The older house cues are good, and make good conversions. It takes time but buying used is a better option if you don’t need a mass quantity in a hurry. Resale shops, antique stores, the goodwill, even yard sales are good places to pickup cues. There’s a flea market type store in our local mall that always has a dozen or so and are never more than $10. The non wood looking bar cues you see a lot of now, where the paint chips off…those are awful and there will always be a hand chalk or talc mess on the tables if it’s available. Renting decent cues is a good idea, folks leave their id then pick it up when they return the cue. A local poolroom did it here years ago and it worked well. They didn’t have many but anyone who could make a decent bridge always had one checked out.