why would you do it??

[duke@neo.rr.com]

I've been hearing alot of talk about certain "custom" cue-makers sending work overseas to china...first off, is it true? second, why would you put your name on ANYTHING made in china? the company I work at, Bush Industries, sends work overseas and when I've had a chance to inspect this garbage, it seems not much is how it should be. with cues, I hear that Dale Perry, and Mike Gulyassy are doing this, and Mike gets alot of sledgehammers back for repair. again...WHY would you put your name on anything you personally don't build, or create? would you chance getting a bad reputation about your work when you don't even build it? I certainly would not! I just had an offer to buy a $1600 Dale Perry custom after hearing this for $800, and just laughed to myself before telling this guy no thanks. it just don't make sense to me

 

[Jigger]

Chinese made cues signed by U.S. cue makers?

why would you put your name on ANYTHING made in china?

1. $$$$$$$$

2. no ethics


I hope this isn't the case Duke.

 

[no-sho]

I've been hearing alot of talk about certain "custom" cue-makers sending work overseas to china...first off, is it true? second, why would you put your name on ANYTHING made in china? the company I work at, Bush Industries, sends work overseas and when I've had a chance to inspect this garbage, it seems not much is how it should be. with cues, I hear that Dale Perry, and Mike Gulyassy are doing this, and Mike gets alot of sledgehammers back for repair. again...WHY would you put your name on anything you personally don't build, or create? would you chance getting a bad reputation about your work when you don't even build it? I certainly would not! I just had an offer to buy a $1600 Dale Perry custom after hearing this for $800, and just laughed to myself before telling this guy no thanks. it just don't make sense to me

As far as Mike Gulyassy goes, he was approched by???? an Asian co. to produce the sledehammer for him and Mike was very hesitant about this proposition. He didn't believe that the quality would be up to his standard that he wanted to put his name on. The first shipment of cues that were produced in Asia were actually pretty good because I personally received 30 of them or more. The next batch was also primarily pretty good with a few exceptions which he sent back. Then the main trouble begin, I believe he sent back 50% of the cues in the next shipment and more the next.

Mike was really not happy and as you said, it had his name on it. Then Mike and Mcdermott tried to work out a deal which saw the birth of the Sledgehammer 2, and their were also some issues with this cue too! Which I wont go into.

For the last 6 months Mike has started making them inhouse again and I believe he learned a valueable lesson in all of this. If you want it built to a certain level of quality and specifications do it yourself!!!!!

So just for the record, Mike stopped having them produced in Asia over a year ago and in my opinion there is big difference between an origional Sledgehammer made by Mike and one that wasn't. You can tell the difference by the joint pin!!!! Just my .02

no-sho
Thanks Cornerman, for I did make a mistake and Gulyassy is still producing one line of Sledgehamer in Asia that I wasn't aware of!!!!

 

[Cornerman]

So just for the record, Mike stopped having them produced in Asia over a year ago and in my opinion there is big difference between an origional Sledgehammer made by Mike and one that wasn't. You can tell the difference by the joint pin!!!! Just my .02

no-sho

Just for the record, this is incorrect information. Mike Gulyassy and the entire Sledgehammer story is in the February 2006 InsidePOOL Magazine Cue Makers Corner.

Fred

 

[pooltchr]

On a related note, I heard a rumour that two very well known and highly regarded production cue manufacturers are moving or have moved production from North America to China. Have you heard this. I don't want to post the names, in case the rumours are false, but if you need to know who I'm talking about, send me a PM.
Steve

 

[Colin Colenso]

40 years ago, Made in Japan meant low quality, then in the 80's Made in Taiwan had the same low quality connotation. Today those countries have reputations as high quality manufacturers while Mainland China is on the rise with its manufacturing abilities.

It's always a branding risk to OEM products, but many industries and brands do this for the efficiencies it produces.

There's no reason why China will not be able to produce very high qualities cues in the future. Perhaps now most the manufacturers are in the low to medium quality categories.

If people are worried about the economic aspects of outsourcing labor out of the US, then they could allay their fears by reading this chapter from Economics in One Lesson: http://jim.com/econ/chap11p1.html

Decreasing production costs by international trade is a net benefit. It drives investment and labor towards the industries a country has the greatest comparative advantage in.