I had my cue shop up and running a few years back and my sister had picked up one of the very cheap Budweiser cues in a garage sale. Cue and authentically torn vinyl case, $3.00.
I swapped out the plastic collar on the butt for phenolic and doweled the pin area installing a quality pin the same size as the one that came out. Then I built a shaft, all quality components including a moori tip. While the importance of the cue components normally runs the closer to the tip the more important, first the tip, then the ferrule, then the shaft, then collars/joint, then the butt, and even the bumper, that is only true when the components are roughly the same quality. When you stick nice collars and shaft forward on a really junk butt you still get a cue that hits like junk! It was playable but still felt like a $3.00 cue.
Incidentally, I brought it into the local pub with a half dozen bar tables where I wasn't known and people immediately crowded around to see my hustler cue. You can't put a layered tip on a cue these days without spilling the beans. I haven't given up yet though. I am debating between the cue with the rolling dice in the butt that roll every time you stroke the cue or the butt with the chaser lights that run around the cue in front of the buttcap every time you hit the cue ball. I favor the chaser lights but am afraid they might lead to physical violence if I bring the cue in Buffalo's!
Hu