Pool Cue News and Review

Yeah, I’ll be going to Charlotte next week for the BCA Expo. Looking at the current exhibitor list, there’s going to be 185 companies there showing off their wares, but the real question is whether or not there will be anything that’s actually “new”. I know Predator will be showing off their new P3 cues and after the unmitigated disaster that was Poison, they could use a hit (although I heard they did sell one or two of those 314 shafts last year). Of course you wouldn’t know that they actually want the P3 to sell well considering the fact that the “countdown” image is linked to their cases page…

In addition to the new P3’s, I’m sure I’ll be treated to the annual glut of the exact same cues with new stickers. You can’t blame the companies though. After all, it is the lower end cue that drives this industry. The market for the custom cue continues to shrink, so there’s no reason for companies to not roll out the same cue with a different design.

This all begs the question: Does this industry really need an annual trade show? There’s rarely anything that’s actually “new”, so why have a show every year? The technology is still the same, there haven’t been any decent training tools released in years and its not like people are going to the show to write orders.

At any rate, I’ll be running around the show snapping pictures and checking out the new stuff, so I’ll be sure to have lots of posts following the show. Sorry about not posting much this week, but the industry is taking its annual summertime snooze and that real life thing managed to catch up to me.