I read a post earlier by charlest where he mentions high performance balls not performing any better than mid-priced balls. What are all of your opinions on this?

Personally, I have owned both high performance and mid performance balls, and have never seen a difference in hit, carry, or average. High performance balls do seem to hook more on average, but i think that is a marketing strategy of companies. Currently in my arsenal i have 2 high performance balls, 5 mid performance, and one spare ball. I just wanted to see what everybody thought about the differences between the two ball categories.
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stanski

it seems to me, from what ive heard, that the only reason alot of balls are higher priced than the "lower lines" of a company is because the materials and production are more expensive than the lower lines.  obviously, this higher price has RARELY been seen to create any advantages on the lanes.  brian himmler won a pba event with a hot wire, and i am sure he is not the only one who has thrown a mid range ball on the tour this year and won.
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RED STRIPE

ITS BEER
HOORAY BEER!

Brunswick300 makes a good observation.  The mid price line has stuff that can be used for a variety of conditions.  You can take one ball and use it on different conditions based on drilling and cover prep.  High end stuff no matter how you lay it out and prep the cover, can only be used for heavier conditions.  If you take away the strokers, high end sales may be virtually non-existent.  Call me crazy, but here is a good example.  Visionary has a ball called the Green Gargoyle that, on a medium condition, hits as hard as anything I have ever thrown.  It gets through the heads really clean and has a sharp move on the backend.  The reason I use this ball as an example, is because I have had the ball now for 3 years, and it still remains my go to ball.  I have had no resufacing done to this ball outside basic ball maintenance, such as removing polish every 2-3 months with scotchbrite and polishing back up with Storm 3 or Clean and Sheen.  After 3 years, this ball still has no lack of backend movement and hits as hard as anything I have drilled up in the past couple months.  BTW.......the Gargoyle retails for $140 range.  Another thing....I cant recall too many centers laying down patterns more than 40 feet, either.  The standard pattern length for a bowling center is oil to 32-35 feet, with buff to 38, normally give or take.  My center oils to 32 feet.  Why the need for stuff that starts flaring the moment it leaves your hand?  I definitely think that taking a few mid priced balls and using different layouts and cover preparation is plenty for most of todays conditions.
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If anyone out there is worried about the scores being too high, try duckpin!!

The Funny part about people saying that highend balls usually perform better on heavier conditions, sometimes more difficult as well. but infact i have found this to be the opposite. Typically i have found that Asymeterical balls they work well on house conditions, giving you even more area that may already be there. But on tighter conditions( sport patterns for example) a regular mid-price symeterical ball matches up better for control.


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Timothy @Juniors Pro-Shop
Montreal, Quebec.