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Showcase Park City
Porsches of pool cues line up in Park City
300 elaborate sticks worth a total of about a cool $100 million
By Tyler Peterson
Deseret Morning News
PARK CITY — How many billiard cues does it take to make $100 million? About 300, the approximate number on display during the International Cue Collectors Showcase held Saturday at the Stein Eriksen Lodge.
The world's top luxury cue makers and collectors proudly displayed their wares and acquisitions under one roof as buyers bargained and traded to either enhance their collections or begin new ones.
Rick Rogers, a Park City resident who has been collecting for 20 years, sponsored the third annual showcase. As a young pool player, Rogers said, he began looking for the "Excalibur" of all cues, one that would do all the work for him but never found it. He did, however, find something else.
Rogers owns the "Celtic Prince," a cue made by renowned craftsman Thomas Wayne and valued at more than $100,000. He bought it for less, and though it took him three days to collect the money, he said the purchase was worth it.
"I have one of the premier cues in the world," he said.
The pool stick shines with more than 1,500 interlaced inlays of antique elephant and mastodon ivory — that's right, mastodon — and 60 gold studs embedded throughout its Gabon ebony. Rogers plans to hold on to that one, along with the rest of his collection, until he dies.
The value of a cue depends on many things, according to Martyne Bachmen, co-author of the "Blue Book of Pool Cues." The materials used, the quality of the workmanship, work hours, age, condition and rarity of the cue can all influence its value. She displayed a collection of 12 of her own, which she appraised at $50,000. Her favorite is a "stunning" cue with elaborate drawings etched in ivory she bought for $7,500 at a show in New York.
"I think there's a collector mentality here. . . . I'm a pack rat and I'm a collector," she said.
Though most collectors' cues are for show only, they usually keep a few for play. Rogers said it is almost like an insult to some makers not to use them.
"They're basically tools . . . they should be played with," he said.
The four-hour event, which featured 25 collections, was held in Utah for the first time.
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