My Suggestion
For $1500 the sky is the limit on the secondary market. Alot of dealers would love to send you pictures and cues to consider. But, you are best off holding out and driving to the Super Billiards Expo in king of prussia. Pop out that $1500 bank roll and all of a sudden it becomes lets make a deal!
For your first custom I would want to go from Booth to booth and hold/ test stroke each cue that is of interest and insist on putting it together and a few test strokes to see if the weight/balance and feel are good for you. I would also do a couple tests on the cue to see if it performs well with vibrational transfer, a couple test taps on the shaft with your hand while holding the cue and you can tell if there is good or bad vibrational transfer. Just like a pitch fork! Becuase there are so many variables in a cue that can not be known from a picture, you are best buying in person. I so often see various omissions of vital information on this board in the for sale section and ebay is worse.
Examples:
#1. No weight listed,
#2. no length listed,
#3. No ferrulle diameter
#4. no pin type listed
#5. Weight bolt or not inside?
#6. Fat butt or thin butt?
#7. Ferrulle Material? Aegis, LBM, Ivory
#8. Shaft inserts or screws into wood
#9. Shaft Weight?
#10. Cored or not cored?
#11. wrap type? Leather, linen or wrapless
#12. Shaft Taper?
#13. Butt Taper?
#14. Joint Type? Ivory, Stainless, Wood to wood/ sleeved.
#15. Shaft stiffness? is it a predator laminated shaft?
#16. Balance Point/ weight distribution A.k.a. butt heavy/butt light
#17. deflection or tip weight
#18. Tip Type. Moori, Kanui, Lepro & Etc.
#19. good vibrational transfer or muted vibrations?
In five minutes I have named 19 variables in cue selection that make it hard to buy sight unseen.
The only way sight unseen makes since is if you are A COLLECTOR and buy for your collection with no intention of playing with the item.
So, consider why you are buying? TO collect or to play? Answer the 19 questions above regarding what you want and bring cash so you will get the best deal for your money. MONEY TALKS! Do not settle for anything at retail or qouted price. They inflate their qoutes to increase profit. Also, Haggle and let them know you have a
CASH NOW deal! thats good for a 15% discount lower then quoted price minimum.
The gas money from ohio and back is well worth the savings you will get out of the trip.
Kid
Dynomite