alexmyla said:
i mean imagine this...a burglar breaks into your house and sees your big screen TV your sound system, some jewlery and your guitar thats worth 50K. i mean thats just got FAIL written all over it...
No doubt. Unless the burglar knows guitars he'd probably walk right past it or hock it in a pawn shop.
This reminds me of a story.
Ok, kids, MULLY's gonna tell a story, gather 'round.
Ok, as some of you know I'm into playing pool. I'm not a weekend warrior that thinks he's Minnesota Fats, I actually play pool. I was officially ranked number 1 in Shizuoka Prefecture for 3 years straight. I have numerous amateur titles and have been to the All-Japan Tournament 4 or 5 times. Just 2 weeks ago a friend and I joined a doubles tournament in 3-cushion billiards and we won the tournament, got the prize for best game and a prize for the grand average. So, pool is more than just a hobby for me.
Of course, with any endeavor you decide to get into the tools of the trade can get expensive. I have 4 cues at the moment and not one of them cost less than $2,000. Hell, my cue case is hand made and cost $1200.00. I'm not bragging by any means, just trying to give you an idea of what things in the pool world can cost......and my cues really aren't that expensive. I put some photos up in one of the other threads here.
Anyway, my friend has a cue made by a company called Black Boar. Black Boar would probably be considered the PRS Custom Shop, 10 Top, Collector's Reserve of pool cues. A simple 4 point cue is easily 4-5 thousand dollars and when you start getting into inlays etc... you're talking a pretty penny. Anyway, his cue is around the $35,0000 neighborhood, yes, 35 thousand dollars for a pool cue. Black Boar cues have a "BB" logo on the butt end of the cue. His had that logo done in sterling silver. I would also like to note that he owns a pool room and the room name is "BB"............although that is just a coincidence, he didn't name the room after the cue. All of this seems like useless information but it will come into play later in the story.
So anyway, he goes to this tournament and afterwards they all go out to eat. He left his cue case in the back seat of his car. Now, it's rare to hear of cars getting broken into here in Japan but it does happen from time to time. While he was in the restaurant someone broke into his car and stole his cue case with that expensive cue in it. His case was a really nice leather case that he won in a tournament and it had the name of the tournament and "Champion" embroidered down the back spine of the case. Of course he called the police etc... etc... but with something like that you're pretty much screwed.
Well, fast forward about a year and a half. One of his customers calls him and says "Hey, I think I saw your cue on Yahoo Auction." and gave him the URL. So he goes to the auction page and sure enough, there it is. His $35,0000 Black Boar cue, his break cue, and his case with "Tokai Champion" embroidered down the back of it. The case alone was a dead giveaway. Oh, did I mention that the case had a "BB" sticker on it? It had a sticker from his pool room on the bottom part of the case. So, no mistake, that his is cue. The title being "BB Pool cue and Case" (now you see why cue makers logo and the pool room's sticker are of importance to the story) The starting price on the auction, are you ready for this............thirty bucks. The seller turned out to be a recycle shop, similar to what we would know as a pawn shop. He contacted the seller, explained to them that that was his stolen cue and had them take the auction down. So he goes down there to pick it up with his police report and previous photos of his cue. While he was there he asked them why they started the auction at such a low price. They said that some guy had brought it in wanting to sell it, they looked it over and gave him that much for it because the case seemed like real leather. They just wanted to get their money back out of it since it had been sitting there for a long time with no one interested in it.
In a strange turn of events, that would never happen in America, they asked him not to call the police because they didn't want their shop to get the image of a place that buys and sells stolen goods. He obliged and left it at that.
Can you believe that? 30 bucks for a cue that is worth as much as a car. People just don't know. So, if you have any old pool cues, like say your grandfather played pool and has his old cue in the attic, you may actually have something of value. Doesn't hurt to take a peek, you never know what you may find. And hey, if there is something you can send me photos, I'm honest. If I think it's worth something I'll be straight with you. I'm not the type that would say something like "Yeah, that's nothing, but I'll give you 10 bucks for it." If you do find something I'd be more than happy to offer you assistance in finding out if it's worth anything.
Not exactly a guitar related story but it kind of goes along with that earlier post.
MULLY
