Well, I smell the roses quite a bit, I am a pro shop owner. I know the sudden release in equipment can hurt a pro shop----BUT are the companies releasing the balls for the pro shops, or for the consumers? Pro Shops have the right to not display balls they feel will not be popular. I know it is better to have the equipment on hand, but if a guy wants a certain ball, with certain TOP and Pin and you don't have it, you have to order it anyways. No big deal because most of the time you can have the ball delivered next day, and next day is not a problem for 85-95% of the customers you will have. Not carrying everything in stock also helps in the area of overhead.

On to Columbia 300 more specifically, I threw nothing but Columbia 300 up until about 3 years ago. They released a great arsenal before then, hardly, if any overlap what so ever. Then I started seeing the same core in about 4-5 different bowling balls. That is when I decided to look else where with equipment.

I now primarily throw Track, with the occasional dive into other equipment when they release something that interests me. Track is also a company that keeps a successful ball in production---EX. Freak, FreakOUT, Mutant etc...

channel surfer-----I agree bowling is a sport, buying the equipment is my hobby*S*----you know, trying different equipment etc...

The Ebonite situation is a different situation altogether, and like Mike, I will not get into that.