need help on chinese cues!!

[KeithinFrance]

thanx keith......it does seem its a very tricky business buying a cue you cant grab hold of.....im defo going to craftmans cues saturday and hopefully get myself a decent cue....need that hands on approach i feel!!!!
nothing appears real in the world anymore!!!

Especially for a cue!!

[lloydjenks]

LOL it must be checkside selling them! I thought £40 might be too much??? Strange how a half decent make goes for nothing and a cue that nobody's heard of goes for that? would need to play with that before i bought it.

[checkSide]

Haha. I wish I was selling them!

These cues are quality. They are not "James Butters hand made cues".
If you have seen the cues this guy has been selling over the past couple of months you'd know he has nothing but the best. That's the reason they are worth a lot. Everyone knows the seller has top quality stuff.

You can pay 120 for a Craftsman 147 cue, and these cues look far far superior.

[poolqjunkie]

Haha. I wish I was selling them!

These cues are quality. They are not "James Butters hand made cues".
If you have seen the cues this guy has been selling over the past couple of months you'd know he has nothing but the best. That's the reason they are worth a lot. Everyone knows the seller has top quality stuff.

You can pay 120 for a Craftsman 147 cue, and these cues look far far superior.

If you dont mind me asking, do you owe one, or have seen it in person?
The cue does look nice in the pictures, but it is really hard to tell?
It is just a bit odd that his "collection" all have no badge...

[KeithinFrance]

Haha. I wish I was selling them!

These cues are quality. They are not "James Butters hand made cues".
If you have seen the cues this guy has been selling over the past couple of months you'd know he has nothing but the best. That's the reason they are worth a lot. Everyone knows the seller has top quality stuff.

You can pay 120 for a Craftsman 147 cue, and these cues look far far superior.

If you'd read my post properly, you'd see that I didn't say they were James Butters' cues. Yes, he has sold some v.g. cues, but also others that were not so good that he's obviously bought to try, eg a Dunn's cue he sold recently. He has some top qual. stuff, but that doesn't mean that all his stuff is excellent. People can also buy bargains to try them out. If you want to bid £120 then go ahead, but don't say I didn't warn you. I'm only saying because I got one of his cues for a friend and, although the cue looked okay the quality was really not worth the £67 paid for it.

[gazzalfc]

looks like ive started another argument!!
one thing now certain in my mind is that i wont be buying any cue from ebay...its far too risky.....it could be that you do buy a genuine, expensive cue and then find you dont like the feel.....or you could pay well over the odds for nothing but a walking stick or something to throw in the fire!!!

But for you helpful guys on this forum i would have already wasted £55 on a chinky cue (no offence to chinese), and probably bid on a cue simply on looks alone...thanks to you guys i have realised that you need to get a cue in your grasp before you make a decision as to wether or not you like it.........
and has been said many a times on this forum, the chances of the cue i do buy being my last are about 100-1
thanks guys
Gazza!!!

ps i will keep you posted as to the cue i do get....

[checkSide]

If you'd read my post properly, you'd see that I didn't say they were James Butters' cues. Yes, he has sold some v.g. cues, but also others that were not so good that he's obviously bought to try, eg a Dunn's cue he sold recently. He has some top qual. stuff, but that doesn't mean that all his stuff is excellent. People can also buy bargains to try them out. If you want to bid £120 then go ahead, but don't say I didn't warn you. I'm only saying because I got one of his cues for a friend and, although the cue looked okay the quality was really not worth the £67 paid for it.

Lol. Thanks for warning me Keith. Sadly I'm not interested in buying any cues. I have too many expensive cues already.

I also have some not so good ones like a Craftsman 147, which was £120!

All I am saying is, this seller has some very very good cues. He obviously knows his stuff, and hasn't been selling rubbish.

Why don't you show us the ebay link of the cue you bought for £67 and we'll compare it to the two he has for sale now??

It's simply my opinion that if anyone gets one of these cues for less than £100 they have done very well.

[KeithinFrance]

Lol. Thanks for warning me Keith. Sadly I'm not interested in buying any cues. I have too many expensive cues already.

I also have some not so good ones like a Craftsman 147, which was £120!

All I am saying is, this seller has some very very good cues. He obviously knows his stuff, and hasn't been selling rubbish.

Why don't you show us the ebay link of the cue you bought for £67 and we'll compare it to the two he has for sale now??

It's simply my opinion that if anyone gets one of these cues for less than £100 they have done very well.

Hey checkside.

To be honest, the warning was not really for you, but for the people who listen to what you say and who would have been ready to pay up to £120 for the cues listed. You are one of the people whose opinions I respect and find interesting and I think it's the same for lots of TSF members, but in this case, IMO, I have better info than you, that's all. Having bought one of these cues I think that £120 is more than double their value.

I agree that the seller has had some very good cues and does know his stuff but I think he's also done what I've done too, which is to buy cues to see what the quality is like, eg the Dunn's cue he sold recently and these 2 cues. I did exactly the same thing; I've got people in France looking for cues at a certain price and I try and find things at that price from different makers so's I can check out the quality in passing!
I can't buy the cues myself, as I can't be a member of eBay uk, living in France, and I've tried to join eBaydotfr but it doesn't work, and so can't post a link to the cue because I got a friend to buy the cue and then squared him up! It's complicated but it works!!
The guy who made the cue has had a lot of cues on for sale, but I can't remember his user name. These cues that ant has on for sale at the mo look exactly like his work but oiled up for the photos. I have to admit that I'm also always very wary of cues with no badge, as these are, as you can't be sure of what you're getting!
I understand what you're saying when you say that if someone gets the cues for less than £100 they'll be doing well, but I've seen the quality of the cues in person and if they are the same ones then, honestly, they're not worth it. The quality of the ash is not very good, the finish was very strange and gave the cue a sort of "plasticky" feel and the splicing was very random, with long and short splices everywhere. The butt was not very ergonomic and the chamfer was very abrupt with almost sharp edges. Having said that, the balance point was excellent and the taper was quite good. £50-£60 is the highest these cues should go; any more and you'll be paying over the odds.

Keith

[checkSide]

Ok mate, I understand.

They are definitely not worth £100 then!!!

Hopefully no one has been listening to me!

[KeithinFrance]

Glad you understand and hopefully all the TSF members who were interested in these cues will read this too, that way nobody'll get a nasty surprise!

[zxcv]

One of them is already over £100.

[KeithinFrance]

So it is. They must be mad. £102 with more than 7 hrs left for a cue with no badge and no maker listed! It is the nicer of the 2 he's got on at the mo, but still ...

[zxcv]

Any guesses on how the seller would actually be able to own 2 cues like that?

[KeithinFrance]

He's a collector, has been for years, and could have bought them any way: on eBay, from another collector, at an auction, car boot sale, flea market, in a shop (!), from an amateur cuemaker, from a player ... the list of possibilities is endless! Just keep your eyes and ears open and you could do the same!

[LavaChild]

gazzalfc,

Did you go to Craftsman? Come away with anything nice?