You can’t take the decision to purchase billiards and pool tables as lightly as you might other home item purchases. Going for the bargain basement table is just going to cause more headaches then you really want or need. It’s not going to make you very happy and it’s not going to make you a better player. Buying billiards and pool tables takes some time and effort to make sure you get tables that are actually worth spending the money on. Remember that these billiards and pool tables are investments and treat them wisely. Check out the following ideas when buying your table.
Before thinking about any other point you need to start by making sure the billiards and pool tables are going to be the right size for your space. Too many people decide they want billiards and pool tables, go out and buy one, and then realize they can’t actually fit on in their home. The professionals play on 9 foot tables and this is the size table you’re going to see in pretty much any hall or bar the world over. So before you go and buy yourself a 9 foot table take some measurements and make sure the space you’ve assigned for it in your house can actually fit it.
It isn’t just enough to have room for the billiards and pool tables you decide to buy you need to have enough room to play on and around that table easily and without feeling cramped and confined. Getting billiards and pool tables is a great idea but your buy won’t do you much good if the whole time you use it you’re going to be causing damage to the surrounding room and furniture. Take a measurement of the space your billiards and pool tables demand and then measure to see if you have a few feet around the whole set up where you can play. Having even a few feet around your billiards and pool tables is enough but you’ll find that the more free room you have the safer you’ll play.
There’s another important thing to talk about when it comes to having enough space for your billiards and pool tables. It’s common to notice that you don’t have enough space for full footer billiards and pool tables and then to decide to get yourself a smaller 7 foot table. This is an alright idea if you really can’t get a full sized table but it’s a real compromise. A 7 foot table plays significantly differently than a full sized table and switching back and forth between the two will limit how much better your game will get quickly. If you are serious about your love for pool then it’s a much better idea to do what you need to do to only get 9 foot billiards and pool tables instead of downgrading.
Once you’ve decided the size of table you’re looking to purchase you then need to decide on the quality of billiards and pool tables you’re going to buy for your home. Naturally the lower the quality the table you buy the worse the materials it’s going to be made from and the worse the construction on the table is going to be. Low quality tables are never made from the strong and sturdy oak of high quality tables. Overall these low quality tables are going to show wear and tear a lot faster and worse than high quality tables. They will also be a lot less sturdy which makes them harder and less enjoyable to play on. Deciding to billiards and pool tables of low quality is almost always a very poor decision.
Not everyone is really going to care that much about how their billiards and pool tables look but everyone should care a lot about how well they’re able to play on their table. At the end of the day the better quality the table you play on the better your game’s going to be wherever you go. You won’t find an avid pool player who has never played on a poor quality table before and noticed how much their game suffered because of it. Poor quality billiards and pool tables are going to have all sorts of height and angle problems that you need to continuously compensate for. If you’re always playing on this kind of table then you’re going to adjust your game at all times for it, even when playing on good tables. Getting high quality billiards and pool tables makes sense for both aesthetic and practical purposes.
A low quality table you can play on regularly is probably going to help your game more than not having a table to play on at all but even so it’s a good idea to get the best quality billiards and pool tables you can find.
When thinking about sizing and quality issues it’s inevitable that you need to start talking about price issues as well. The fact of the matter is for 90% of the population they’re going to make price the main determining factor in what billiards and pool tables they can think about buying. Even though they might want the truly best billiards tables out there that doesn’t mean they feel they can afford these top-tier billiards and pool tables.
Price is a very important factor to take into consideration and no reputable seller of billiards and pool tables will tell you that you should hurt your financial picture for the sake of getting a table you can’t really afford. That being said you still shouldn’t take price as the first and last consideration when making your decision. In this article you’ll find a good system for figuring out what’s more important to decide first. To start you should decide about whether or not you’re going to get a full sized table and where in your home you’ll be able to put that table. Next you should figure out whether you need to look at high quality billiards and pool tables or not. Only after you develop a very clear picture of what you’re looking for with your pool table should you go ahead and start to figure out what those billiards and pool tables are going to cost you and how you’re going to afford them.
Some people will be lucky enough that they can afford to get the table of their dreams with cash on hand and those people should go for it. If you’re not one of those lucky people then you need to make a concession or two here or there. To start you could make a concession with the quality or size of table that you’re going to get but that’s not a point I recommend making a concession on. After all a table that makes you unhappy isn’t a wise investment even at a lowered price. The best concession you can make is deciding you’re not going to get your table today and instead you’re going to spend a little extra time saving up money so you can get the table you really want sometime soon down the line. It’s better to wait and get what you want than to rush and get something you don’t love.
You shouldn’t take the thought and process of buying billiards and pool tables lightly but you shouldn’t spend too much time stressing about it either. Instead of worrying endlessly about what to buy just use the above guidelines for determining your needs and how you’re going to meet those needs. Once you have all that figured out you will be in a good position to take some definite actions to getting the billiards and pool tables that you’ve always wanted and needed.
For more information see our Billiards and pool tables blog.