rare vintage 1950s balabushka with coa & brunswick case great investment balabushka original with case WOW Start Price USD 5,700.00 Current Price USD 5,700.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, October 06, 2008 End Time Monday, October 13, 2008 Location PETERBOROUGH, NH. See more about 'rare vintage 1950s balabushka with coa & brunswick case' Description THIS IS A CHANCE OF A LIFETIME.THIS IS AN ORIGINAL CUE MADE BY THE MASTER GEORGE BALABUSHKA WITH COA. I HAVE INCLUDED THE LEATHER SATCHEL CASE MADE BY BRUNSWICK. THE CUE IS IN VERY NICE CONDITION. IF YOU PAID 7,000  FOR THIS CUE YOU WOULD NOT BE PAYONG TOO MUCH, THIS IS A FACT EVEN WITH OUT ORIGNAL SHAFTS YOU CAN BUY AN ORIGNAL SHAFT .In the movie “The Color of Money”, when Paul Newman gave Tom Cruise the valuable cues (a collection of George Balabushka) aroused among thousands of amateurs who started to collect the cues with people asking who George Balabushka was. In the early 1959, George Balabushka had been making cues. At that time, lots of fancy players (those days, a lot of professional players had emerged in America) regarded his cues as a prized collection. George Balabushka, who was born in Russia 1912, passed away in 1975 at the age of 63. He came to America at a young age of 12 and settled down in New York. His first job was in Manhattan, making wooden toys in school for teaching purposes thus giving him the opportunity to acquire the basic foundation and knowledge of characteristics of wood. Later in his life, he opened a company manufacturing wooden products, and because of this, his middle finger was cut off by an electrical saw. Not satisfied at the sight of losing a finger, George made himself a wooden finger. His craftmanship was so good that even his friends did not realize that he had lost his finger! George loved playing billiards when he was young, and used to take part in competitions and due to the exposure, got to know reknowned contestants and billiard celebrities. Besides taking care of his business, George also helped his friends to repair their cues. At the same time, there was a guy by the name of Frank Paradise who used his own name to brand himself, and George saw it as an opportunity. By the end of 1959, George had made some cues himself and gave it to his friends as Christmas gifts. He was also collecting data and feedback on the performance of his cues. As time went by, he began receiving orders for his cues.  Between 1959 to 1962, George churned out 20 to 30 cues every year. George, who was a simple man, reflected his character in his cue designs. At the same time he also emphasized on the performance of the cues. During competitions in America, contestants were always discussing and using Balabushka's cue and because of the exposure, the cues started becoming famous gradually and this led to more orders. The orders were coming in so fast that even some of them were willing to send George a blank check for an authorized unwritten amount, just to own his cues! According to billiard experts, professionals and reknowned manufacturers, in George Balabushka lifetime, he only produced 1000 to 1200 cues. Currently, an original, unscathed cue produced by George Balabushka will sell at US$15,000 and above! During 1960s, fake Balabushka cues started circulating in the market. Nowadays, it is never easy to authenticate the original Balabushka cue by American Cuemaker’s Association, but can be done by experts. There was once a report in Florida about a billiard player who saw an old man using a worn cue to chase away a dog. Intuition told him to stop the car, and he bought the worn cue from the old man for $50. Before going home, he stopped by a cue-repair shop to repair the cue. When the shop owner unwrapped the package, he got shocked when he saw that the cue was signed by George Balabushka with a number “70” on it! Since then, it was used as one of the originals to identify a genuine Balabushka cue. Although it is not difficult to manufacture a Balabushka cue by today's scientific standard, George Balabushka's intense knowledge of the basic foundation of cue material and his profound knowledge in joint technology has led to his fame and a must-have collection for all Billiard Cues Collectors.  PLEASE EMAIL WITH QUESTIONS Place a Bid!