Will DP's ever be worth anything anymore?

[ironhead_79]

i was just sitting here contimplating selling a few cues i don't use much. i have 3 Dale Perry's all signed w/ papers, one i paid over 1,500 for several years ago and the other 2 i purchased rather cheap off a lady who's husband passed away. Since he has started selling his 1/1 signed cues on ebay it seems all his cues have dropped in resale value, i know not just his, seems everything is a little soft the last few years. But has he lost alot of respect with you guys in the last few years. My first DP i bought at the time was the best hitting cue i ever owned, hit lights out, until i got my hands on my 80's Scruggs, nothing compares. But it seems the 2 i purchased from the lady aren't even compareable to my older one, these 2 were purchased from ebay w/ papers but he only paid 465 for one and 390 for the other, now to look at them they are both better looking cues than mine but feel like cheaper cues, did he drop down to different material when he went to ebay. i was going to try and sale these cues locally cause there's nowhere around here for anyone to buy cues except Wally World but i had one guy tell me last night they were not good enough for tomato stakes, he was just joking of course, he's a friend, but still it seems no one is interested, is that the feeling of people in general. or should i just put these away and hope the market comes back around sometime.

 

[jhendri2]

This has been discussed alot on here. You'll be luck to get $400 for your $1,500 DP cue. He ruined the secondary market for his cues by flooding the market with his cues that sell cheap.

Personally I don't ever see the secondary market on DP cues returning.

Jim

 

[Bishop]

I totally agree with you on the older DP hitting lights out. I bought one about 10 years ago and it was a great hitting cue. I feel on hard times and sold it and have never played with as nice a DP cue since then.

Typically if you ramp up production quality will suffer. With as many as there are out there I don't see the resale market ever recovering.

 

[m.libre10]

dp cues

my friend just bought one recently. I notice that the cues that he sells on ebay is starting to be a poor quality DP cues. So, dont be surprise to see the value of DP cues to go down fast. It lost it's high market value when he started ebay. I see DP on ebay at least 5 new ones every other day so it means that his cues are now starting to become production cues. All of them are signed and says 1 of 1 in them.

I am very annoyed that he is misleading people from his old good cues prices to this poor quality ones. As you all know, he provide an authenticity certificate for every single one of them out there.

Also if you have'nt noticed, the cue have the same design. from points to rings. Shafts have became very poor quality.

Maybe, he just need to make money that fast. Because people are still buying it cheap like crazy.

 

[elvicash]

He has to know it is not helping future sales and is definitly diluting value for people who already own his cues

I wonder why he did not have a cheap non DP line to sale on E-Bay and direct where he cut out his dealers

If he ever wanted to go back to quality he could have done that but now he has depressed his brand with oversaleing, undercutting dealers and lowering quality

Falling Prices - Sounds like another American retailer we all know

 

[manwon]

i was just sitting here contimplating selling a few cues i don't use much. i have 3 Dale Perry's all signed w/ papers, one i paid over 1,500 for several years ago and the other 2 i purchased rather cheap off a lady who's husband passed away. Since he has started selling his 1/1 signed cues on ebay it seems all his cues have dropped in resale value, i know not just his, seems everything is a little soft the last few years. But has he lost alot of respect with you guys in the last few years. My first DP i bought at the time was the best hitting cue i ever owned, hit lights out, until i got my hands on my 80's Scruggs, nothing compares. But it seems the 2 i purchased from the lady aren't even compareable to my older one, these 2 were purchased from ebay w/ papers but he only paid 465 for one and 390 for the other, now to look at them they are both better looking cues than mine but feel like cheaper cues, did he drop down to different material when he went to ebay. i was going to try and sale these cues locally cause there's nowhere around here for anyone to buy cues except Wally World but i had one guy tell me last night they were not good enough for tomato stakes, he was just joking of course, he's a friend, but still it seems no one is interested, is that the feeling of people in general. or should i just put these away and hope the market comes back around sometime.

A good example of what happens when you mass produce item's that were once considered custom is the Adam / Helmstetter cues from the 1970' and 1980's.

These are really great hiting, great looking cues with a butt load of work in them, but because they were mass produced in large quanities the quality suffered.

Because of this even the early cues do not command the prices they should on the secondary market, and by many people ( not me) they are not even considered collectable.

Dales cues will never be consider collectable or even true custom cues for the same reason's, it is a shame, but that is the way Mr. Perry chose to run his business, and while it is a shame that so many people lost money buying and investing in his early cues that is the risk you take when you buy anything for that purpose.

Merry Christmas

Manwon

 

[Tokyo-dave]

I have to second the opinion of other responses, and add a little more as to my own opinion. Several years ago, getting my hands on a DP was almost a dream of mine. They were very highly regarded here in Japan, they were made well, and they played lights out. I'd still feel very comfortable playing with a cue that he made 6-7 years ago even if it's not worth anything today investment wise. However, I've seen some of his more recent work, and it's all pretty much reconfirmed my personal belief that when a cue maker starts putting out cues in the numbers and short time frames that he is doing now, one can't help but to be forced to cut corners. And, when a cue maker cuts corners, it can mean several quality problems like sloppy wraps, sloppy glue lines, inferior finishes, whatever. But most of all, and this is probably the most important detail that any respectable cue maker lives by.................would be the the manner in which the cue maker treats and selects his woods. A cue maker putting out 12 cues a year is plenty capable of more in numbers as far as labor is concerned, but it's the process of selecting/discarding and treating woods that puts a choke on the numbers. On the other hand, a cue maker putting out 100 or more cues a year most likely keeps a greater percentage of the wood on hand for usage as compared to wood that he might throw away because for some reason didn't find it to be up to his standards to be used in a cue. I know that DP can make a hell of a cue, but I don't think that he can be nearly as selective and patient with is wood and work as he was possibly 10 years ago.
dave

 

[cueandcushion]

This has been discussed alot on here. You'll be luck to get $400 for your $1,500 DP cue. He ruined the secondary market for his cues by flooding the market with his cues that sell cheap.

We have a cue in stock we paid $900 for. We have it for sale at $1200. Our best offer has been $400 dollars for it. SO I think you are right on target for the depreciation on DP cues. I recently saw one similar to the cue we have in stock. It was on Ebay this last summer. It was 1/1 and he sold it for $525 I think. So he is selling the cues for HALF what he was charging dealers before??? Its HIS business, I do not understand the logic behind his decisions, but I have to deal with it I guess.