whom amongst us do not have insurance? all kinds: your car, home, health, your life?
ok, if you're a young adult who will live forever and with no wife and/or children - you have no fear. i was that child once too. i can see that you are not so concerned as many of older folks are.
i think jack makes one hell of a Beautiful Case in my opinion.
i think john makes one hell of a Great Protective Case and Beautiful. but i think many of would admit that a case should serve multi-purposes; beauty as well as insurance/protection.
however, if we are just talking about beauty, the most beautiful case i have ever seen was on azb - saw only pictures, but it was a rusty melton that manwon bought; loaded with incredible tooling. i don't know or remember the interior, but to me it was the most beautiful case i have ever seen.
john has come up with designs with tooling that are incredible. he also has come up with tooling that combines with painting that are also incredible. really works of art.
me, i try to be practical. i'd rather buy my wife something of beauty, so for myself i usually research more, get the best for my money and usually with a goal in mind. and in terms of cases, that would have to be a case made/designed by john. and in john's case, not only do i save some money, but i also get john's expertise for a case that will 'insure/protect' my cue.
i do not own cues like many of our azb'ers that cost 10's of thousand dollars. my most expensive cues are in the 2.5 to 3 thousand dollar range, but they only leave our home on very rare occasions. to date, that has not been more than 2 times for any of them.
my playing cue [going to league or just going to play at the pool hall - a masonh cue] was a $600 cue when i bought it and a break cue $250. i am a little lucky to have a table and game room at home. but still, without hesitation i want a case that will protect and insure my moderately priced cues from an unexpected mishaps. same as 'insurance' i mentioned above. i love those cues, not because of their value or the money spent, but honestly because they are my playing cues. they may not be expensive to many of you, but they are 'my treasures'.
not much different, but to the point; i have bought cars for my wife and children. i bought them with beauty in mind, but mostly with 'safety in mind'; G-d forbid there was some 'unsuspected/unforeseen' accident as mully clearly pointed out. i want them 'protected'!
back to the point at hand...
through all of these threads and endless posts, 'unlike many here' i have lost faith in jack. and at the same time i have gained even more faith in john. i like johns chutzpah, he has real balls to come on az and tell a legend that while he admires him [as i am sure john does as he himself said] he, the legendary jj could make his cases even better; but jack is not teachable. he makes a beautiful case, but is too thickheaded to 'LEARN' from a professional like john imho who is constantly wanting to improve himself to only offer all of us a 'BETTER CASE. and i wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that john may have offered to make the 'interiors' for jack and would keep it hush, just because john would want you all to have the best insurance/protection for your cues.
and besides, i don't think if you took all of jack's business and put it in john's back pocket, i don't think john would even notice. it's tiny, just unnoticeable in today's world of business.
my hat is off to john. how dare jack say that john's interiors would cause harm to cues.
me, i would just shoot him. but john chose the better path and debated him. imo, john won the debate hands down. it's not even close, so i can only say while shaking my head; jack is jack.
since this post is already so long, i want to add just a few more points:
i have what jcin [justin] mentioned, a pelican case. they are the tantamount of protection/insurance. i needed it to fly with my shotguns, some of which cost more than you could imagine. certainly more than 99% of any cue any of you own. why? a pelican case gave me the protection i felt my shotguns warranted.
and just for the hell of it jcin: how do you pack your camera equipment? do you use pelicans? i bet you do, or did, or some other of the same ilk.
and also, i know you are an honest man, so i was surprised you did not mention that jack donated a free case to TAR; mentioned just for full disclosure as you usually do. i know you are a straight shooter jcin like me, but i think that lack of disclosure was improper.
mully, sorry to hear of your tragedy.
skor, you're a wise man.
all the best,
smokey
