Strider, I can say that you are very fortunate to not have had a favorite ball just up and die on you. I've run several reactive resin balls into oil death many times (and baked the oil out of them many times too!).....at least the reactive resin balls would bleed the oil out with the application of heat. However, I've run 5 TEC coverstock balls into TEC Death, and all 5 of them died around the 100 game mark. One day the ball hooks nicely, and then one day the ball just plain quits hooking at all.....and, amazingly, the oil rings quit absorbing into the ball at the very same time as the TEC Death hits. One day your favorite ball is giving you good results, and the next day it gives you nothing, period.
I've become a firm believer in Doc's Elixer. I'm currently running a Trauma Response that I've kept coated with Elixer since the beginning, and it still has most all of the reaction that it did when new. I've kept this ball in the dull factory surface, and I've rescuffed it a time or two now. I still have a couple of brand new Complete Chaos balls stashed back for a rainy day, and they too are already covered in Elixer. And, I've got a spare Response stashed back, and it too is already coated.
Yes, TEC Death (using the term generically here, since it actually affects a lot more than just Columbia balls) is NO FUN. It is very costly, and very frustrating too.
