The cue that got away

[maxeypad2007]

Lets hear some stories of the cues that got away. The cues you always regretted selling.

For me it was a Franklin era fancy southwest (ebony forearm with maple inlays and four shafts with matching JP). I sold this cue right before I started college to pay for tuition costs. I bought it back then at one of the Lexington all-stars tournaments for a meager $1000. This cue allowed me to continue through college and although it brings tears to think about parting with my old friend I don't regret selling it because I did it for all the right reasons.

The other was a six point alves southwest with triple veneers into BEM. This is the second best playing southwest I've owned, the best being the one I own now. This cue was another one I let go of during hard times.

 

[Bishop]

I recently sold my first to spec custom cue. I was in a pinch and I had to move it. I miss it. Wayne Holmes 2006.

Also 12 years ago when I was 19 I worked at The Billiard Factory in San Antonio. I bought a Dale Perry off the shelf with small portions of my paycheck over a 4 month period. It was a plain jane Cocobolo white with brown spec wrap. I used some deer antler I was given on a table recover job out on a ranch to turn down the ferrule, one of the coolest looking ferrules I've ever seen. Outside of the ferrule there was nothing special about the cue but it was one of my first serious players and in my opinion it was one of the last well built Dale Perry cues before he went commercial with his work.

Many years back I was given my grandfathers 2 piece house cue. To this day I haven't got the slightest idea what kind of cue it was. It was stolen from me before I turned 17.

 

[ragbug74]

The only "real" cue I've ever owned that I don't own today is the first decent cue I ever owned.

It was a late 80's McDermott D9 that I bought brand new. I used it for a few years when I first started playing seriously, then sold it to upgrade to a Meucci. I sold the cue to a guy I played pool with in the rec room where I was going to college. I generally take very good care of my equipment, so the cue was in very clean shape when I sold it. The guy ends up leaving it in the office of the rec room, thus allowing everybody and their brother to use it (and abuse it). Fast-forward a few years and I haven't seen the guy or the cue in a few years. I run across him in a bar that I'm working at and he has the cue with him. It was really beat up, but still in playable shape. At that point, I had already regretted selling off the cue and offered him what he paid me for it to buy it back.

He wouldn't sell it back to me and I haven't seen him or the cue in 15 years.

Needless to say, I have every other cue I've ever owned since then and still kick myself in the behind for selling "my first". Yep, my wife wonders why in the heck I need all these cues when I can only play with one at a time....she just doesn't understand.