Cue prices

[checkSide]

Anybody got any cues that would meet me half way with travelling somewhere ive a parris and osborne and a craftsman i live in yorkshire and desperately need a cue im totally happy with
cheers pete

Pete.

Take a look at this thread here.

Look at the post by idavies. He has over 1000 cues for sale. You should email him.

Good luck mate.

[unclevit]

to pry into a person name......

If I am not mistaken.... Uncle Thai

[poolqjunkie]

How do you justify paying millions for a violin, or billions for an oil painting?

[sanman]

How do you justify paying millions for a violin, or billions for an oil painting?

You don't
Even vincent van gogh wpuld never understand why his paintings are worth billions now but were seen as Cezzane put it "Works of a madman" during his own lifetime

[checkSide]

You don't
Even vincent van gogh wpuld never understand why his paintings are worth billions now but were seen as Cezzane put it "Works of a madman" during his own lifetime

Sanman, you seem to have answered your own question.

Even property follows the same forumla.

I just worked on a group of new build houses. The materials per house came to around £70,000 each to build, yet they are now worth £289,000 each.

That's business, I am sure you understand that with your commerce degree.

[sanman]

Sanman, you seem to have answered your own question.

Even property follows the same forumla.

I just worked on a group of new build houses. The materials per house came to around £70,000 each to build, yet they are now worth £289,000 each.

That's business, I am sure you understand that with your commerce degree.

Yup
Just add in the price of the property to that and I am sure you would come to a value of above 250 K

Just by the way

I came up with this post to try and justify the prices of cues in excess of 500 pounds. Now if they were unique in the sense that these cues were the only example of its kind like some of the american pool cue makers (very beautiful collectors items one of a kind etc) then I can understand prices being high. You are paying for something unique but I cannot justify a range of cues that are over 500 quid and the maker turns out doozens of them or hundreds or thousands. Where is the art in that then.

[poolqjunkie]

Yup
Just add in the price of the property to that and I am sure you would come to a value of above 250 K

Just by the way

I came up with this post to try and justify the prices of cues in excess of 500 pounds. Now if they were unique in the sense that these cues were the only example of its kind like some of the american pool cue makers (very beautiful collectors items one of a kind etc) then I can understand prices being high. You are paying for something unique but I cannot justify a range of cues that are over 500 quid and the maker turns out doozens of them or hundreds or thousands. Where is the art in that then.

With all due respect, you pay USD$1000 you most likely get a mass production pool cue. It really is not a lot of money for a pool cue. For about $3000 and more, you are starting to be looking at collectible cues, most are quite basic.

How many people you personally know are capable of building cues, and how many do you think in this world are capable of building a really well constructed cue?

If a person would pay 500 pounds to have his kitchen floors covered by tiles by a handy man, who is, no offense, a dime a dozen, dont you think someone who has mastered a craft that only very few can should get paid for his craftsmanship?

May be you cannot understand why a painting would go for millions or billions--if you could you would not have started this thread obviously--many people can or else the market value of such items would not have been driven up so high.

In the decerning eye, even a plain cue comes with different grades of workmanship. Whether you have the knowledge to appreciate fine craftsmanhip is another matter.

I would suggest that you try to buy 50 pounds of these woods that you think are what the cue makers use, and try to build yourself a cue--even just a very simple one. Perhaps then you will understand.

[checkSide]

Yup
Just add in the price of the property to that and I am sure you would come to a value of above 250 K

I think you misunderstood.

The analogy is exact.

Price of materials used to build a cue = £50

Price of materials used to build a house = £70K

Price of finished cue = £500

Price of finished house = £289K

I could go on and on and on with further examples.

It all makes the same point. If you don't like the price, don't buy it. It's only a rip off if you can get exactly the same product elsewhere for significantly less.....

[ChatLag]

Why is the price of some cues >500 GBP?
Just because it will be paid.
That's all.
Hunt & Osborne ask >500 GBP and the waiting time for a black plate is now > 12 months.
They ask the money, they get the money.

Full stop.

That's pure economic.

You can buy a steel Rolex for about 3,000 GBP.
The gold model costs 9,000 GBP.
The difference in material is about 1,000 GBP.
And it is easie and faster to work the gold case than the steel one so the production cost for both watches are the same.
But it is paid. And Rolex is a legend all over the world and keeps it's value.
I'd do the same if I had the brand name....

[andi mack]

Why is the price of some cues >500 GBP?
Just because it will be paid.
That's all.
Hunt & Osborne ask >500 GBP and the waiting time for a black plate is now > 12 months.
They ask the money, they get the money.

Full stop.

That's pure economic.

You can buy a steel Rolex for about 3,000 GBP.
The gold model costs 9,000 GBP.
The difference in material is about 1,000 GBP.
And it is easie and faster to work the gold case than the steel one so the production cost for both watches are the same.
But it is paid. And Rolex is a legend all over the world and keeps it's value.
I'd do the same if I had the brand name....

Well said.

Anything is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. That doens't mean how much you are willing to pay for it, but someone else.

There are all sorts of collectibles (sp?) around that i wouldn't even pay 2p for, but other people will part with thousands of pounds for.

Also as far as top cuemakers prices go, they can't really be making all that much money on each cue sold.

I mean if you think a cue costs (using the op's example) £50 for wood material, and maybe another £20 for tips, joints, ferrule's etc. It takes them 20 hours of labour and maybe £20 worth of other costs electric, blades etc.

Making a total cost of £90 for materials, sundries etc and you pay £500 for the cue. That means the cue maker is only getting paid £20.50 per hour max.

Hell even if you say it costs £200 for materials and another £50 for sundries and you pay £1000 for the cue. The cue maker is only getting £37.50 per hour.

Now personally i wouldn't get my butt out of bed for that.

[eaoin11]

The final product is greater than the sum of it's parts.

I've seen some Trevor White cues that are probably in the 500-1000quid price range because they involve some pretty special splice work, obviously a huge investment of time and care by the maker. Those cues are works of art, and to my mind are worth the money paid. I wouldn't buy one myself, I'm not a collector, but appreciate them all the same. The fact that it is difficult (or at least takes a long time) to order from Trevor probably adds the the cue's value.

It's interesting that $4000 cues are common in America and Japan. American pool cues have to take a lot more punishment but i wonder sometimes whether people pay that price because it's become the norm.

I know some Japanese snooker players who've paid similar amounts for snooker cues made by Adam cues in Japan.
They had very good shafts and were well made (by a craftsman who migrated from europe I think) but perhaps they paid that price because it is the norm for a quality cue in Japan, and status probably comes into it, as with H&O in China.

[totlxtc]

Ok ill add my little bit. I only have experience of getting a cue made Mike Wooldridge. I gave him an illustration, i stated how i like the feel of the cue to be, i went through the spec (right down to me liking the last arrow to be 1.5 - 2 inches from the ferrule), i even stated what sort of banding id like on the curly maple. Now he found the perfect ash, went to an acoustic wood supplier and had to wait for the right type of curly maple to come in which took a couple of months, made the cue perfectly, THEN! called me to say there was a slight defect and he will fix it all (At his own cost and time, which was early hours of the morning) and the cue arrived 2 days later. Now im sorry.....but there is not alot of businesses, one man bands, companies who will do that. I have heard also of stories of Trevor White making cues then the customer is unsure and has made them another. Yes, they are expensive, but you get exactly what you pay for and more at times.

Im making cues as a hobby, and boy i wish it only cost £50 to make a cue! Only today i was after a piece of cocobolo. I rang 9 places....none in stock anywhere! I rang a place in europe, none dry enough....so then i looked at the states. Now im a hobbiest, and im having a hard time finding 1 piece of wood.

Thats my 2p's worth anyway.

[poolqjunkie]

Ok ill add my little bit. I only have experience of getting a cue made Mike Wooldridge. I gave him an illustration, i stated how i like the feel of the cue to be, i went through the spec (right down to me liking the last arrow to be 1.5 - 2 inches from the ferrule), i even stated what sort of banding id like on the curly maple. Now he found the perfect ash, went to an acoustic wood supplier and had to wait for the right type of curly maple to come in which took a couple of months, made the cue perfectly, THEN! called me to say there was a slight defect and he will fix it all (At his own cost and time, which was early hours of the morning) and the cue arrived 2 days later. Now im sorry.....but there is not alot of businesses, one man bands, companies who will do that. I have heard also of stories of Trevor White making cues then the customer is unsure and has made them another. Yes, they are expensive, but you get exactly what you pay for and more at times.

Im making cues as a hobby, and boy i wish it only cost £50 to make a cue! Only today i was after a piece of cocobolo. I rang 9 places....none in stock anywhere! I rang a place in europe, none dry enough....so then i looked at the states. Now im a hobbiest, and im having a hard time finding 1 piece of wood.

Thats my 2p's worth anyway.

There are also some sellers on ebay (the USA site) that sells woods for cue makers. Sometimes they are good and sometimes not, but at least you can look at the pictures. I think it is not a bad idea especially for someone buying in small quantity.

[Mr O]

what about this.-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Exotic-Wood-Po...d=p3286.c0.m14

says 15 pieces of 24" x 1.5" x 1.5"

Would I be right in saying that those could be halved into 12" pieces and then split lengthways to make 60 pieces ? i.e (barring wastage) you could have enough to do 15 cues max with 4 splices each ? Maybe each piece is intended to be enough for one cue?
They're asking 92 quid plus postage to UK of £80, so £170.
I daresay there would normally be some wastage but still doesn't seem that expensive if my assumption on the number of pieces you could get is correct.

On that basis, I agree with those that said that £50 a cue is not far off for the right materials

[noel]

=o)

Noel