It depends on the part of the country, the market, the local economy, and the cost of living to determine what a ball will go for. The manufacturers are beginning to realize just how important QUALITY pro shops are to their business.
Take a high performance asymmetric ball. You buy it online, because it''s cheaper than you can get it at the local shop for. Then you take it to the lowest bidder because it''s cheap. If it''s cheap, it most likely means it''s a chop shop or the bowling alley owns the shop, and the guy in there is just doing it as a job. You, being the average bowler that thinks a ball is supposed to act like the one you saw the pro throwing on tv no matter what the surface is or how it''s drilled or how you throw it, drop it off and don''t think a thing about it. Say it''s drilled label with the MB in the middle of your track and you start rolling over finger holes? Say the weighthole gets stuck in the wrong place? Say after 100 games you decide to resurface it, and instead of the pro shop guy knowing that it''s supposed to go 500 grit straight to 4000 grit to return it to box surface, goes a typical old school 500, 800, 1500, 2000, 4000, and the ball acts like a piece of junk.
So what are you as the average ignorant bowler going to think? That the pro shop guy screwed it up? Not hardly. That the ball sucks, it isn''t durable, and that dents your perception of the manufacturer. If you take plastic or urethane, you can''t hurt them, but they won''t help you out quite as much. The newer more technological bowling balls take much more care and precision with regard to layout and surface prep to act right than other balls do, and the average ignorant back room guy that drills balls affects perception of the equipment, and the average ignorant guy that orders a 1 inch pin ball with 4 ounces of topweight, then starts looking at the layout instructions that come with the ball and wants a pin over bridge layout, but still wants it legal to go to nationals, those people aren''t doing the manufacturers any favors.
Why are people so dumb when it comes to bowling but so educated with golf or something else? Ebonite is trying to protect the pro shops. And here is the angle that hurts the professional shops. If you get a ball online for 120 bucks, and by the time you get a ball drilled with inserts, a slug or interchangeable thumb system for around 50-60 bucks, you don''t think that sounds like a rip-off to the bowler? "I only paid 120 for this ball and you''re gonna charge me half that to drill it? I don''t think so . ." So that bowler walks out and goes to the guy down the street that will do it all for 25, and the vicious cycle begins. That guy screws it up, then the ball is sheepishly brought back in to plug and redrill, and then there''s not really a whole lot you can do. The rg and differential numbers have already been altered, not to mention having to do it again with the redrill, then having to resurface the ball to smooth off the plugged areas to make them smooth, a redrill is a crap shoot more often than not. Or the ball just sucks to begin with and the guy blames it on the ball instead of the idiot operator and the idiot that started the whole thing, him.
So you see it''s not as simple as Ebonite trying to screw the bowler by raising their prices a whole ten bucks. That''s another funny thing, you''ll complain about an extra ten bucks on a bowling ball, but you''ll spend 25 bucks a night on beer. Bowlers really are unbelievable. Most pro shops cost in the thousands per month for operating costs, and you think that giving them a whole 30 or 40 bucks profit on drilling a ball is outrageous? Come on now, enough with the self-righteous indignance, Ebonite isn''t just trying to protect their image, they''re trying to ensure that the bowlers get a QUALITY product, because that benefits everyone.
--------------------
That''s just like, your opinion, man.
Edited on 12/18/2010 9:13 AM
