JLS,

As I mentioned here in San Diego area about 30 miles or greater there are four military bowling centers and only one has a part time Federal employee who sits there and lets part timers go in there and do the work unpaid. Takes more then a week to get a new in stock bowling ball drilled and not because they're busy.  All the other military bowling centers do not have pro shops.bowling centers.

Three of the local bowling centers have the same company who owns/operates the pro shops that usually has very young part time employes.  And yes they can drill a ball very well I'm sure.  But their prices are outrageous.  One of the other bowling centers just had a pro shop opened and is only open part time and not reguarly and about 30 miles away.

You say that it cost me about $250 dollars out the door for my MoRich balls.  Thats probably what I would have paind out the door at a pro shop with drilling, taxes and inserts.

But,  Chris at Buddies sent me a UPS shipping doc to ship all four balls back to CT.  Buddie pro shop took mine and my son's span and picthes, made a thumb mould, plugged and re-drilled the balls including vacu-Grips and Exacatcator thumb slug at no cost to me except for the shiipng there which was $50 and the three day return which was $80.  So I shelled out an additional $130 for four balls and it was a very successful experiment.  So it was about $146 dollars for the MoRich balls, initial $30 dollars to drill including inserts and Exactacator thumb slug for a total of $176 and about another $35 per ball to ship it back and forth from CA to CT.  Still only $200 (approximately)

And now I have a pro shop who spends time on this website, has their own (like many other pro shops I'm sure) has a perfect fitting Exactacator thumb mould for me and my span measurements, goes to seminars, test a lot of bowling balls post videos of them throwing the bowling balls on a website, goes to seminars and reads a lot of litature about the bowling business (like I'm sure many pro shops do) and can be considerable cheaper then any pro shop in driving distance.

So I retired from the Navy after 31 years and opened a handyman business.  Should the pro shop owner operators use me instaed of other handyman and whats worse, day workers picked up from Home Depot?  Do you buy a car from the salesman that gets his or her ball drilled at your shop or do you shop around for a good price and research who has the best service department?

No one had mouthed pro shop operators full or part time.  I think you bought that into the discussion for what ever reason.  There are great ball drillers both part and full time, but I don't think anyof them can be better then Buddies Pro shop.  I will say that they can be as good, just not better and Buddies is easier on the pocket.

JLS keep it real and there is no need for the hard line talk.  No one in the beginning talked about pro shop in general as not knowing what they were doing.  I'm sure your pro shop is doing great and you have no need to worry about internet buying or drilling.


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Nicanor (Ten On The Deck)

Edited on 1/17/2008 2:34 PM

Edited on 1/17/2008 2:48 PM

Thanks JLS,  I thought you were saying I said pro shops were clueless.

The price of land in Southern CA as well as other parts of the state are off the chart.  Bowling centers closed not necessarily due to poor patronage, but because of what the owner could get to sell the property.  One house closed to make room for condos. Another closed to make room for a gigantic fitness center. One closed to make room for an adult nude club and food establishment.  Others might have closed to poor patronage, but it didn't hurt the owners because they sold the lane for pretty good money.  There was no need for them to try and make the bowling center work if they could make millions on the land.

I bought a plastic ball into Alvin Lou's because mine had cracked a couple of days before heading up to the US Open.  $65 out the door for drilling and inserts only.  Haven't been back since.  The person wh normally drills my bowling balls is $30 out the door with thumb slug and inserts.  I just wish when things were slow at the shop that he would do his homework about bowling balls, drillings etc rather then just sitting around watching TV.  Again, I've known and bowled with the shop operator for years, so I actually know this is what he does.  I realize that most pro shops don't operate like this, but the ball fit is usually right on.

I bowled with a lefty today and we were discussing the drilling question while bowling. he uses the same driller as I do.  Because of the ame problem that I have, driller not knowing today's equipment, he started to drive about 35 miles one way to get his bowling balls drilled.  Doesn't work for me because they don't do Exactacator thumb slugs.

So I understand that the internet could negatively effect professional pro shops especially where there is a lot of local competition, but it would be nice for those who aren't so fortunate to know that there is a reasonable pro shop out there that can sell, drill and ship you a ball that you're confident you will be happy with and not forced to patronize some pro shops because there are so few to work with.


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Nicanor (Ten On The Deck)

hanks for the pst Joe.  Prices in San Diego are coming down. I think the mean (average price) for a house is about $480,000 down from about $600,000.

Some bowlers can get away with a bad feeling thumb (initial feeling) because they use tape to get the feel they want.  Unfortunately I have a monster thumb and I don't feel comfortable if I have to add more then one piece of tape for and aft.  Thumb fit is critical to me. Its extremely inflexable.  So Exactacator thumb slugs work best for me.

Its amazing how prices change from areas wher there is a ton of competition and very little like in your area.  I bowled once in St Louis and the pro shop was asking $10 to clean/sand a ball and twelve dollars to polish a ball.  Most places its between 2 and 5.

I wouldn't mind if it was close in price say 20 or 30 dollars, but thats not the case.  All they do is go on the internet or make a phone call and have the ball shipped to them.  I was just in Alvin Lou's pro shop today and he has about 30 balls on the shelf but its mostly if not all old stock.  Go to other local shops and they become salesman when they don't have the ball you want in stock.)JLS, no, Irealize not all bowling pro shops are like this, move away from the keyboard).  But its like that here in San Diego.  We have a pro shop here called San Diego Bowling Supply and the owner operator is exceptional.  Hee is in a strip mall and not in a bowling alley and has been there for years.  Several years ago I went there and his rent was $4000 a month back then.  A small little place.  great guy.  Doesn't do Exactacator thumb slugs though.  says he can match thumbs no problem.  Back then I ws in bowling ball of the week club mostly with Lane 1 and Brunswick and the feel was never close.  My fault, can stand tape.  But still a great guy and an exceptional pro shop owner and operator and keeps up with the bowling industry.  Very pricy though.  I know he's got to pay the rent, but..

Thanks for all the responses but all I can say today after I recieved the last on my bowling balls and my sonreceieved his N-Sane today (and it fit and reacted perfectly) is that Buddies Pro Shop rocks.


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Nicanor (Ten On The Deck)