handle has the crazy looking fade in it and it flat out looks great and turns heads for as simple as it is.....

I've had at least a couple dozen people ask if it was for sale, and about a half dozen inquiring about the butterfly.......

Last guy that asked me how much I would sell the "Not So Sneaky" Pete for, I flat out told him $3,000 and had the VAN DAM serious face on while saying it too....

He says...... WTF? WHY NOT YOU BUILD CUES TO SELL DON'T YOU!!!


I looked at him once again with the Van Dam face and said

My sole purpose it not to build cues to sell...., I build them b/c I enjoy pool and enjoy wood working and it fits perfectly together.....its only a hobby right now. If I had to sell cues to be able to make cues then I wouldn't be making cues at least not around this area for dam sure. No one could ever buy one of my cues and that would be ok by me....they are all like my children, loved and raised up to be good hitting little cues. If I won the lottery I would build a huge shop and just build cues all dam day....if no one ever bought one, by the time I died I'd have the largest collection of customs in the known universe. Most of the cues I build are of course for sale to the right person for the right price.....some are special and are for ME ALONE

IT IS NOT FOR SALE.......I'm just not getting rid of it, its sentimental.....when I die someone can buy those two cues from my family...but they wont buy them from me. If I live to be 80 then those cues will be 60 years old........Given that with the future, my brand will grow and build in its reputation. Along with the fact that inflation is not going anywhere but up.....you can have this cue 60 years early for the same price you would pay for it when your wearing adult diapers....$3,000


He told me he respected that and liked how I put it, and that it was ok b/c he wont have $3000 to spend on a cue until he's old enough to sh*t his pants again regularly anyways LMFAO


Robley has the butterfly cue right now.....it was love at first hit for him and had to be the bearer of bad news that he couldn't buy it (tugged at my heart too he had alot of good things to say about that cue).......I knew its just right for him as did he so I let him take it home and he's been playing with it and will play in the White Diamonds event with it. After that I taking it back and refinishing it and then am going to start on a butterfly cue with the same specs w/ just a little visual design change just to his liking.


Don't get me wrong.....later on when I have every bit of equipment that I want I will of course build me a set of personal players that are everything that I want them to be and nothing less....BUT THOSE OTHER TWO CUES STILL WONT BE FOR SALE

Now the other ones that I will build for myself in the future....If the price offered is worth the time/effort/PIA of building the PERFECT Cue for ME, then yea I would sell it.

But IMOP a cuemakers personal player is more like a "SHOW" cue......you can window shop, try it on for size a little bit.....you can order one similar to it, but I'd be hard pushed to get rid of it....probably have to be tight for some cash too. Its my player.....its perfect and pretty so it grabs a little attention and I can SHOW it to you.

If I sold my PP/show cue I wouldn't have one as good to show around.....I mean you know how it is, normally cue makers don't play with plain sneaky petes.....b/c they want something besides vanilla to show the public.

FWIW,
-Grey Ghost-
 
Most I know are like me and don't even own a cue, every one is for sale and never gets played before it goes out the door.
 
Sometimes after using a cue for a year or two I would sometimes sell it if asked. However, I built an ebony, 8 point, 3 veneer cue in 1997 and used it until late 2008 and turned down many offers for it. One night I had a couple of customers in my shop and while I was building them a new shaft one of them snagged my cue out of it's case while I was in another room. The next day I noticed the lid off of the case and the cue and all three shafts gone. Couldn't prove anything so there went about a 1200.00 cue that I was very used to and fond of. I figured it would turn up sometime but it hasn't as of yet. Someone is not going to like it if I ever see it and can get behind whoever is using it.

Dick
 
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