Does anyone know what happens to all the old bowling balls that don't get sold? Do they recycle them? Throw them away? Or is there a giant warehouse somewhere full of old bowling balls?

I can tell you from firsthand experience previously worked for a major distributor.  I remember when the Optimus was being discontinued.  Storm had a bunch at their facility.  So they sold us this astronomical amount of 14-16 lb balls for next to nothing.  Then basically what happens is the distributors come out with a closeout sheet that pro shops can get their hands on.  Another thing they do is when the USBC Tournament is running; you can find balls at the booths for discounts as another way for the manufacturers to get rid of discontinued stuff. 

You can go to places like cheapbowlingballs.com and find a handful of balls on closeout for a significant discount.  You can save as much as $40-50 on mid to higher end stuff and around $25 or more off the lower end.  Just recently they had Nitrous' on sale for $59.99. 

Quote from: jumba98 on January 30, 2020, 09:13:42 PM

Does anyone know what happens to all the old bowling balls that don't get sold? Do they recycle them? Throw them away? Or is there a giant warehouse somewhere full of old bowling balls?

I can tell you from firsthand experience previously worked for a major distributor.  I remember when the Optimus was being discontinued.  Storm had a bunch at their facility.  So they sold us this astronomical amount of 14-16 lb balls for next to nothing.  Then basically what happens is the distributors come out with a closeout sheet that pro shops can get their hands on.  Another thing they do is when the USBC Tournament is running; you can find balls at the booths for discounts as another way for the manufacturers to get rid of discontinued stuff. 

You can go to places like cheapbowlingballs.com and find a handful of balls on closeout for a significant discount.  You can save as much as $40-50 on mid to higher end stuff and around $25 or more off the lower end.  Just recently they had Nitrous' on sale for $59.99.

Lol the Optimus was so bad couldn't give it away.  Rare for Storm.

Optimus solid was junk too. I used to bowl in these 13 week Storm Have a Ball leagues where you could Pay between 13-16/week and get whatever ball was tiered in that payment when I was in Vegas for practice. I went on such a bad run of choices that I haven't thrown Storm in years.

Rocket (Was AMAZING for me)
Crux Pearl (Gross)
Phase (F'n Gross)
Fight (Yuck)
Optimus Solid (too strong for mediums, not enough for heavy)
Snap Lock (The nuts on wide open....sucked on EVERYTHING else)

Someone buys them lol. Manufacturers also keep older balls for pros