BUYING A POOL TABLE?

Take my advice please….

If you are considering buying a pool table here are 3 important points to consider.  You will encounter them.

I’ve been working on pool tables more than 20 years and three things that keep popping up are right here in this article.  After moving thousands of pool tables and seeing just about every possible “I had no idea” that people who have just bought a pool table could say, I’m finally going to put my thoughts down here about buying a pool table for the person thinking of buying one.

This is more geared to the used pool table buyer but it also is great advice for someone buying a pool table from a store. Sales people aren’t always going to turn down your sale if they find out you can’t fit the table into your house, the’re trying to make money right?

So here goes! If you are going to be buying a pool table you should know all of these before putting down the money.

Pool tables are built with 1 or 3 pieces of slate. (which is very heavy)

Generally coin operated pool tables have 1 pc of slate but there have been furniture style tables that have 1 pc as well.  They are generally older.  Most pool table companies will not move 1 pc. slate pool tables if there are stairs and many movers will flat turn the job down.

You have to take into consideration how many sets of stairs or what type of entry into the room there is for the pool table to maneuver.  Most pool tables built recently were built with 3 pieces of slate.

Don’t think you are going to move the pool table yourself!

I just had this call yesterday.  They need us to come and take a pool table apart that’s in their garage and move it downstairs.  Why? Because they tried to move the EFFIN thing in one piece.  What happens when you move a pool table in one piece? Well while it might not happen EVERY time there are several things that could go wrong.  For one most pool tables were not built to be moved this way.  In case you missed my warning in RED text, you should go back and read it again.

A lot of pool tables are broken and put out of service because some guy thought he could figure out how he could get a bunch of monkeys together and move the darn thing.  Worst case scenario, he just paid the seller of the pool table 800 bucks (YIKES!) for something he screwed up tying to get out of the back of his truck, so he’s out 800 bucks now because he tried to save 400 to have a professional do it.  Before buying a pool table one should budget for a professional mover.  By the way, going cheap on the mover creates a high risk of the job costing more than if you paid an industry recognized company with a written service guarantee.

I scan Craigslist ads all over the country and it’s sick how many sellers put it right there in the ad for all of the buyers to read.  “You just have to back up the truck and I’ll help you load it.”  Possibly the most backwoods way to move a pool table really, EVERYONE in our industry will agree with me, well with the exception of two stores I’ve talked to in the past 10 years, well wait, come to think of it just one.  In Sacramento California.  I’ll never forget that conversation, I almost fell out of my chair.

Did you think about how much space a pool table really takes up?

Because I’m trying to keep it short between phone calls here from customers I’m not going to go into detail about how big a pool table room must be but there are 3 sizes of pool tables generally speaking.  Each size has a set of dimensions you should REALLY consider before buying a table.  They sell short cue sticks as well but you don’t want to play the whole game with a tiny little cute pool stick, it’s just no fun.

Head on over to the Olhausen website and see their cool pool table room size page.  (Yes I prefer an Olhausen over a Brunswick) Just saying.

It’s not necessary to change the cloth on a pool table when it’s moved.

Some think that it is and some unscrupulous (yep we got em in our industry too) pool table companies will tell you it needs to be changed, well the only thing they are implying there is that they get a little extra pocket change.  

So I hope you have enjoyed this informative piece I’ve written thinking back on the years and the unhappy customers I’ve seen having bad experiences with pool tables they have bought.

If you have any other questions about buying a pool table feel free to drop me a line.  I’m easier to talk to than a drunk guy in a bar.