Hi Blueraider,
When my father decided that he wanted to make bowling balls, he found a gentleman in Ohio that had all of the equipment, and had been making polyester bowling balls on a very small scale. This man was John Fabanich.
John Fabanich had stopped producing bowling balls, and was going to close the company, so my father and a gentleman named Earl Widman, bought the equipment and molds, and moved everything to St. Louis. As part of an agreement they made, they continued to call the company Faball. A couple years later, my father developed a thick shelled urethane ball called the Black Hammer.
After several years, Faball Enterprises was one of the largest bowling ball manufacturers in the world. When the quantity of balls needed surpassed the amount that they could make in St. Louis, they licensed the production rights out to a facility in Utah, and one in Baltimore MD. At that point, there were 3 facilities manufacturing Hammers to keep up with demand. Eventually, the Baltimore facility took over the entire production, and produced the balls for us up until 2002 when we sold the brand to Ebonite.
As far as the ebay store goes, I assume that it has to be one of the Pro Shops in the St Louis area that bought a large inventory of the old Hammer balls.
Hope this clears some things up,
Jason Wonders
Visionary Bowling Products
