Some Cue-Makers Are Hot From Time To Time
I own a beautiful Scruggs cue which I got at a steal of a deal. Lots of ivory and abalone inlays, beautiful 4 pointer with purple and green veneers (58 inlays of ivory & abalone) which make for a unique, really striking look.....solid ivory joint....the cue is a real head turner and shoots lights out at only 18.2 ozs. I could sell this cue and easily get $2500-2600 for a quick sale or else take my time and get $3,000. The cue actually sold new in October 2006 for $3800 and I happened to catch the seller in a squeeze. But in this crazy cue market, two primary rules apply to cue sales....rarity and scarcity.
There are really lots of Scruggs cues that come up for sale and the majority are 4 pointers with some veneers & modest inlays (not too many level 5 or 6 Scruggs cues) or else just ebony points. Even the early years Scruugs cues with this design suffer the same fate.....too many available....the sales price gets suppressed.
The rule of Rarity applies to just how many of that specific type design cue did the cue-maker produce in his lifetime. An example is George Balabushka who only made 1200 cues during his lifetime and his cue-making is categorized into four distinct periods of cues he produced.....the Szamboti period being George Balabushka's most famous.
The rule of scarcity applies to how many of those type designed cues are available today or have even been offered for sale in the last 6-9 months, or longer. Those two factors are what determines the base line price for a cue and thereafter, it's simply how may buyers are looking for that type cue within any given period of time (day, week, month etc).
Back to the case with Scruggs cues, the reason why his cues are in demand are because he came from the classic period of cue-making (started in the early 70's with Dan Janes at Joss) and embarked on his own when pool was in its glory days in the early 80's. His work was impeccable with classic sharp points, great veneers. terrific overall balance and just an incredible penchant for detail.
However, a Scruggs basic veneer cue just isn't fetching anywhere what these cues did a few years ago. Today, a Scruggs 4 pointers can be picked up in the range of $1400-1750. Now nearly early every Scruggs cue seller want to believe their Scruggs is worth $2,000 cue or higher but not too many seem to sell above $2k. The higher end Scruggs cue, like the one I have, will command more than $2k but no where near what it's worth in this market. There are lots of great deals to be had and everyone knows this is about the strongest buyers market for secondary cue sales we've seen in the last three decades. Now really rare cues seem to fare pretty well regardless of the market conditions but there aren't too many of those type cues listed for sale.
If you can score a Scruggs cue, jump on it. If you already own one, take great care with it. Just like Bill Stroud is done with cue-making, so is Tim and there will never be any more cues made by either of these two legendary cue-makers. I own a Paul Mottey cue for the very same reason. The greatest American cue-makers are all getting on in age and are approaching retirement. I don't know how much longer Richard Black will still be making cues but he's another heralded name in American cue-makers.......These greats are truly meant to be admired and one can never get the deepest sense of appreciation for these cue-makers until they own and play with one of these cues.
