Bowling ball pricing?

[Bendial]

Hi Guys,

Do most of you guys buy your balls directly from pro shops or buy them online? I'm curious why pro-shops charge so much more for bowling balls. Yes, they say the drill is included "if you buy the ball from them", but if that's the case, why is the ball usually 50%+ higher than MSRP? If I buy a ball online and have it drilled by a pro shop it still comes out cheaper than if I bought it directly from the pro-shop, even with the $50 drill fee.

[JPbowl]

Got to find the right shop, the one i goto now is within $20 of the best online prices and he includes drilling.
The other guy i was going to would be 70$ over the cheapest online price.

[Jaescrub]

Yes and no. Some equipment you can get a good deal on at the pro shop. We ordered 6 balls from Bowlingball.com cuz the prices where great. out of the 6 with drilling and everything we only saved about 100$ but ya just research my local lanes are 60$ higher then the proshop I use in the next town. Just a close but better prices.

[got_a_300]

The Pro shop has to make some money as they have overhead
expenses they have to cover and they have to make money so
that they can pay themselves or the employee(s).

Then you have the expense of maintaining all of the up keep and
buying of new equipment such as drill bits, drill presses or other
equipment, then the price of buying and stocking bowling balls
then you have the costs of buying plugging compounds, and the
ball polishing compounds, and buying sanding pads, finger/thumb
inserts etc. etc. etc.

[JPbowl]

Yes shops have to make money, but they should be willing to make deals with their regulars.
I had been going to the local place for 3 years, buy a ball each year way over priced. had a ball plugged and re drilled (fingers only) 60$.
Asked him about working out a price on a new ball. Wouldn't budge.

Herd about another shop 15 min away, down to earth pricing. plug and redrill is $25.
Ended up buying the most amount of bowling equipment i've gotten in a single year, within 1 week.
Bought new ball, roller bag, & had 2 balls redrilled

[got_a_300]

Asked him about working out a price on a new ball. Wouldn't budge.

Herd about another shop 15 min away, down to earth pricing. plug and redrill is $25.
Ended up buying the most amount of bowling equipment i've gotten in a single year, within 1 week.
Bought new ball, roller bag, & had 2 balls redrilled

Yep if you are a regular and buy a lot of stuff from a shop and then the
shop does not or will not work a deal with you then it is definitely time
to look for another shop that will.

The only thing about changing shops is you have to be careful about
who you let drill and plug your equipment as some of the real cut rate
shops are just that................. cut rate on their service and drilling by
someone that is not really a qualified ball driller.

[Faithacabra]

Bendial,

What I would say is very similar to what Jeascrub said, do some research. Find out what is going to work best for you. Make sure the website you are going to potentially order from is a safe website that sells first quality bowling balls. Make sure that you have an exact price for the drilling from whomever you are having drill your bowling ball. Make sure you have a good bowling ball driller. I know some websites offer drilling options for the bowling balls as well. I am definitely a bowlingball.com customer, and know that they have done an amazing job drilling my bowling balls. What I suggest is to just find out what would work best for you. I do not suggest having an online website drill your first custom fit bowling ball. I think you should most definitely go to a pro shop and have them take your measurements and watch you bowl, to get a good layout and fit. But once you have a good fitting bowling ball, you can have the measurements taken from that ball and have it drilled from bowlingball.com! I prefer it that way, but I know a lot of people do not. I understand why, but for me the prices were better and the fit was just as good.

It's all a matter of personal preference and getting ALL your facts!

[RoccoRock]

It depends on the pro shop. I used to go to a shop that always would advertise one price, then add the drilling on after. Even when I would ask them, how much would this ball cost after drilling, I would still be surprised when they rang it up. It was always $10-$20 more than what they said before. I switched pro shops a few months ago and its a totally different story. The prices on the ball are what you pay, unless you are a regular, then is cheaper than advertised. For the prices I get with my current pro shop, buying a ball on line and taking it to him would cost more.

[Bendial]

Yeah what's the story with that? It seems like its really hard to find a reliable pro shop. My partner and I have bought 4 balls, 2 bags and tons of other gear from our pro-shop and he can't even remember our names lol...not to mention he took the DV8 towels and resold them (the ones that are supposed to come with the ball). When we called them out on it he blamed his supplier, but still didn't provide us towels.

My problem with other pro shops is that they have no advertised hours and every single time I call one they are gone for the day or they are closed, or they don't work ___day, or they're not sure when hes going to be in, or he left early...etc etc. It seems like all pro shops in the bay area are on vacation 24/7, which I guess is how their outrageous pricing is justified lol. If anyone in the bay area knows a great, reliable and reasonable pro shop please let me know. I don't mind spending a little more over online prices as long as the guy can remember my name to make it worth the extra cost.

[Jaescrub]

I guess I'm lucky as our pro shop guy is great at his job very nice and always willing to do what he can. He does not own the shop but manages it. He is very truth full. He even had my wife hold off or drilling her lucid till she worked on getting her revs up gave her 1hr free coaching when all he was going to do is watch her bowl to see what layout to use. She has got better just in the week after