Why isn't Blue Book Online?

Cardinal2B

Cardinal2B

Connecticut Panhandler
Silver Member
Juanbond has a thread looking for billiard software ideas, and it got me thinking...
I don't know Brad Simpson, but if I did, I'd suggest putting the whole Blue Book of Cues online. I mean why isn't the Blue Book of Cues on the web? The printed Blue Book is a great reference, but:
it gets dated
publishing delays
not "at hand" just when I need it to look up a cue
missed / missing entries (e.g. Bob Frey) not fixable until next edition

All of which could be eliminated with an online version.
I'm not certain what the business model is (Advertising? Subscription? Both?) that would make it worthwhile. The KelleyBlue Book (for cars) is online and appears to be advertising supported. It works well, though I've never thought their menu system was overly elegant.

What do you guys think?
 
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The Blue Book is a good reference and coffee table book but like you said it may be a little behind in the current prices. The same could be said for the Wall Street Journal. You get yesterday's prices. I am sure that there are a bunch of cue makers that are not listed but don't know the reason.

The current prices are in the buy sell section of this forum. It is always up to date. What the cues really sell for is the true value at that time.
 
Cardinal2B said:
Juanbond has a thread looking for billiard software ideas, and it got me thinking...
I don't know Brad Simpson, but if I did, I'd suggest putting the whole Blue Book of Cues online. I mean why isn't the Blue Book of Cues on the web? The printed Blue Book is a great reference, but:
it gets dated
publishing delays
not "at hand" just when I need it to look up a cue
missed / missing entries (e.g. Bob Frey) not fixable until next edition

All of which could be eliminated with an online version.
I'm not certain what the business model is (Advertising? Subscription? Both?) that would make it worthwhile. The KelleyBlue Book (for cars) is online and appears to be advertising supported. It works well, though I've never thought their menu system was overly elegant.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...


The Blue-Book isn't online for the exact same reason why a lot of books aren't online. The publishers would make no money. I actually do online advertising for a living so I'm very aware of how much money is made off of those little banners you see. Trust me, there aren't enough people interested in the blue-book to make it worth while as an advertisement revenue-generator.

I mean, basically your question is similar to asking, "Why isn't it free?"
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
The Blue-Book isn't online for the exact same reason why a lot of books aren't online. The publishers would make no money. I actually do online advertising for a living so I'm very aware of how much money is made off of those little banners you see. Trust me, there aren't enough people interested in the blue-book to make it worth while as an advertisement revenue-generator.

I mean, basically your question is similar to asking, "Why isn't it free?"
Click to expand...
Well said!
I am a distributor for the Blue Book and would really be frustrated to see the info they charged me for being offered online for free. The $39.95 price is very fair for the information included. By the way if someone wants to offer all the info for free they could start a thread on AZ stating cue prices daily and put the dozens of hours a week to keep it updated, then all AZ members could benfit for free from their new full time job. If some very bored, retired, financially independent person wants to donate their life to it go for it!
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
ask a silly question...

Jazz said:
Check below link .. there is blue book online option

https://store.bluebookinc.com/ECom/ProductDetail.aspx?industry=3&category=5&product=75

disclaimer: I'm just providing the link ... don't subscribe to the service so don't know how often it gets updated.
Click to expand...

...and so, there it is, online!

Jude & Cueman, I wasn't looking for it for FREE, just online access; that could be, like I said a subscription model (like the link above offers) or an advertsing supported model or both. Looks like they went subscription. It is $30 per year, with discounts for multi-year subscriptions. Probably priced that way to be competitive vs. printed one, with the different dimensions of time (printed is forever) vs. accesibility (get the online from anywhere, anytime) taken into account.

I'm going to try it. It could be just a PDF of the whole book - which would be a poor level of provision, or it might be what the Kelley Blue Book is like... just have to try it out to see.
 
i would love to see a cd version...

i dont really want to need internet access everytime i want to look up a cue, but i also dont like NOT having COLOR photos of cues. black and white is whats keeping me from biting on the book...

and yes i know the cost of the book would skyrocket if it were full color.

so why dont they just make a cd version and a code like for video games? or worst case, a key(like a usb drive, but has to be in the pc for it to be activated.)

then instead of buying a new book every so often, you purchase an update.
 
Online Blue Book - first impressions

Jazz is obviously way ahead of us! Thanks for the link(s). I subscribed to the online version.

It is organized in a couple of different ways. The sort of "articles & features" sections are just PDF fines. For example, to see the color photos, you go to the table of contents, and click on cue gallery - this IS a PDF of the color photos from the book. You can use a search function to type in a manufacturer, and it'll go to the pics of that manyfacturer - the color pics on the gallery only, I mean.

Otherwise, you're interested in a particular manufacturer, say Scruggs, so you click on S in the alphabet, and then find Scruggs, and click on that, and the various sections for Scruggs appear. The pics in here are B&W, not color; so I'm thinking these were either B&W photos to begin with, or it is just a scan of sections of the book (which is maybe more likely).

So, I think it is the book, but with some decent indexing to search around with.

I didn't see any updates, but I'm not certain how I would know. I mean the one I tried was to see if Bob Frey was in there (don't see how he is omitted, really?). He's not, except under the Scruggs section - just like the book.

I didn't also buy the CD; my guess is the CD would operate exactly the same as the online version... of course, it wouldn't expire in one year like my subscription will, but I can get at my subscription from any PC on the net anywhere... basic tradeoff.

You can "grab" pictures though, to send to others, which is pretty handy. Here's two examples. The McDermott D3 is from the "search by manufacturer" and the Schuler pic is from the gallery.

So, it seems a reasonably useful online version, even though not completely optimized, and I sure would've like to see all the pics in color!
 

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Thanks for your comprehensive review of the online system. I've ordered a CD so when it gets here, I'll let you know how it compares to the book and the online system.

My expectation is that it would be very similar to the online system.
 
I have the CD

Onemoreyouth said:
i would love to see a cd version...

i dont really want to need internet access everytime i want to look up a cue, but i also dont like NOT having COLOR photos of cues. black and white is whats keeping me from biting on the book...

and yes i know the cost of the book would skyrocket if it were full color.

so why dont they just make a cd version and a code like for video games? or worst case, a key(like a usb drive, but has to be in the pc for it to be activated.)

then instead of buying a new book every so often, you purchase an update.
Click to expand...

I have the book and the CD version (a cuedealer gave me a copy gratis). definitely like the CD version- The book is big and some people have had trouble with the bind.
 
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